Gertrud Weiss Szilard Papers
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Copyright 2014
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
spcoll@ucsd.edu
Descriptive Summary
Languages:
English
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: Gertrud Weiss Szilard Papers
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0432
Physical Description:
0.82 Linear feet
(1 archives box, 1 card file box)
Date (inclusive): 1920-1997 (bulk 1960-1981)
Abstract: Papers of physician Gertrud Weiss Szilard. Weiss was a professor of preventive medicine and a public health officer, researcher,
and consultant. She was married to nuclear physicist and biologist Leo Szilard and edited his papers after his death. Her
papers include biographical information, correspondence, photographs, and audio recordings relating to her work and that of
Leo Szilard.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Gertrud Weiss Szilard Papers document her career as a professor of preventive medicine and as a public health physician,
as well as that of her husband, nuclear physicist and biologist Leo Szilard. The collection dates from 1920-1997 and is arranged
in the following series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) EDITING & WRITING, 4) PHOTOGRAPHS and 5) SOUND RECORDINGS.
Series 1) BIOGRAPHICAL: Includes Weiss's curriculum vitae, news clippings, an interview, and her enrollment book from the
University of Vienna.
Series 2) CORRESPONDENCE: Incoming and outgoing correspondence of Gertrud Weiss and her brother, Egon Weiss, who was a librarian
at the US Military Academy Library. The correspondence, which ranges from 1959-1997, mostly concerns Leo Szilard, his papers
and patents, and the naming of a crater on the moon for him. A smaller amount of correspondence concerns Gertrud Weiss and
her career. Includes a file of addresses and telephone numbers.
Series 3) EDITING & WRITING: Reviews and publicity on the published papers of Leo Szilard, which Weiss edited; a collection
of reviews of biographies on other nuclear physicists; lists of correspondence in the Leo Szilard papers; and a proposal
by Weiss for a collision proof automobile.
Series 4) PHOTOGRAPHS: Prints, negatives, and slides of Gertrud Weiss and her family and colleagues, taken from 1920-1980.
The series includes one negative, represented by a print in the collection, which has been restricted for preservation. Researchers
wishing to view the negative must obtain permission from the director of Special Collections & Archives.
Series 5: SOUND RECORDINGS: Audio cassettes of talks, interviews and music which Gertrud Weiss recorded between 1972 and 1980.
Original audio cassettes are restricted, and researchers must request user copies be produced.
Acquisition Information
Acquired 2013.
Preferred Citation
Gertrud Weiss Szilard Papers, MSS 432. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Publication Rights
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Restrictions
Photographic negatives are restricted. Researchers must request permission to view negatives from the director of Special
Collections & Archives. Original audio cassettes are restricted. Researchers must request user copies be produced.
Biography
Gertrud (Trude) Weiss Szilard was born December 28, 1909 in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of physician Arthur Weiss. She entered
the University of Vienna in 1928, studying mathematics and physics. Weiss left after one semester, however, and traveled to
Switzerland where she worked as governess to the daughter of poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) and took language courses at the
University of Lausanne. The following year she studied physics and biology at the University of Berlin while working as a
secretary and translator. During this time she met Hungarian nuclear physicist Leo Szilard, translating a manuscript for him
and attending one of his physics classes. Szilard convinced Weiss to study medicine instead of physics, and she returned to
the University of Vienna in 1930, graduating with an M.D. in 1936.
Concerned by the rise of power in Nazi Germany, Szilard urged Weiss and her family to move to England, and then to the United
States. Weiss did her postgraduate training at West London Hospital from 1936-1937, and then served internships and residencies
at hospitals in New York City until 1944. She was licensed to practice medicine in New York State in 1938, and became a naturalized
U.S. citizen in 1943. Weiss then earned an M.S. in Public Health at Columbia University in 1944, and was certified in preventive
medicine in 1949. She worked as a health officer for the New York City Department of Health from 1944-1950, and as an instructor
and adjunct assistant professor of preventive medicine at the New York University College of Medicine from 1948-1950.
Weiss and Szilard, who had also emigrated to the United States, continued a correspondence begun in the 1930s, and maintained
a relationship through letters, phone calls, and visits. She kept many of Szilard's important documents for him, as he did
not maintain a permanent residence. In 1950, Weiss moved to Denver to take positions as assistant professor of preventive
medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and acting director of communicable disease control for the Denver
Department of Health and Hospitals. She was licensed to practice medicine in the State of Colorado in 1951, and became associate
professor at the University of Colorado in 1954.
Szilard, now working in molecular biology at the University of Chicago, was also a visiting lecturer at the University of
Colorado and often stayed with Weiss when he was in Denver. The couple's unmarried status began to threaten Weiss's employment,
and they married in 1951, continuing to live apart and pursuing their respective careers. Weiss continued to practice medicine
under her maiden name, although she also used the names Trude Szilard and Gertrud Weiss Szilard after her marriage.
Starting in 1961, Weiss spent four years at Georgetown University as a clinical associate professor of preventive medicine,
and was a consultant for the World Health Organization's Health Statistics Branch and the Inter-American Mortality Investigation.
