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University of Chicago Library

Guide to the Charles D. Coryell Papers 1945-1959

© 2006 University of Chicago Library

Descriptive Summary

Title:

Coryell, Charles D. Papers

Dates:

1945-1959

Size:

2 linear feet (4 boxes)

Repository:

Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
University of Chicago Library
1100 East 57th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.

Abstract:

Charles D. Coryell, Chief of the Fission Products Section of the Manhattan Project. The Charles D. Coryell Papers consist of material the socio-political questions that consumed scientists after the unleashing of the atom, especially arms control and nuclear disposal. The materials in the papers include correspondence, periodicals, articles, and other items related to the atomic age.

Information on Use

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Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Coryell, Charles D. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Biographical Note

Noted for his studies on fission process, Charles D. Coryell (1912-1971) left M.I.T. in 1942 to become Chief of the Fission Products Section of the Manhattan Project, first at the University of Chicago (1942-1946) and later, at Clinton Laboratories in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (1943-1946). The studies of J.A. Marinsky and L.E. Glendenin in his group led to the chemical identification of element 61, promethium. With Dr. Nathan Sugarman, Dr. Coryell was co-editor of a volume of 336 research papers from the wartime work of the Manhattan Project titled Radiochemical Studies: The Fission Projects. He returned to M.I.T. after the war, where he continued his investigations in fission fine-structure and beta decay theory until his death in 1971. In 1954, Coryell received the Louis Lipsky Fellowship at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovoth, Israel.

Scope Note

The Coryell papers contain little material relevant to his work in nuclear and magnetochemistry. Instead these papers reflect the socio-political questions that consumed scientists after the unleashing of the atom, especially arms control and nuclear disposal. These problems are discussed pointedly in Coryell's correspondence and figure prominently in speeches and reports found in his files. Coryell corresponded with many congressional members and wrote to Robert Oppenheimer and President Kennedy. Of particular interest among Coryell's correspondence are his letters to Linus Pauling and those relating to the investigation into Pauling's loyalty to the U.S. government. The same themes are echoed in the letters and reports from scientific and quasi-political organizations with which Coryell was associated, as he and his associates grappled with the moral implications of the bomb.

The Charles D. Coryell papers were given to the University of Chicago Library in 1971 by Mrs. Alberta Wyluda, Coryell's secretary of many years. Related material may be found in the Papers of the Federation of American Scientists, the Association of Oak Ridge Engineers and Scientists, and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

Related Resources

Browse finding aids by topic.

Subject Headings

INVENTORY

Series I: Correspondence

Box 1   Folder 1

Bohr, Niels

Box 1   Folder 2

Burgum, Edwin B.

Box 1   Folder 3

De Vault, Don C.

Box 1   Folder 4

Dyck, A. W. J.

Box 1   Folder 5

Gaffron, Hans

Box 1   Folder 6

Jehle, Herbert

Box 1   Folder 7

Lapp, Dr. Ralph E.

Box 1   Folder 8

Lattimore, Owen

Box 1   Folder 9

Lehac, Ned; Lower Cape Committee on Radioactive Waste Disposal

Box 1   Folder 10

Oppenheimer, Dr. J. Robert

Box 1   Folder 11

Pauling, Linus, 1942-1957

Box 1   Folder 12

Pauling, June-July, 1960

Box 1   Folder 13

Pauling, August, 1960

Box 1   Folder 14

Pauling, September, 1960

Box 1   Folder 15

Pauling, October, 1960-March 1968

Box 1   Folder 16

Swartout, Dr. John A.

Box 1   Folder 17

Wallace, Henry Agard

Box 1   Folder 18

Yost, Don M., 1945-1953

Box 1   Folder 19

Yost, 1954-1963; undated

Box 1   Folder 20

Young, Dr. Hoylande D.

