Guide to the Don Lynn Anderson Papers, 1968-1994
Processed by Charlotte E. Erwin; machine-readable finding aid created by
Brooke Dykman Dockter
Archives
California Institute of Technology
1200 East California Blvd.
Mail Code 015A-74
Pasadena, CA 91125
Phone: (626) 395-2704
Fax: (626) 793-8756
Email: archives@caltech.edu
URL: http://archives.caltech.edu
© 1998
California Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Don Lynn Anderson Papers, 1968-1994
Archives
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California
Contact Information:
- Archives
- California Institute of Technology
- 1200 East California Blvd.
- Mail Code 015A-74
- Pasadena, CA 91125
- Phone: (626) 395-2704
- Fax: (626) 793-8756
- Email: archives@caltech.edu
- URL: http://archives.caltech.edu
- Processed by:
- Charlotte E. Erwin
- Date Completed:
- March 27, 1996
- Encoded by:
- Brooke Dykman Dockter
© 1998 California Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Don Lynn Anderson Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1968-1994
Creator:
Anderson, Don Lynn
Extent: Linear feet: 1
Repository:
California Institute of Technology. Archives.
Pasadena, California 91125
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not 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.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item, Box and file number], Don Lynn Anderson Papers, Archives,
California Institute of Technology.
Biography
Professor of Geophysics Don Lynn Anderson was Director of Caltech's Seismological
Laboratory from 1967 through 1989. In that position, he succeeded two front rank
geophysicists, Beno Gutenberg and Frank Press. The Seismo Lab was founded in Pasadena in
1927 by the Carnegie Institution of Washington; its administration was taken over by
Caltech some years later, in 1937.
Although closely associated with the development of the magnitude scale (the "Richter
scale") and other aspects of seismological measurement, the Seismo Lab has been much more
than an earthquake lab. In writing about the Lab in 1989, Anderson stressed its
non-earthquake aspects: "The Seismology Laboratory is not primarily an observatory; it
has been, in fact, the 'Geophysics Department' at Caltech." While providing earthquake
information for the local and statewide community and running the Southern California
Seismic Array (the "Network" of seismic stations which record earthquake data), the Lab
has produced major scientific work in geophysics throughout its history.
The papers in this collection were deposited in the Archives in 1996 by Professor
Anderson. They date from the period of his directorship of the Lab and concern the Lab
directly. However, they do not form a complete record, as there are notable gaps, for
example, in Anderson's own series of memos (nothing for the last ten years of his tenure)
and in general administrative correspondence.
Researchers interested in the history of the Seismology Laboratory should also examine
the following files in the Caltech Archives: Historical Files (under Geology Division),
Seismology Records (microfiche), and the papers of Beno Gutenberg, Charles Richter and
Harry O. Wood.
Kamb, Barclay (Geology Division) Correspondence
Folder 1.7
Proposal to adopt "richter" as unit of magnitude 1970
Box 1, Folder 1.8
General correspondence 1969-1978
Folder 1.9
General correspondence 1981-1994
Caltech Seismological Network
Folder 1.10
Transfer of network supervision from Charles Richter to James N. Brune 1968
Folder 1.11
General correspondence 1969-1974, undated
Folder 1.12
Network name suggestions 1978
Folder 1.14
Office staff reorganization 1981
Folder 1.15
Center for Earthquake Physics and Tectonics 1987-1988
U.S.G.S. - Caltech Network Correspondence
Folder 2.4
U.S.G.S. - National Network Correspondence 1987
Folder 2.5
U.S.G.S. - Seismo Lab relations 1988-1989
Box 2, Folder 2.6
Benioff, Hugo xeroxes of slides n.d.
