Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm87062000
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Wallace R. Brode, educator, scientist, and government official, were given by his widow, Ione Sundstrom Brode, to the Library of Congress in 1986.
The papers of Wallace R. Brode were arranged and described by Harry G. Heiss in 1996, and the finding aid revised in 2007. The finding aid was updated in 2023 by Maria Farmer as part of a division-wide remediation project by the Inclusive Description Working Group.
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. A phonograph record has been transferred to the Recorded Sound Section of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. Maps have been transferred to the Geography and Map Division. Photographs have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. Theater guides have been transferred to the Music Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Wallace R. Brode Papers.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Wallace R. Brode is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The papers of Wallace R. Brode are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Government regulations control the use of security classified items in this collection. Manuscript Division staff can furnish information concerning access to and use of classified material.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Wallace R. Brode Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Wallace Reed Brode (1900-1974) span the years 1901-1974, with the bulk of the material produced during the period from 1928 to 1969. The collection consists of personal and official correspondence, research files, and speeches and writings documenting Brode's career as a research chemist, university professor, science organization executive, and government science administrator. The papers are organized into the following series: Correspondence, Speeches and Writings, Subject File, and Classified.
The Correspondence series contains letters, memoranda, telegrams, and attachments and is arranged chronologically. The Speeches and Writings series includes typed, printed, or handwritten copies of speeches and writings by Brode, as well as related correspondence and research notes, all arranged by title. The Subject File contains awards, correspondence, currency samples, diaries, financial records, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, patents, personnel records, photographs, press releases, printed matter, research notes, social invitations, travel records, and other items arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material.
Significant correspondents represented in the papers include John Brademas, Robert B. Brode, Detlev W. Bronk, Vannevar Bush, William O. Douglas, Ora S. Duffendack, Novice G. Fawcett, Angel Hernaiz, Christian Archibald Herter, Hubert H. Humphrey, Foy D. Kohler, Douglas MacArthur, George S. McGovern, W. P. Mitchell, G. Francis Nauheimer, Edgar L. Piret, Herman W. Pollack, Walter L. Reynolds, B. R. Stanerson, and Dael Lee Wolfle.
The papers are particularly comprehensive in their coverage of Brode's tenure as director, 1951-1960, and foreign secretary, 1965-1967, of the American Chemical Society; associate director, 1947-1958, of the National Bureau of Standards; and science advisor, 1958-1960, to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. There is considerable material concerning the dismissal of Allen Varley Astin as director of the National Bureau of Standards by Sinclair Weeks, secretary of commerce during the Eisenhower administration. In that episode Brode testified before Congress that the bureau had been under "terrific pressure" to approve a commercial battery additive which its tests had proved to have no value.
Some papers in the collection pertain to defense positions Brode held during World War II, particularly with the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the Alsos mission to collect information on enemy scientific research, especially atomic energy experimentation. Other defense-related files concern Brode's administrative and technical advisory positions in the rocket research laboratories of the Naval Ordnance Test Station at Inyokern, California, from 1945 to 1947.
Brode was one of triplet brothers, all of whom, like their father, Howard Stidham Brode, became professors of science. Papers documenting Brode's teaching career at Ohio State University, 1928-1948, are scant. His work as a chemist, however, is well represented by scientific publications, speeches, and research records. Brode was a recognized leader in the field of spectroscopy and applied optics, and most of his laboratory research and scientific publications, both at Ohio State and the National Bureau of Standards, pertain to steric effects in dyes and absorption spectra related to color and dyes. The collection also contains material about Brode's pioneering efforts to promote the use of molecular models with colored balls and wooden pegs as educational tools for representing the structure of organic molecules.
The collection includes material illustrating an avocational interest Brode and his wife, Ione "Sunny" Sundstrom, had in handcrafted rugs and Native American culture of the American Southwest. Brode was considered an expert on the dyestuffs and dying techniques used by Native Americans.
This collection is arranged in four series:
Letters, memoranda, telegrams, and attachments.
Arranged chronologically.
Typed, printed, or handwritten copies of speeches and writings by Brode with related correspondence and research notes.
Arranged alphabetically by title of speech or writing.
Awards, correspondence, samples and proof sheets of internatinal currency, diaries, financial records, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, patents, personnel records, photographs, press releases, printed matter, research notes, social invitations, travel records, and miscellaneous items.
Arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material.
Government classified documents.
Arranged and described according to the series, containers, and folders from which the items were removed.