Box 1   Folder 21

Congress, U.S.: Members, Clason-Knowland

Box 1   Folder 22

Congress, Lehman-Morse

Box 1   Folder 23

Congress, Norris-Wood

Box 1   Folder 24

Students, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Box 1   Folder 25

  • Arnold, James, 1955
  • Beckwith, Jonathan and Milton Leitenberg, n.d.
  • Benedict, Manson, 1958
  • Deats, Paul Jr. and H. Stuart Hughes, S.E. Luria and Herbert Marcuse, 1965
  • Lyons, Marie J., 1956
  • New York Times, 1961
  • Pittsburg Press, 1954
  • Sherrill, Arthur, n.d.
  • Wyluda, Alberta, 1963

Series II: Issues

Box 2   Folder 1

Arms Control publications, 1946-1955

Box 2   Folder 2

Arms Control, Senate Foreign Relations, speeches and reports 1956-May 1960

Box 2   Folder 3

Arms Control, June 1960

Box 2   Folder 4

Arms Control, July-August 1960

Box 2   Folder 5

Arms Control, 1961-1962; undated; press clippings

Box 2   Folder 6

Guggenheim Fellowships

Box 2   Folder 7

Loyalty and Security

Box 2   Folder 8

National Research Council Fellowships

Box 2   Folder 9

Politics, 1947-1959

  • Flyers
  • Reports
  • Correspondence
Box 2   Folder 10

Misc. Politics, 1960-1961

  • Joint Committee on Atomic Energy
  • Geneva Negotiations
  • Correspondence (including a letter to Presidential nominee Kennedy)
Box 2   Folder 11

Politics, 1962-1965; undated

  • Nuclear policies
  • McMahon Act
  • Letters to the New York Times
  • Letter to President Kennedy
Box 2   Folder 12

Sobell Case

Series III: Organizations

Box 3   Folder 1

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Box 3   Folder 2

Association of Oak Ridge Engineers and Scientists (AORES), 1945-1946

  • Solutions for the Atomic Bomb Crisis
Box 3   Folder 3

Association of Oak Ridge Engineers and Scientists (AORES), 1947-1948; n.d.

Box 3   Folder 4

Correspondence and Brochures,1945-1957

  • Atoms for Peace
  • Fortune
  • Correspondence
Box 3   Folder 5

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 1945-1951

  • Chicago Declaration
  • Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists
  • Doctor Einstein's Mistaken Notion/A reply to the Soviet Scientists by Albert Einstein
Box 3   Folder 6

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 1952

  • Correspondence
Box 3   Folder 7

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 1953-1959

  • Correspondence
Box 3   Folder 8

Federation of American Scientists, Greater Boston Chapter

Box 3   Folder 9

Federation of American Scientists, Scientists' Committee on Loyalty Problems, 1948

  • Scientists' Committee on Loyalty Problems
Box 3   Folder 10

Federation of American Scientists, Scientists' Committee on Loyalty Problems, 1949-1951

Box 3   Folder 11

Conferences on Science and World Affairs (PUGWASH)

Box 3   Folder 12

SANE, February-June, 1960

  • Department of State-Press release
  • Joint Committee on Atomic Energy
  • Nuclear Information
  • Limitation of Armaments, LV Bergner
  • Communist infiltration in the Nuclear Test Ban Movement, Congressman Thomas J. Dodd, 25 May 1960
  • Meteors, Mischief and War, T.C. Shelling
  • Coryell's testimony before Congress, 8 May 1960
  • Letter from Coryell to Senator Anderson
  • Reports
  • Correspondence
Box 3   Folder 13

SANE, July-August, 1960

  • Summer study
  • Boston Society for Social Responsibility in Science
  • Correspondence
Box 3   Folder 14

SANE, September-December, 1960; n.d.

  • Chapter 7 from The United Nations and U.S. Foreign Policy-A New Look at the National Interest by Lincoln P. Bloomfield
Box 3   Folder 15

SANE, 1961

Box 3   Folder 16

United World Federalists, 1947-1959, Correspondence

Series IV: Addenda

Box 4   Folder 1

Correspondence

  • Arnold, James, 1955
  • Beckwith, Jonathan and Milton Leitenberg, n.d.
  • Benedict, Manson, 1958
  • Deats, Paul Jr. and H. Stuart Hughes, S.E. Luria and Herbert Marcuse, 1965
  • Lyons, Marie J., 1956
  • New York Times, 1961
  • Pittsburg Press, 1954
  • Sherrill, Arthur, n.d.
  • Wyluda, Alberta, 1963
Box 4   Folder 2

Christian Science Monitor

Box 4   Folder 3

"Evaluation of Shell Effects in the Nuclear Energy Surface," by Coryell

Box 4   Folder 4

Press, Newspaper clippings

Box 4   Folder 5

Radio Program: Shall we Share our Atomic Secrets

Box 4   Folder 6

Newspaper clippings

Box 4   Folder 7

Newspaper clippings