In 1964, she moved to La Jolla to join Szilard, who was a fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Szilard died
of heart failure later that year. Weiss remained in California, working for the UC Los Angeles School of Public Health and
the UC San Diego School of Medicine until 1977. She also consulted for the US Public Health Service, was project director
for the Southeast San Diego Health Study, and was on the board of directors for the Council for a Livable World Education
Fund.
Weiss spent 1975-1981 as an associate research bibliographer for the UC San Diego Program on Science, Technology and Public
Affairs. She collected and edited her husband's papers, publishing
Reminiscences by Leo Szilard (1968),
The Collected Works of Leo Szilard (1972),
Leo Szilard: His Version of the Facts (1978), and
Toward a Livable World: Leo Szilard and the Crusade for Nuclear Arms Control (1987). Weiss died on April 27, 1981.
Related Materials
Leo Szilard Papers. MSS 32. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Leo Szilard Letters to Gertrud Weiss. MSS 650. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Szilard, Gertrud Weiss -- Archives
Weizsäcker, Carl Friedrich, Freiherr von, 1912-2007 -- Correspondence
Silard, Bela A. -- Correspondence
McGovern, George S. (George Stanley), 1922-2012 -- Correspondence
Kissinger, Henry, 1923- -- Correspondence
Revelle, Ellen, 1910-2009 -- Correspondence
Menzel, Donald H. (Donald Howard), 1901-1976 -- Correspondence
Cooke, Alistair, 1908-2004 -- Correspondence
Bullard, Edward Crisp, Sir, 1907-1980 -- Correspondence
Dyson, Freeman J. -- Correspondence
Cousins, Norman -- Correspondence
Weiss, Egon, 1919-2003 -- Correspondence
Wigner, Eugene Paul, 1902-1995 -- Correspondence
Szilard, Leo
Box 1, Folder 1
Curriculum vitae
1950-1981
Box 1, Folder 2
Keen, Harold. "Women in Medicine" (excerpt). Interview of Gertrud Weiss Szilard in
San Diego Magazine. Annotated typescript
1980 December
Box 1, Folder 3
Meldungsbuch (enrollment record), University of Vienna
1934-1935
Box 1, Folder 4
Newspaper clippings
1951-1980
Box 1, Folder 6
Previous employment and references
1944-1975
Box 1, Folder 15
Harvard College Observatory (Donald H. Menzel)
1970
Box 1, Folder 19
Livingston, Robert B.
1960
Box 1, Folder 20
Lusignan, Suzanne de
1971-1972
Box 1, Folder 21
McGovern, George
1964-1979
Box 1, Folder 22
Pan American Health Organization
1962
Box 1, Folder 23
Pugwash Conferences on Science & World Affairs
1976
Box 1, Folder 26
Smithsonian Institution, The National Museum of History & Technology
1980
Box 1, Folder 27
United States Department of State
1981
Box 1, Folder 28
University of California, San Diego
1970-1980
Box 1, Folder 29
University of Colorado Medical Center
1959-1980
Box 1, Folder 30
Weizsacker, C.F. Freiherr von
1979
Box 1, Folder 34
Miscellaneous correspondence
1960-1979
Box 1, Folder 35
Addresses and telephone numbers
undated
Box 1, Folder 36
Collected Works of Leo Szilard (1972) - Publicity
1972
Box 1, Folder 37
Draft of a Proposal for a Project to Develop a Collision Proof Automobile
undated
Box 1, Folder 38
Leo Szilard: His Version of the Facts (1980) - Reviews
Box 1, Folder 39
List of correspondence in Szilard "Book Folders"
Box 1, Folder 40
List of correspondence in Szilard folder B-17
Box 1, Folder 41
Reviews of books on nuclear physicists, by various authors
1968-1994
Box 1, Folder 42
Toward a Livable World: Leo Szilard and the Crusade for Nuclear Arms Control (1987) - Reviews
1988
Box 1, Folder 43-46
Gertrude Weiss
ca. 1920-1980
Restrictions
Restrictions Apply
Box 1, Folder 47
Gertrude Weiss - Group photos
ca. 1925-1975
Box 2, Folder 1
M.I.T.
1972 September 21
Restrictions
Restrictions Apply
Box 2, Folder 2A-2B
Alvin Weinberg at UC San Diego - Original & use copy
1975 March 19
Restrictions
Original recording, tape 2A, is restricted. Tape 2B is a listener copy and must be used in place of the original.
Box 2, Folder 3
Hungary
1978 February
Restrictions
Restrictions Apply
Box 2, Folder 4
Szilard & Richards play Brahms Cello Sonata #1
1980 June
Restrictions
Restrictions Apply
Box 2, Folder 5
1980 September 15
Restrictions
Restrictions Apply
Box 2, Folder 6
1980 September 16 - December 16
Restrictions
Restrictions Apply
Box 2, Folder 7
Music from record
undated
Restrictions
Restrictions Apply
Box 2, Folder 8
Radio interview: G.W.S., La Jolla
undated
Restrictions
Restrictions Apply
Box 2, Folder 9
V. Weizsacker
undated
Restrictions
Restrictions Apply
Box 2, Folder 10
York
undated
Restrictions
Restrictions Apply
