This collection documents the career of Richard Chace Tolman, who served on the faculties of the Universities of Michigan, Cincinnati, California (Berkeley) and Illinois. Collection includes family photographs, personal and biographical materials including his Ph. D. Thesis, sporadic and limited correspondence, lecture notes, speeches, reprints, photocopies of unclassified correspondence and documents relating to the U. S. Atomic Energy commission Tolman Committee on Declassification. The collection covers a broad range of topics from his work in physical chemistry and mathematical physics.

Richard Chace Tolman was born March 4, 1881 in West Newton, Massachusetts. He attended MIT, earning his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1903. He spent the next year in Berlin, then returned to complete his graduate work with a PhD at MIT in 1910. From that time until World War I he served on the faculties of the Universities of Michigan, Cincinnati, California (Berkeley) and Illinois. During the war Tolman began what would be a distinguished career as a scientific advisor and administrator for the US government. His first assignment was with the Chemical Warfare Service, and later (1919-1922) as associate director and then director of the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory, whose purpose was to continue the government's research program on the nitrogen products used in explosives and fertilizers. In 1922, Tolman accepted a position at the California Institute of Technology, where he would remain for the rest of his academic career. He served as professor of physical chemistry and mathematical physics, as well as holding the position of dean of the graduate school.

5.75 linear feet

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