{"id":24358,"date":"2021-11-02T16:22:55","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T16:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/?p=24358"},"modified":"2023-09-27T19:45:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T19:45:22","slug":"serifs-and-secrecy-the-smyth-report-in-scarc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/2021\/11\/02\/serifs-and-secrecy-the-smyth-report-in-scarc\/","title":{"rendered":"Serifs and Secrecy: The Smyth Report in SCARC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Contributed by Anne Bahde, Rare Books and History of Science Librarian<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the pandemic has slowed progress on some projects in SCARC, staff have moved forward steadily on the work for cataloging, arranging, and describing our materials. In my case, I am working through the massive new acquisition of the Robert Dalton Harris, Jr. Collection of the Atomic Age in order to prepare it for various forms of description and access. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This collection includes three major parts. The first to be opened for research will be the Collection of Atomic Age Ephemera. This wide-ranging collection presents a thorough view of the impact of the atomic age on modern culture and society, through thousands of pieces of printed ephemera in dozens of material types, including brochures, calendars, stamps, advertisements, pamphlets, posters, and more. The second part of the Harris Collection, the archival collections, will be processed over the coming years. Currently there are 25 separate collections identified, which include compelling manuscript materials from servicemen and servicewomen, participants of the Manhattan Project, power plant engineers, uranium miners, and many others. Finally, the third part of the Harris Collection is the book collection, which includes thousands of titles covering all aspects of the Atomic Age, and for which cataloging will be ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broad range of the Harris Collection is part of why we considered this collection to be an excellent match to OSU\u2019s strong existing collections on nuclear history. But, this overlap also means duplication of our existing collections will occur. When potential duplicate titles are encountered, items are examined against each other in a comparative process to ensure they are true duplicates. This exercise is a necessary step – shelf space is at a premium in our holding areas, and we must ensure it is used responsibly. Most potential duplicates end up being true duplicates, which are then discarded through our surplus property protocols, or by the conditions specified by the donor.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Cover of the Princeton edition<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As I worked through the Harris Collection, there was one book which gave me a thrill each time I uncovered yet another duplicate copy. Whenever I spot this distinctive mustard yellow color, I become excited to meet another copy of this title. For this modest-looking volume can be considered a sort of Gutenberg Bible of the Atomic Age, in that it is the first printed document of a new era of humanity. Commonly known as the \u201cSmyth Report\u201d for its author, physicist Henry DeWolf Smyth, and released to the public just after the United States obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the first atomic bombs, A General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Atomic Energy for Military Purposes<\/em> was the official government report detailing the work of the Manhattan Project. (Internet Archive<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Title page, Pauling copy 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Smyth (pronounced with a long i sound as in \u2018wife\u2019) wrote this report knowing it would be a foundational text of the new atomic age. Though the bombs were built with science known before the war, it was not widely known whether, or how, this information could be applied to create a weapon. As Smyth reflected in 1976, \u201cit was only a question of time\u201d as to when the dots would be connected. When leaders of the Manhattan Project knew that the atomic bomb would be a viable weapon, they also knew that the general public would need a clear and concise explanation of this new destructive force as soon as it was unleashed. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Preface, Pauling copy 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Smyth hoped his readership would be professional scientists \u201cwho can understand such things and who can explain the potentialities of atomic bombs to their fellow citizens\u201d (Preface). Though he did not expect the whole literate public to fully understand the scientific concepts, he did expect scientists in turn to understand, explain, and engage their fellow citizens with the \u201cpotentialities.\u201d Smyth\u2019s task was to report and explain new information to the entire world, but he also wanted them to think beyond the words on the page to understand the consequences of the information for every citizen of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smyth\u2019s additional goal was to convey the administrative history of the Manhattan Project, showing how the atomic bombs came into existence. However, project leaders also required that certain information be kept hidden from the public. With General Leslie Groves\u2019s close advisor, Richard C. Tolman, Smyth developed strict guidelines for managing and evaluating the information that would be reported in the document, ensuring that what needed to be secret would remain so in the final product.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Coleman’s checklist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The critical need for secrecy governed the report\u2019s early duplication and distribution. When Smyth finished his penultimate draft in mid-July 1945, fifty copies were mimeographed in secret by project staff, then delivered by hand to selected Manhattan Project leaders under armed guard to review and return immediately. Much later, in 1976, Princeton Library Curator of Rare Books Earle E. Coleman worked with Smyth to painstakingly reconstruct the timing of various early printings and establish primacy in a detailed checklist.<\/a> This first, closest-to-final version of the Smyth Report became known in Coleman\u2019s checklist as the \u201cmimeograph version\u201d (Coleman 1). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Despite the fact that no copies of the \u201cmimeograph version\u201d are known to exist outside of Smyth\u2019s personal papers, later owners, collectors, dealers, and describers of this title frequently use this term \u201cmimeograph\u201d with wild abandon to make their copies sound more primary than they actually are.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After final corrections were made, one thousand copies were lithoprinted in heavily secured facilities at the Adjutant General\u2019s Office in the Pentagon. These copies were stored in a safe at the Pentagon until August 9, after the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, when President Truman made the decision to release it to the public. These copies went to members of Congress, Manhattan Project leaders and scientists, the press, and other select individuals. This version became known as the \u201clithoprint version\u201d in Coleman\u2019s checklist (Coleman 3). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Cover of lithoprint version (QC173 .S474 1945a)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Title page of lithoprint version
(QC173 .S474 1945a)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Foreword, Pauling copy 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Once the secret was out in print, the press could reproduce any and all of the information in the book without consequence, due to the unusually direct and encouraging copyright statement appearing on all printed versions: \u201cReproduction in whole or in part is authorized and permitted.\u201d (However, this was tempered with a secrecy warning from General Leslie R. Groves in the Foreword: \u201cPersons disclosing or securing additional information by any means whatsoever without authorization are subject to severe penalties under the Espionage Act.\u201d) Smyth and Tolman\u2019s secrecy guidelines meant that many details were missing intentionally; for example, how much fissile material was required to make a bomb and the rate at which the production plants could produce bombs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this point on, the report\u2019s impact could be seen rippling out through public understanding as references to the \u201cSmyth Report\u201d began to appear in newspaper articles, editorials, and scientific resources in mid-August. After a scramble involving a wartime paper shortage, Princeton University Press printed and released 30,000 copies in the first trade edition (Coleman 4) on September 15, which sold out within two weeks. Another version of 10,000 copies was produced about the same time (\u201cSeptember 20 plus or minus five days\u201d) by the Government Printing Office (Coleman 5).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n