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Finding Aid to the Robert Bigham Brode papers, 1922-1975
BANC MSS 98/71 c
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Table of contents
Collection Title: Robert Bigham Brode papers
Date (inclusive): 1922-1975
Collection Number: BANC MSS 98/71 c
Creator:
Brode, Robert B. (Robert Bigham)
Extent:
10 cartons, 1 cardbox, 1 oversize folder (13 linear feet)
Repository: The Bancroft Library.
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/
Abstract: The Robert Bigham Brode papers including correspondence, course materials, notebooks, administrative files and artifacts.
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English
Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information
on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Collection is open for research.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head
of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000. Consent is given on behalf of The
Bancroft Library 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. See:
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.Materials in this collection may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition,
the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor
restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected
by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public
domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively
with the user.
[Identification of item], Robert Bigham Brode papers, BANC MSS 98/71 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
There are no alternate forms of this collection.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog
Brode, Robert B. (Robert Bigham)
Physicists -- California -- Berkeley.
Berkeley (Calif.)
Faculty papers.
Donated by Physics Department, U.C. Berkeley in 1997.
No additions are expected.
Processed by Mario H. Ramirez
Among one of the first individuals to be conferred a PhD in Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1924, Robert
Bigham Brode had an illustrious career that included receiving a Rhodes Scholarship, a National Research Fellowship, a Guggenheim
Fellowship and a Fulbright Fellowship. One of triplets born in 1900 in Walla Walla, WA (Wallace was a chemist and Malcolm
was a biologist), he earned his bachelor’s degree from Whitman College, where his father was a biology professor, in 1921.
His early research concerned the structural similarities in the external electrons of molecules such as nitrogen and carbon
monoxide. Brode taught at U.C. Berkeley from 1927 until 1967, and focused his research primarily on cosmic rays. From 1942-1946,
he worked at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University and the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico. At the
latter, Brode was in charge of the “fusing group” on the Manhattan Project.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Robert Bigham Brode papers, 1922-1975, contain correspondence, administrative files, notebooks, organizational files,
writings, course materials, publications and artifacts that document his career at U.C. Berkeley, his extensive professional
commitments and notable research on cosmic rays. Highlights of the collection include extensive files on Brode’s participation
in such groups as the American Institute of Physics and their Committee on Physics Faculties in Colleges, the American Association
of Physics Teachers and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the Department of State. In addition, the photographs
chronicle many of Brode’s experiments and the declassified files included provide some insight into his contributions to the
war effort in the 1940s.