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/mm2004085134
Collection material in English with some French and Russian
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 Alan H. Shapley, geophysicist and science administrator, were given to the Library of Congress by Shapley in 2004.
The Alan H. Shapley Papers were processed in 2015. Additional material was processed in 2017 and the finding aid revised.
A large format photographic negative depicting the launching of a V-2 rocket has been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division where it has been identified as part of the Alan H. Shapley Papers. Four maps of Antarctica and one of Alaska have been transferred to the Geography and Map Division. Five numbers of the Commerce Department publication
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Alan H. Shapley in these papers and in other collections in the custody of the Library of Congress is reserved. Consult reference staff in the Manuscript Division for further information.
The papers of Alan H. Shapley 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, Alan H. Shapley Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Alan H. Shapley (1919-2006) span the years 1934-1996 with the bulk of the collection dating 1948-1985. The papers are mostly in English with some documents in French and Russian. They focus on the International Geophysical Year 1957-1958, a venture of scientists from many countries to coordinate the monitoring of geophysical and solar-terrestrial phenomenon and to make the resulting data freely available worldwide. During 1956-1957 Shapley co-chaired the United States Committee on the International Geophysical Year, an organ of the National Academy of Sciences that cooperated at the global level with the Special Committee for the International Geophysical Year, an organ of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). The papers are arranged in seven series: Personal File, Organizations File, Government Agencies, Subject File, Miscellany, Addendum, and Oversize.
The Organizations File follows national scientific organizations and their international counterparts during the run-up to the IGY in the early 1950s through the critical period 1957-1958, and then documents the decades after the IGY when the Year's initiatives were developed into institutions such as the World Data Centers system and the early space programs. National science organizations documented in the series include the American Geophysical Union, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Sciences, which accounts for the largest set of files. Subfile topics include United States Committee on the International Geophysical Year, Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Research, Geophysics Research Board, Space Science Board, and World Data Centers.
International organizations represented in this series include the International Council of Scientific Unions and its member and spinoff organizations. Those include the Special Committee on the International Geophysical Year, or CSAGI, its French acronym; CODATA, or Committee on Data for Science and Technology; International Union of Radio Science, or URSI, its French acronym; International World Day Service; and the Panel on World Data Centers. A file on the ICSU spinoff COSPAR, or Committee on Space Research, is one of many files documenting early space programs. Also relating to early space probes is a file on the Upper Atmosphere Rocket Research Panel, a group that used World War II-era German V-2 rockets to initiate near earth space exploration in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The entirety of Alan Shapley's thirty-eight year government career was spent with various laboratories and agencies of the Commerce Department. Documented in the Government Agencies series are his eighteen years with the Central Radio Propagation Laboratory and stints with the Environmental Science Services Administration and its successor the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Shapley was a geophysicist who specialized in the ionosphere, the "radio mirror" layer or the earth's upper atmosphere that makes long-range "bounced" radio wave transmission and radar possible. Ionosphere research and monitoring figures prominently in the Government Agencies and in the Organizations series, particularly in files relating to the International Geophysical Year.
During 1962-1964 Shapley was a doctoral candidate at the University College of Wales in Aberystwth, where in addition to his studies he continued with his organizational and governmental duties, much of it relating to the International Years of the Quiet Sun, 1964-1965. Because the file on the University College focuses on these duties and not Shapley's academic efforts, it is part of the Central Radio Propagation Laboratory file in the Government Agencies series.
Shapley visited Antarctica in 1959 and 1969 on ionosphere monitoring projects. The conduct of science in Antarctica, ionospheric research and monitoring, and solar-terrestrial research are well documented throughout the Organizations and Government Agencies series.
The Subject File includes files relating to the International Years of the Quiet Sun, 1964-1965, and to a post-International Geophysical Year period spanning 1969-1983. The Miscellany series contains speeches and writings by Shapley and others.
This collection is arranged in six series:
Correspondence, material relating to class reunions, printed matter, calendars, and miscellaneous material..
Arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material
Correspondence, memoranda, scientific data, minutes and other files relating to meetings and conferences, notes, reports, printed matter, and miscellaneous material relating to Shapley's participation in national and international scientific organizations, especially during the run-up to and aftermath of the International Geophysical Year 1957-1958 and the International Quiet Sun Year 1964-1965.
Arranged alphabetically by name of organization, topic, or type of material.
Correspondence, memoranda, scientific data, minutes and other files relating to meetings and conferences, reports, printed matter, and miscellaneous material relating to Commerce Department laboratories and agencies and to Shapley's career.
Arranged alphabetically by name of agency, topic, or type of material.
Topical files, scientific data, printed matter, and miscellaneous material.
Arranged alphabetically by topic.
Writings and lectures, photographs, event programs, printed matter, and, miscellaneous material.
Arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material.
Organizational and government records including correspondence, memoranda, scientific data, minutes and other files relating to meetings and conferences, notes, reports, printed matter, and miscellaneous material relating to Shapley’s participation in national and international scientific organizations, especially during the run-up to the International Geophysical Year.
Arranged in the series order of the main body of the papers.
Group photograph, Royal Society.
Arranged and described according to the series, containers, and folders from which the item was removed.