Guide to the John R. Pierce Papers

Daniel Hartwig

Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives

Stanford, California

October 2010

Note

This encoded finding aid is compliant with Stanford EAD Best Practice Guidelines, Version 1.0.

Overview

Call Number: SC0749

Creator: Pierce, John R. (John Robinson), 1910-2002

Creator: Pierce, John Robinson, 1910-2002

Title: John R. Pierce papers

Dates: 1933-2002

Bulk Dates: 1960-2002

Physical Description: 9 Linear feet

Summary: Papers include journals, 1986-1995; biographical and bibliographic materials; correspondence; typescripts of scholarly work, fiction and poetry; music manuscripts; published articles and books; research files; photographs; and other materials. The focus is primarily on his interest in computers and music and his authorship of science fiction stories, with a few published articles and photographs pertaining to the Echo satellite. Other items of note include the report on a visit to British electronics laboratories by J. R. Pierce and H. D. Hagstrum, 1944, and a transcript of a visit with H. G. Wells, 1944.

Language(s): The materials are in English.

Repository: Department of Special Collections and University Archives

Green Library

557 Escondido Mall

Stanford, CA 94305-6064

Email: specialcollections@stanford.edu

Phone: (650) 725-1022

URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc

Administrative Information

Information about Access

This collection is open for research.

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/pubserv/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

John R. Pierce Papers (SC0749). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Biographical/Historical Sketch

John R. Pierce earned all three of his degrees at the California Institute of Technology: B.S. in 1933, M.S. in 1934, and Ph.D. in 1936. He worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1936 to 1971, where his work included electronic tubes, microwave communications, and psychoacoustics. After leaving Bell, he joined the faculty at the California Institute of Technology where he taught until 1980 and was a chief technologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1979 to 1982. In 1983 he became a visiting professor of music, emeritus, at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University. In addition to his scholarly work, Pierce wrote science fiction under the name of J. J. Coupling, as well as his own.

Description of the Collection

Papers include journals, 1986-1995; biographical and bibliographic materials; correspondence; typescripts of scholarly work, fiction and poetry; music manuscripts; published articles and books; research files; photographs; and other materials. The focus is primarily on his interest in computers and music and his authorship of science fiction stories, with a few published articles and photographs pertaining to the Echo satellite. Other items of note include the report on a visit to British electronics laboratories by J. R. Pierce and H. D. Hagstrum, 1944, and a transcript of a visit with H. G. Wells, 1944.

Access Terms

Borroff, Marie.

Pierce, John R. (John Robinson), 1910-2002

Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946.

Music --Acoustics and physics.

Science fiction, American.

Accesion ARCH-1999-306 Original Accession

Box 1, Folder 1

Journal 1986 – 88

Box 1, Folder 2

Journal 1988 – 92

Box 1, Folder 3

Journal 1992 – 95

Box 1, Folder 4

Poems

Box 1, Folder 5

Music MSS c. 1936 – 37

Box 1, Folder 6

Correspondence: Borroff, Marie

Box 1, Folder 7

Correspondence: re. Current Directions in Computer Music Research

Box 1, Folder 8

Correspondence: re. “Periodicity and Pitch Perception”

Box 1, Folder 9

Correspondence: re. “Computing Education”

Box 1, Folder 10

Correspondence: Noll, A. Michael

Box 1, Folder 11

Honorary degrees

Box 2, Folder 1

Telephone book

Box 2, Folder 2

Photos

Box 2, Folder 3

Computer invoice

Box 2, Folder 4

Patent for Passive Non-Linear Filter, 1996-97

Box 2, Folder 5

Pamphlets

Box 2, Folder 6

Computers in Higher Education – Report, 1967

Box 2, Folder 7

Gilbert, Steven – "Academic Software – Vision and Perspective; working paper March 15, 1985"

Box 2, Folder 8

Computer / Human Conversation

Box 2, Folder 9

Pathological Science – articles

Box 2, Folder 10

Pierce, “Technology and Music in the 20th Century”

Box 2, Folder 11

Research: artists on “Edwardian Gents and the Arabs”

Box 2, Folder 12

Reprint: Pierce, “Ears and Hearing” 1994

Box 2, Folder 13

Reprint: Pierce, “Periodicity and Pitch Perception” 1991

Box 2, Folder 14

Studies [assorted articles]

Box 2, Folder 15

Essays and a story

Accession ARCH-2004-259 Additional material

Box 1, Folder 1

Cal Tech visit to Soviet Union 1973

Box 1, Folder 2

NASA Space Committee Research and Development 1987

Box 1, Folder 3

Vienna conference (Pierce, "The Contribution of Psychophysics to Music and of Music to Psychophysics") 1990

Box 1, Folder 4

Biographical information

Box 1, Folder 5

Biographical information

Box 1, Folder 6

Biographical information ("Miscellaneous, personal, trips and what not" – includes notes from Soviet Union trip of 1973)

Box 1, Folder 7

Pierce, My Career as an Engineer; An Autobiographical Sketch, 1988

Box 1, Folder 8

Papers by Pierce

Box 1, Folder 9

Papers by Pierce

Box 2, Folder 1

Publications 1981 – 1990

Box 2, Folder 2

Publications 1991

Box 2, Folder 3

Publications 1994-97

Box 2, Folder 4

Publications 1998 – 2003

Box 2, Folder 5

Publications on J.R. Pierce

Box 3, Folder 1

Publications – Fiction

Box 3, Folder 2

Publications – Fiction

Box 3, Folder 3

Publications – Fiction

Box 3, Folder 4

Publications – miscellaneous

Box 3, Folder 5

Amazing Stories, October 1934 [does not include anything by Pierce]

