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Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79017970
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 Clinton Joseph Davisson, physicist, were given to the Library of Congress in 1963 by his widow, Charlotte Sara Davisson.
The papers of Clinton Joseph Davisson were arranged and described in 1963. The finding aid was revised in 2012.
The Clinton Joseph Davisson Papers are described in
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Clinton Joseph Davisson in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
The papers of Clinton Joseph Davisson 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, Clinton Joseph Davisson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of the Clinton Joseph Davisson (1881-1958) span the years 1908-1962, with the bulk of the material dating from 1937 to 1946. The papers are organized into the following series: Correspondence , Scientific Papers , Miscellany , and Oversize .
The Correspondence includes mostly letters received by Davisson from family members and are generally of a nonscientific nature. Included with the 1937 correspondence is a volume of letters and a scrapbook containing correspondence, photographs, clippings, and printed ephemera relating to Davisson's winning of the Nobel Prize in 1937. A few letters addressed to Davisson's wife, Charlotte Sara Davisson, and one of his sons, Owen Davisson, conclude the series.
The Scientific Papers , consisting of articles, memoranda, and reports, encompass the major areas of Davisson's research while employed by the Western Electric Company and Bell Telephone Laboratories. Many of the papers relate to Davisson's study of the secondary emisson of electrons. His investigations into this subject led to his experimental demonstration of electron diffraction, thus confirming the wave properties of electrons. There are numerous papers relating to his interest in electron optics and the construction of instruments for electron focusing, as well as papers concerning crystal physics relevant to the development by Bell Telephone Laboratories of quartz crystal plates as circuit elements. Included with the papers are notes, statistics, blueprints, graphs, photographs, and other research material.
The Miscellany is mostly comprised of the lecture notes Davisson used while a visiting professor in physics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He taught undergraduate and graduate courses and directed doctoral thesis research work. Included also are nonscientific articles, biographical material, certificates and awards, photographs, and speeches.
This collection is arranged in four series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79017970
Mostly personal and family correspondence.
Arranged by name of person and therein chronologically by year.
Articles, memoranda, and reports, in both holograph and typescript form, on scientific research written and cowritten by Davisson and accompanied by research notes, statistics, drawings, graphs, blueprints, and photographs.
Arranged alphabetically by title or subject matter.
Nonscientific articles by Davisson, biographical material, certificates and awards, financial records, lecture notes, photographs, printed matter, speeches, and other material.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material.
Award and photograph.
Arranged and described according to the series, containers, and folders from which the items were removed.