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Guide to the Papers of Richard Chase Tolman, 1735-1958
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Title: Richard Chase Tolman papers,
Date (inclusive): 1735-1958
Collection number: Consult repository
Creator:
Tolman, Richard Chace, 1881-1948
Extent:
5.75 linear feet
Repository:
California Institute of Technology. Archives.
Pasadena, California 91125
Abstract: 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.
Language:
English.
The collection is open for research. Researchers must apply in writing for access.
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 Head of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on
behalf of the California Institute of Technology Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include
or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item, box and file number], Papers of Richard Chase Tolman. Archives, California Institute of Technology.
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. Also there is one box of materials
relating to his wife, Ruth Tolman who was a psychologist. The collection covers a braod 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.
Tolman became interested in relativity theory early in his career and published several key papers. His scientific
work between the wars ranged over statistical mechanics, relativistic thermodynamics and cosmology. His classic book,
The Principles of Statistical Mechanics, was published in 1938. Between 1940 and 1946 Tolman had major
responsibilities in the joint efforts of science, industry and the military to achieve victory in the Second World War. He
served as vice chairman of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), with special cognizance for armor and
ordnance, including the development of the proximity fuse and rockets. He served as scientific advisor to General Leslie R.
Groves on the Manhattan Project, as US advisor to the wartime Combined Policy Committee, and immediately after the war
as chief technical advisor to the US delegation to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. At the time of his death in
September 1948 he was chairman the Declassification Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission.
Tolman earned the US Medal for Merit and the rank of honorary officer of the Order of the British Empire. He was
elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1923.
Richard Tolman was married to Ruth Sherman Tolman, a psychologist.
Scope and Content of Collection
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. Also there is one box of materials
relating to his wife, Ruth Tolman who was a psychologist. The collection covers a braod range of topics from his work in
physical chemistry and mathematical physics.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection.
Tolman, Ruth S.
California Institute of Technology
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
Chemistry, Physical and theoretical
Mathematical physics
Lecture notes
Correspondence
Photographs
Reprints
Speeches
Physicists
Materials Separated from Collection
The following books were removed from the Tolman collection and added to the archive book collection:
Graham Laing,
Towards Technology [inscribed by author]
Vannevar Bush,
Modern Arms and Free Men [inscribed by author]
John Burchard,
MIT in World War II QED [inscribed by author]
Walter Goodnow Everett,
Moral Values [inscribed by author]
Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman,
Elizabeth Buffum Chace and Her Environment, 2 vols.