Box 3, Folder 6

Stories, typescript

Box 3, Folder 7

Stories, typescript, "The Blues"

Box 3, Folder 8

Stories, typescript, "Tales of the Twelve Teddies"

Box 3, Folder 9

Stories, manuscript and typescript

Box 3, Folder 10

Stories and verse

Box 4, Folder 1

Verse

Box 4, Folder 2

Posthumous papers

Box 4, Folder 3

J.R. Pierce bibliography

Box 4, Folder 4

"J.R. Pierce Bibliography and much much more, March 26, 1995"

Box 4, Folder 5

Pierce, bibliography

Box 4, Folder 6

C.I.T. oral history with J. R. Pierce, 1982

Box 4, Folder 7

Photographs, 1963-1995

Box 4, Folder 8

Draper Prize, 1995

Box 4, Folder 9

Miscellaneous materials

Box 5, Folder 1

Awards

Box 5, Folder 2

Cal Tech alumni

Box 5, Folder 3

Correspondence – W. H. Freeman (publisher) 1983-1997

Box 5, Folder 4

Correspondence – publishers 1981-1994

Box 5, Folder 5

Correspondence – Arthur C. Clarke 1988

Box 5, Folder 6

Correspondence – Andrew Goldstein 1991-92

Box 5, Folder 7

Correspondence – University of Wyoming (American Heritage Center), 1983-1991

Box 5, Folder 8

Correspondence, general, 1964, 1981-90

Box 5, Folder 9

Correspondence, general, 1992-2002

Box 5, Folder 10

First phone call off echo

Box 5, Folder 11

Echo – photographs 1960-68

Box 5, Folder 12

Marconi International Fellowship 1996-97

Box 5, Folder 13

Personal correspondence and papers

Box 6, Folder 1

Index to Technical Memoranda

Box 6, Folder 2

Report on Visit to British electronics laboratories by J. R. Pierce and H. D. Hagstrum, 1944

Box 6, Folder 3

Transcript of visit with H. G. Wells 1944

Box 6, Folder 4

System Development Foundation, Annual Report, 1988

Box 6, Folder 5

International Symposium on Music and Information Science (Japan) 1989

Box 6, Folder 6

Northwestern University concert in honor of Pierce 1990 (includes correspondence with Amnon Wolman 1990-91)

Box 6, Folder 7

Bolinger, Richard, "I Know of No Geometry" (a solo work in five movements written in the Pierce Scale) 1990

Box 6, Folder 8

Bauman, Marcia, "Early Computer Sound and Music Synthesis at Bell Telephone Laboratories," Ph.D. thesis, U. of Rochester, 1995

Box 6, Folder 9

Tribute to Barney Oliver [Bernard M. Oliver] 1995

Box 7, Folder 1

Music From Mathematics produced by Bell Telephone Laboratories (LP record with text) 1960

Box 7, Folder 2

Manuscript musical scores

Box 7

FLOPPY DISK: Opera

Box 7

Japan ‘89

Physical Description: 1 audiocassette(s)

Box 7

J.C. Risset / Echo

Physical Description: 1 audiocassette(s)

Books:

Box 8

The Bell System Technical Journal, 1972.

Box 8

California Institute of Technology. Yearbook, 1933.

Box 8

Friis, Harald T. Seventy-five Years in an Exciting World.

Box 8

IEEE Press. A Century of Honors.

Box 8

IEEE Press. Compendium of Communication and Broadcast Satellites, 1958 to 1980.

Box 8

IRCAM (J.R. Pierce contributor). Passage du XX siecle.

Box 8

National Academy of Engineering (J. R. Pierce contributor). Technology and International Trade.

Box 8

Pierce, John R. Proceedings of the IRE.

Box 8

Pierce, John R. Radio-Electronics.

Box 8

Pierce, John R. and Edward E. David, Jr. Man’s World of Sound.

Box 8

Pierce, John R. and Hiroshi Inose. Information Technology and Civilization. (2 copies)

Box 8

Pierce, J. Almost All About Waves (in Russian).

Box 8

Pierce, John R. An Introduction to Information Theory. (2 copies).

Box 8

Pierce, John R. Quantum Electronics and Waves and Messages.

Box 8

Pierce, John R. and Edward C. Posner. Introduction to Communication Science and Systems. (2 copies).

Box 8

Pierce, John R. and Arthur G. Tressler. The Research State: A History of Science in New Jersey.

Books:

Box 9

Pierce, John R. The Science of Musical Sound. (3 copies).

Box 9

Pierce, John R. Telecommunicatie.

Box 9

Pierce, John R. Klank en Muziek. (4 copies).

Box 9

Pierce, John R. and Michael Noll. Signals (2 copies).

Box 9

Pierce, John R. and Michael Noll. Signals (in Spanish, 2 copies).

Box 9

Pierce, John R. Le Son Musical.

Box 9

Pierce, John R. The Science of Musical Sound (in Japanese).

Box 9

Pierce, John R. My Career as an Engineer.

Box 9

Pierce, John R. The Beginnings of a Satellite Communications.

Box 9

Pierce, John R. Science, Art and Communication.

Box 10

Certificates, mounted photographs, and Saturday Evening Post articles (Jan. 14, 1961 on Echo satellite and Nov. 4, 1961 article by Pierce on computers)