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: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79021899
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 George Gamow, physicist, astronomer, and author, and his wife, Barbara Gamow, editor and translator, were given to the Library of Congress by the Gamows and others, 1964-2009.
The papers received by the Library in 1964-1968 were processed in 1968. The collection was expanded and revised in 1975, 1980, and 2016, and the finding aid was revised in 2009 and 2016.
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Photographs have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. Phonograph records and audiotapes have ben transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Gamow collection.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of George Gamow in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public. The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Barbara Gamow is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.)
The papers of George and Barbara Gamow 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.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, George Gamow and Barbara Gamow Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of George Gamow (1904-1968) and Barbara Gamow (1905-1976) cover the period 1915 to 1975, but the bulk of the collection originates after 1950. George Gamow's papers, which constitute about two-thirds of the total, are concentrated in the years 1960-1968 and are chiefly scientific and professional. Barbara Gamow's papers consist primarily of personal and literary correspondence from 1928 to 1975. The collection is organized in Family Correspondence, General Correspondence, Personal Correspondence of Barbara Gamow, Speeches and Writings, Miscellany, Addition, and Oversize series.
Broad in scope, the papers provide source material for biographical studies and for the scientific and intellectual history of the period. Topics treated include theoretical physics, astrophysics, big bang theory, nuclear energy, nuclei, quasistellar objects, genetic coding, RNA coding, and number theory.
Well known in academic fields as a physicist and astronomer, George Gamow was perhaps more widely known to the world at large for his work as a popularizer of scientific literature. In the Speeches and Writings File are examples of both aspects of Gamow's work. There is various material about Mr. Tompkins, the fictitious bank clerk with a scientific curiosity whom Gamow used in his books for lay readers. There are also first drafts of several of his other books, numerous published and unpublished articles, and various original drawings and illustrations for texts. Other drawings for books and for Gamow's personal use are in the Miscellany series.
George Gamow's professional and scientific correspondence as well as the Gamows' social correspondence is in the General Correspondence series. Of especial interest for the scientist or scientific historian is Gamow's correspondence with Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman on the big bang theory, with Charles Critchfield on nuclear energy and nuclei, with Paul Dirac on gravity, with Martynas Yčas on the origination of the genetic code (with specific reference to RNA coding), and also posthumous letters to Gamow from all over the world. There is, however, virtually no correspondence prior to 1950; all discussion of scientific theory is related to developments after that date. This limitation in chronology, as reported by Barbara Gamow in 1964 correspondence with the Library of Congress, is due to George Gamow's tendency to destroy incoming letters once he had answered them and to keep no copies of outgoing correspondence. Many of George Gamow's original letters, as well as photocopies of originals, do exist in the collection, but not in great bulk. Among his significant correspondents are Sir John Cockcroft, Pascal Civici, Albert Einstein, William F. Friedeman and Elizabeth Friedman, J. Allen Hynek, Ronald Mansbridge, Sir Nevill Mott, Ronald Searle, Albert Szent-Györgyi, and Edward Teller.
The Personal Correspondence series consists of letters to and from Barbara Gamow. Married to J. R. de la Torre Bueno, a scholar and editor, from 1938 to 1943, and to George Gamow from 1958 until his death in 1968, she spent most of her career in the publishing business and was acquainted with writers, illustrators, editors, and others in the world of publishing. From 1958 to 1970, much of Barbara Gamow's time was spent editing and translating for her husband and carrying on some of his professional correspondence. Although she herself did not publish any books, she wrote verse for some of George Gamow's books, including
During the early 1930s Barbara Gamow moved in circles that included the poet E. E. Cummings and his wife Marion Morehouse, scholars Edward Niles Hooker and Albert Guerard, filmmakers Stan Brakhage and John Larson, psychologists Evelyn Caldwell Hooker and Bernard Friedlander, and writers Raymong Peckham Holden, James Broughton, Charles Norman, Eda Lord, Sybille Bedford, Frances and Garner James, and Morgan Shepard. Letters from these and others provide source material for biographical studies of the correspondents and their acquaintances. Detailed letters over many years cover periods of youth, careers, and retirement. For the later years, there is material relating to old age, some aspects of the psychology of women, and discussions on parapsychology.
The Addition consists of George Gamow's correspondence with Martynas Yčas about the biological code and with Robert Herman about cosmology, arithmetic, and the big bang theory. Also included are letters by Gamow related to the works of Immanuel Velikovsky and other letters from Peter Brosche.
The collection is arranged in seven series:
Correspondence with members of the Gamow and Perkins families.
Arranged alphabetically by name of family member.
Letters received and some copies of letters sent, telegrams, postcards, and other enclosures.
Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent.
Letters received and some copies of letters sent, with attachments, literary material, drawings, and related material.
Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent and therein chronologically.
Books and articles in manuscript, typescript, galley, and printed form, including some correspondence, reviews, and related material, and speeches and book reviews.
Arranged by type of material. Articles are arranged chronologically and books are arranged alphabetically by title, with printed copies at the end.
Newspaper clippings, printed matter, scrapbooks, correspondence, miscellaneous personal records, notes, drawings, greeting cards, book reviews, and other material.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material. Final box contains oversize awards, certificates, a drawing, and illustrations, arranged alphabetically by type of material, title, or subject.
Letters received and mostly copies of letters sent by George Gamow.
Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent or topic.
Awards and certificates, illustrations, miscellaneous drawings, photography album, and other oversize items.
Arranged alphabetically according to subject of type of material.