{"id":24555,"date":"2022-02-14T17:15:30","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T17:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/?p=24555"},"modified":"2022-02-14T17:15:30","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T17:15:30","slug":"the-robert-dalton-harris-jr-collection-of-atomic-age-ephemera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/2022\/02\/14\/the-robert-dalton-harris-jr-collection-of-atomic-age-ephemera\/","title":{"rendered":"The Robert Dalton Harris, Jr. Collection of Atomic Age Ephemera"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

SCARC is delighted to announce that the Robert Dalton Harris, Jr. Collection of Atomic Age Ephemera<\/a> is now open to researchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carefully collected over three decades, this collection was one of the largest collections on American nuclear history in private hands before coming to OSU in 2017. Collector Robert Dalton Harris, Jr. and his partner Diane DeBlois are authors, editors, historians, independent scholars, and long-time proprietors of aGatherin\u2019, a business that deals in ephemera and original source materials. They began building a collection of materials from the era in the early 1980s, and added books, pieces of ephemera, manuscript collections, and artifacts gradually over decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Box-Folder 3.157: Atomic pop culture items, circa 1950s-1990s\u00a0Add to Shelf<\/a>
Items involving atomic themes, including Christmas wrapping paper, candy wrappers, and restaurant menus. ID: undated.097<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The materials of the collection span over a century of nuclear science and history. Together, these items tell the story of the Atomic Age from every possible angle, capturing the hopes and fears of the world\u2019s citizens as they grappled with the promises and dangers posed by atomic discoveries, both in the United States and internationally.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Harris Collection of the Atomic Age is in three parts. Part 1 is comprised of nearly 30 separate manuscript and archival collections from individuals who were associated in some way with the nuclear era, including Leo Szilard, Norman Hilberry, Joseph Dietrich, and Peter Skinner. The collection also includes rich collections around the concept of imminent danger or disaster, including the Y2K scare and the fable of Chicken Little. These collections will be processed individually in the coming years. The first of these, the Anne Frewerd Scrapbook, is an exciting first-hand look at a young woman’s life at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project and will be released soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part 2, Books, is composed of nearly 1,000 published print items, again covering a multitude of nuclear angles and issues and dating from the late 19th century to the early 21st century. Print items include both books and magazines\/journals. Cataloging for monograph and serial publications from the Harris Collection of the Atomic Age is ongoing, and research access to these titles is limited until cataloging is finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Box-Folder 3.36: Star Wars: The Missing Link to a First Strike?, September 16, 1985\u00a0Add to Shelf<\/a>
Remarks by Dr. Michio Kaku at UE’s 50th International Convention, Sept 16-20, 1985. ID: 1985.003<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Part 3, Ephemera<\/a>, is the part of the collection now open for researchers. (This previous post<\/a> explores the definition of ephemera using materials from the collection.) In this collection , the story of the Atomic Age is told through nearly 50 different material types. The majority of items are typical ephemera formats such as newspapers, pamphlets, booklets, brochures, leaflets, flyers, posters, and postcards. Additional formats in the collection include stamps, promotional materials and advertisements, newsletters, instructional materials, conference materials, government documents, calendars, stickers, stamps and envelopes, original art, sheet music, and artifacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Harris materials join existing collections on nuclear history in SCARC, and add considerable depth to a number of nuclear subjects already covered in those collections. The Harris materials also establish sub-strengths that did not yet exist in our collections. Below, and in the next post, we will explore a few of those areas and the research topics across many disciplines these materials can support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n