Arrangement
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Information about Access
Ownership & Copyright
Cite As
Biographical/Historical Sketch
Description of the Collection
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Robert Hofstadter papers
Identifier/Call Number: SC0426
Physical Description:
88.25 Linear Feet
(69 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1931-1993
Summary: This collection
contains the papers of former Stanford professor and Nobel Prize winning physicist Robert
Hofstadter. Included are lab notebooks and research data; lecture notes and teaching
materials; writings, drafts, and reprints; grant proposals; incoming and outgoing
correspondence; travel and conference papers; legal papers; biographical and personal
materials;clippings; photographs; and a small amount of audiovisual material. The papers
cover a wide swath of Hofstadter's career, including his student and postgraduate work at
Princeton University; wartime positions at The United States National Bureau of Standards
and Norden Laboratory; Stanford research including electron scattering and coronary
angiography; and his collaboration with NASA personnel on the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment
Telescope (EGRET).
Language of Material:
English .
Arrangement
The papers are arranged in four accessions, mirroring how the collection was received. One
additional catagory, Oversized Items, was created during processing and consists of large
items removed from elsewhere in the collection. Whenever possible, the contents of the
collection were left in the order in which they were received.
The 2005, 2008, and 2011 accessions each contain several subcategories, which are listed
alphabetically within each accession. These categories, most of which repeat across
accessions, include awards and honors; biographical materials; clippings; correspondence,
KMS Fusion; lecture notes and teaching materials; research; photographs; publications and
writings; speeches and presentations; and travel and conferences. The 2008 accession also
includes a subcategory of Hofstadter's research files and writings on colleague Felix
Bloch.
Robert Hofstadter's son, Douglas, provided numerous notes on the contents of folders within
the collection. These notes were kept with the folders to which they pertain and are noted
in the collection inventory.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
The papers were a gift of the family of Robert Hofstadter, 1992, 1995, 2008, and 2011.
Information about Access
Letters of recommendation in Accession 1995-014 and Accession 2008-003 are restricted.
Otherwise the collection is open for research. The collection is stored off site; materials
must be requested at least 48 hours in advance of intended use.
Ownership & Copyright
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 94304-6064. 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/depts/spc/publicationserv/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of
digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
Cite As
[Identification of item], Robert Hofstadter Papers (SC0426). Department of Special
Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Biographical/Historical Sketch
Robert (Rubvin) Hofstadter was born in New York City, on February 5, 1915. He was one of
four children of Polish immigrants, Louis and Henrietta (Koenigsberg) Hofstadter. Hofstadter
was educated in New York City and attended the City College of New York (CCNY) receiving his
B.S. degree magna cum laude.
Hofstadter attended graduate school at Princeton University and received both M.A. and
Ph.D. degrees in physics in 1938 His Ph.D. work was concerned with infrared spectra of
simple organic molecules, and in particular, with the structure of the hydrogen bond. From
1938-1939, he held a Procter Fellowship at Princeton for postdoctoral work, during which he
began a study of photoconductivity in willemite crystals. In 1939, Hofstadter received the
Harrison Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, where he helped to construct a large
Van de Graaff machine for nuclear research.
During World War II Hofstadter worked at the National Bureau of Standards and the Norden
Laboratory Corporation. After the war, he returned to Princeton as Assistant Professor of
Physics, where he researched crystal conduction counters, the Compton effect, and
scintillation counters.
In 1950, with the encouragement of colleagues Leonard Schiff and Felix Bloch, Hofstadter
left Princeton to become Associate Professor of Physics at Stanford University, where he
began research on electron scattering with a linear accelerator. While building equipment
for the electron-scattering experiments, he continued working on scintillation counters and
developed new detectors for neutrons and X-rays. Other research conducted during
Hofstadter's early years at Stanford concerned cosmic rays and with cascade showers
generated by high-speed electrons.
Hofstadter was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1958 and was named California
Scientist of the Year in 1959. In 1961, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics based on his
electron scattering studies of the nucleon.
From 1967-1974, Hofstadter directed the High Energy Physics Laboratory at Stanford. He went
on to collaborate with colleagues at Stanford's School of Medicine in the development of
synchrotron radiation and K-edge subtraction for coronary angiography (a diagnostic
technique which uses radioactive substances in place of catheters to test heart function).
In his later years he worked with NASA physicists and technicians to design the Energetic
Gamma-Ray Experimental Telescope (EGRET), which was one of four instruments equipped for the
Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory Satellite.
Hofstadter passed away in November of 1990, just prior to EGRET's launch in 1991. His
contributions were commemorated with a plaque that was attached to the observatory.
Hofstadter married Nancy Givan of Baltimore, Maryland in 1942. They were the parents of one
son, Douglas, and two daughters, Laura and Molly.
Description of the Collection
This collection contains the papers of former Stanford professor and Nobel Prize winning
physicist Robert Hofstadter. Included are lab notebooks and research data; and related
files; lecture notes and teaching materials; writings, drafts, and reprints; grant
proposals; incoming and outgoing correspondence; travel and conference papers; legal papers;
biographical and personal materials; clippings; photographs; and a small amount of
audiovisual material. The papers cover a wide swath of Hofstadter's career, including his
student and postgraduate work at Princeton University; wartime positions at The United
States National Bureau of Standards and Norden Laboratory; Stanford research including
electron scattering and coronary angiography; and his collaboration with NASA personnel on
the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope. Of particular interest are materials on the
development of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), later renamed the SLAC
National Accelerator Laboratory, as well as correspondence on the relationship between SLAC
and the Stanford University Department of Phyiscs.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Particles (Nuclear physics)
Gamma rays
Physics -- Research.
Linear accelerators
Form factor (Nuclear physics)
Laser fusion
Pulsars -- Detection
Electrons -- Scattering
Physics.
Physics -- Study and teaching.
Scattering (Physics)
Angiography
Muons
Nobel Prize winners