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Dibner Autographed Documents and First Day Covers collection: Finding Aid
mssBurndyAutographedDocuments  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Overview of the Collection
  • Access
  • Administrative Information
  • Scope and Content
  • Processing Information:
  • Arrangement
  • Indexing Terms

  • Overview of the Collection

    Title: Dibner Autographed Documents and First Day Covers collection
    Dates (inclusive): 1791-1984
    Bulk dates: 1953-1979
    Collection Number: mssBurndyAutographedDocuments
    Extent: 74 items in 1 box
    Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Manuscripts Department
    The Huntington Library
    1151 Oxford Road
    San Marino, California 91108
    Phone: (626) 405-2203
    Fax: (626) 449-5720
    Email: reference@huntington.org
    URL: http://www.huntington.org
    Abstract: The Dibner Autographed Documents and First Day Covers collection contains 74 items, chiefly documents including letters, postcards, typescripts, photographs, handwritten notes, and blank cards, autographed by leading figures in the sciences, including multiple Nobel Prize winners; several documents contain multiple signatures. The collection also includes 20 autographed first day covers, mostly stamps dedicated to science-related themes such as nuclear energy, communications, electronics, space exploration, and naval aviation; dates of these items range from 1948-1973.
    Language: English.

    Access

    Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

    Administrative Information

    Publication Rights

    The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item]. Dibner Autographed Documents and First Day Covers collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

    Provenance

    Burndy Library Collection, Gift of Dibner Family, November 2006. Was MS Collection 73 (6).

    Scope and Content

    This collection contains 74 items, chiefly documents including letters, postcards, typescripts, photographs, handwritten notes, and blank cards, autographed by leading figures in the sciences, including multiple Nobel Prize winners; several documents contain multiple signatures. The collection also includes autographed 20 first day covers, mostly stamps dedicated to science-related themes such as nuclear energy, communications, electronics, space exploration, and naval aviation; dates of these items range from 1948-1973.
    Signatures on various types of documents include those of British explorer John Franklin (1786-1847); Joseph Henry (1797-1878), first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; American medical physicist Rosalyn S. Yalow (1921-2011); American medical researcher Albert B. Sabin (1906-1993); polar explorer Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922); and American president Herbert Hoover (1874-1964). Many of the autographed letters are addressed to R. Frederick Allen of Lewiston, Maine, often in response to birthday greetings or other communications from Allen, and several autographed items are accompanied by information about the signers in the form of clippings or typed or handwritten annotations.
    The first day covers commemorate developments and events including the Atoms for Peace campaign (initiated in 1953) and the Atomic Energy Act (1962); the launch of Echo I, the world's first communications satellite, in 1960; the dedication of the Palomar Mountain Observatory, Palomar Mountain, California, in 1948; and various other innovations and innovators. Signatures on first day covers include those of Edward Teller (1908-2003), on Atoms for Peace covers; Wernher von Braun (1912-1977), on a cover featuring Echo I (1960); J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), on a cover marking the Atomic Energy Act (1962); Jonas Salk (1914-1995), on a cover honoring those battling polio (1957); and Donald W. Douglas (1892-1981), on two covers celebrating the 50th anniversary of naval aviation (1961).

    Processing Information:

    Most of the materials in this collection were originally found loose and unordered, with the exception of items concerning Guglielmo Marconi and Herbert Hoover. In 2016, Sue Tyson arranged the materials into two series, Autographed Documents, containing the Marconi and Hoover items in their original groupings, and First Day Covers.

    Arrangement

    The collection is organized into two series:
    • Series 1. Autographed Documents, 1791-1984, bulk 1953-1979. 7 folders
    • Series 2. First Day Covers, 1948-1973. 3 folders.
    Series 1 is arranged in alphabetical order by last name of signer, and Series 2 is ordered alphabetically by general topic or by name of signer, as appropriate.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.  

    Subjects

    Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922 -- Archives.
    Churchill, Winston, 1871-1947 -- Archives.
    Douglas, Donald W. (Donald Wills), 1892-1981 -- Archives.
    Franklin, John, 1786-1847 -- Archives.
    Henry, Joseph, 1797-1878 -- Archives.
    Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964 -- Archives.
    Marconi, Guglielmo, 1874-1937 -- Archives.
    Mawson, Douglas, 1882-1958 -- Archives.
    Oberth, Hermann, 1894-1989 -- Archives.
    Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 1904-1967 -- Archives.
    Peabody, George, 1795-1869 -- Archives.
    Sabin, Albert B. (Albert Bruce), 1906-1993 -- Archives.
    Salk, Jonas, 1914-1995 -- Archives.
    Shackleton, Ernest Henry, Sir, 1874-1922 -- Archives.
    Shockley, William, 1910-1989 -- Archives.
    Steinmetz, Charles Proteus, 1865-1923 -- Archives.
    Teller, Edward, 1908-2003 -- Archives.
    Thomson, Elihu, 1853-1937 -- Archives.
    Van Rensselaer, John -- Archives.
    Von Braun, Wernher, 1912-1977 -- Archives.
    Wild, Frank, 1874-1939 -- Archives.
    Yalow, Rosalyn S. (Rosalyn Sussman), 1921-2011 -- Archives.
    Palomar Observatory.
    U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
    Autographs -- Collections.
    Autographs -- United States.
    First day covers (Philately).
    Heads of state -- Autographs.
    Politicians -- Autographs.
    Physicists -- Autographs.
    Scientists -- Autographs.

    Forms/Genres

    First day covers.
    Signatures (names).

    Added Entries

    Allen, R. Frederick, addressee.
    Burndy Library, former owner.