STHC-L: The Science, Technology and Health Care Archives Forum

[Previous Posting] [Next Posting]

Web: Linus Pauling Digitized Research Notebooks (Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon) 

Forwarded to STHC-L (The Science, Technology, and Health Care Archives 
Forum) from H-SCI-MED-TECH.

Russell Johnson
STHC-L administrator

--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 17:17:07 -0000
From: Carsten Timmermann   [carsten.timmermann@man.ac.uk]
Subject: Web: Linus Pauling Digitized Research Notebooks
Sender: "H-NET List on the History of Science, Medicine, and 
Technology" 
From:   [chris.petersen@orst.edu]

Digitized Linus Pauling Research Notebooks Released On-Line

by Oregon State University Special Collections

Digitized versions of the forty-six research notebooks of two-time 
Nobel laureate Linus Pauling (1901-1994) will be released on-line to 
the public on February 28, 2002.  The notebooks will be made available 
via Oregon State University's Valley Library Special Collections 
website at:
http://osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/rnb/index.html


          As with many scientists, Dr. Pauling utilized bound notebooks to
record and manipulate the details of his research as it unfolded. A
testament to the remarkable length and diversity of Dr. Pauling's 
career, the Pauling Papers holdings include forty-six research 
notebooks spanning the years 1922 to 1994 and covering any number of  
the myriad scientific fields in which Dr. Pauling involved himself. In 
this regard, the  notebooks'  7,500 pages contain many of Pauling's 
laboratory calculations and experimental data, as well as scientific 
conclusions, ideas for further research and numerous autobiographical 
musings.

Pauling biographer Tom Hager, author of Force of Nature: The Life of 
Linus Pauling, is enthusiastic in his praise for the digitized 
notebooks website. "AOSU Special Collections has created a unique 
window on scientific  history in the making," says Hager.  "The online 
publication of Linus Pauling's research notebooks B a vast array of 
primary and uncensored material from one of the world's great 
researchers B represents a milestone in  archival accessibility and a 
great boon for scientists, historians,  teachers and students."

The digitization effort, carried out by the OSU Special Collections 
staff, will be revealed to the public on what would have been Dr. 
Pauling's  101st birthday.  By proclamation of Gov. John Kitzhaber, 
February 28th is, in perpetuity, "Linus Pauling Day" in the state of 
Oregon.  Each year, in celebration of Linus Pauling Day, OSU's Pauling 
Heritage Committee coordinates a series of events meant to focus 
attention upon the remarkable life and career of the university's most 
famous graduate.

In addition to the OSU initiative, the National Library of Medicine 
will also be observing this anniversary with a new Profiles in Science 
digital exhibit dedicated to Linus Pauling. The exhibit, available at 
http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ , is comprised of over 200 scanned 
letters, manuscripts and photographs outlining Pauling's 
biomedically-related  work.

Dr. Pauling, an internationally-recognized humanitarian and one of 
the greatest scientists of the twentieth century, was born in Portland, 
Oregon, where he attended high school.  Pauling later received his  
undergraduate education at Oregon Agricultural College, now known as 
Oregon State University.  He remains the only person to have won two 
unshared Nobel Prizes B the first for Chemistry in 1954 and the second 
for Peace in 1962.

The Pauling legacy is represented at OSU by the Ava Helen and Linus 
Pauling Papers in the Valley Library's Special Collections B a vast 
archive of over 500,000 items donated by Dr. Pauling in 1986; the Linus 
Pauling Institute and its two endowed chairs; the Pauling Chemistry 
Lecture in the College of Science; the Linus and Ava Helen Pauling 
Lecture on World Peace in the College of Liberal Arts; and an endowed 
chair in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

_________________
Chris Petersen
Faculty Research Assistant
The Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers
121 The Valley Library
Oregon State University
Corvallis, Oregon 97331

Phone: 541-737-2810
Fax: 541-737-8674
http://osu.orst.edu/Dept/Special_Collections

--- End Forwarded Message ---
<STHC-L@library.ucla.edu>   [STHC-L Archives -- Main Index]  [STHC-L Archives -- 2002 Message Index]