Description
Paul was a historian of the American West. His special interest was in mining. The small collection of Rodman Paul papers
was given to the Archives by the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2001. It contains a sampling of his correspondence,
publication projects and research notes, plus some biographical material, in particular, documents relating to his Harvard
years.
Background
Rodman Paul was born November 6, 1912 in Philadelphia and grew up near Boston. He was educated at Milton Academy (preparatory
school) and Harvard, where he received the degrees of AB (1936), AM (1937) and PhD (1943). He served in the US navy reserve
from 1943 through 1946, after which he took a position as instructor at Yale for one year. In 1947, he came to Caltech, where
he eventually became the first Edward S. Harkness Professor of History (1972-1981). Paul was an expert in western American
history and especially on western mining. He is credited with building up Caltech's history department after World War II.
He also was closely allied with the development of the western history collection at the Huntington Library. Paul retired
from Caltech in 1981. He died on May 15, 1987.
Restrictions
Copyright may not have been assigned to the California Institute of Technology Archives. All requests for permission to publish
or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Caltech Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the California Institute of Technology Archives as the owner of the physical items and, unless explicitly stated otherwise,
is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
Availability
The collection is open for research. Researchers must apply in writing for access.