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Loeb (Arthur Lee) papers
M1590
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Arthur Lee Loeb papers,
Identifier/Call Number: M1590
Physical Description:
54.75 Linear Feet
(105 manuscript boxes, 3 cartons, 2 card boxes, 4 flat boxes)
Date (inclusive): circa 1930s-2002
Language of Material: Most of the collection is in English, some is in Dutch.
Physical Location: Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36-48 hours in advance. For more
information on paging collections, see the department's website: http://library.stanford.edu/spc.
Abstract: Papers of Arthur Loeb contain correspondence, publications, presentations, textbooks related primarily to chemistry, faculty
papers, material related to M.C. Escher, juvenalia, photographs, etc.
This collection was given by the Estate of Charlotte I. Loeb to Stanford University, Special Collections in 2007.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94305-6064. Consent
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/spc/using-collections/permission-publish.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.
[identification of item], Arthur Lee Loeb papers (M1590). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University
Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Arthur Lee Loeb was a scientist and crystallographer who was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on July 13, 1923 and died
in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2002.
Loeb was an internationally renowned leader in the field of design science. Throughout his career, he successfully combined
the worlds of science and art, devising a language of spatial patterns that he described as "Visual Mathematics." He arrived
in America in 1940 after fleeing his native Holland on the first day of the Nazi occupation. He was admitted to the University
of Pennsylvania at the age of 20 and went on to earn his Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard in 1949. His scientific career
began while working on the Whirlwind computer project, in which scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology struggled
to develop "core memory" for the next generation of computers. It was at M.I.T. that Loeb began to articulate a language of
spatial patterns that became the central focus of his career, leading to lifelong collaborations with such innovators as R.
Buckminster Fuller and M.C. Escher.
Loeb was a founder of the International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry (ISIS-Symmetry), and was the Society's
first Vice-President and later Chairman of the Advisory Board.
[From the Harvard Gazette and Wikipedia]
The papers have been minimally processed and arranged in 10 series: Series 1. Correspondence, Series 2. Publications, Series
3. Faculty/Coursework, Series 4. MC. Escher, Series 5. Miscellaneous, Series 6. General files, Series 7. Associations/Conferences/Bulletins,
Series 8. Academic Juvenalia, Series 9. Born-Digital Materials, and Series 10. Oversize materials.
Series 1, Correspondence, is arranged in two alphabetical sequences.
Series 2, Publications, consists primarily of articles and books by Arthur Loeb, but includes some by Buckminster Fuller and
others.
Series 3, Faculty/Coursework, primarily relates to the Harvard University Visual and Environmental Studies Department. It
includes correspondence, committees, curriculum review, exhibisitions, Task Forces and reports, lectures, etc.
Series 4, M.C. Escher, is primarily related to Loeb's collaborations with Escher and contains correspondence with Escher and
his widow, books, exhibition announcements, postcards, and some of Loeb's essays on Escher.
Series 5, Miscellaneous, contains punch cards (alphabetical list of references), notebooks from Legdemont Labs, files related
to dance (see also "medieval misc." in Series 6), Loeb's memorial, notes of Bucky Fuller, video interview with Loeb on survivors
on the holocaust, etc.
Series 6, General Files, relate to Loeb's varied interests such as medieval era, art, and contain photographs of Loeb and
his work. The folders titled "medieval misc." contain files on medieval and renaissance dances as Loeb was interested in the
symmetry and repeating patterns.
Series 7, Associations/Conferences/Bulletins, contains materials primarily related to the American Crystallographic Association.
Series 8, Academic Juvenalia, contains a diary from 1940, schook notebooks, papers, textbooks, etc.
Series 9, Born-Digital Materials, are CLOSED until processed.
Series 10, Oversize Materials, consist of paste-ups for Loeb's books and articles as well as photographs of his models.
The materials are open for research use. Audio-visual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted
to a digital use copy. Series 10. Born-digital materials is CLOSED until data is fully accessioned and processed.
Fuller, R. Buckminster, and E. J. Applewhite.
Synergetics : Explorations In the Geometry of Thinking. New York: Macmillan, 1974.
Harris, Louis, and Arthur L Loeb.
Introduction to Wave Mechanics. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963.
Kepes, Gyorgy.
Module, Proportion, Symmetry, Rhythm. New York: G. Braziller, 1966.
Loeb, Arthur L.
Color and Symmetry. New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1971.
Loeb, Arthur L.
Concepts & Images: Visual Mathematics. Boston: Birkhäuser, 1993.
Loeb, Arthur L.
The Electrical Double Layer Around a Spherical Colloid Particle: Computation of the Potential, Charge Density, and Free Energy
of the Electrical Double Layer Around a Spherical Colloid Particle
. Cambridge: Massachussetts Institute of Technology, 1961.
Loeb, Arthur L. A
n Interionic Attraction Theory For Regions of Solutions Near Phase Boundaries and An Analysis of Langmuir's Theory Of Repulsion
Between High Potential Surfaces In A Solution
. Harvard University, 1949 [thesis]
Loeb, Arthur L.
Space Structures: Their Harmony & Counterpoint. Reading: Addison Wesley, 1976 ; Boston: Birkhäuser, 1991.
Malina, Frank J.
Visual Art, Mathematics and Computers : Selections From the Journal Leonardo. Oxford: Pergamon, 1979.
Senechal, Marjorie and George Fleck.
Shaping Space: A Polyhedral Approach. Boston: Birkhäuser, 1987 [series editor preface]
White, Alvin M.
Interdisciplinary Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1981.
Wrinch, Dorothy, and Marjorie Senechal.
Structures of Matter and Patterns In Science : Inspired by the Work and Life of Dorothy Wrinch, 1894-1976. Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman , 1980.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Chemistry.
Synergetics
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives
Harvard University -- Environmental Studies
Crystals -- Structure
Symmetry (Physics)
Photographs.
Crystallography, Mathamatical
System theory
Mathematics -- Philosophy.
Mathematics, Design
Edmonson, Amy C.
Lima-de-Faria, J. (José)
Skinner, B. F. (Burrhus Frederic)
Estate of Charlotte I. Loeb
Senechal, Marjorie
Swirnoff, Lois
Kepes, Gyorgy
Applewhite, E. J.
Escher, M.C. (Maurits Cornelis),
Fuller, R. Buckminster (Richard Buckminster)