Remembering Abram Hoffer

“As a physician, I am ambivalent about my association with the medical fraternity.  I am happy to be in a profession which has discovered so much information in the field of disease and health, but I am unhappy and distressed with such an association which almost invariably rejects at first hand the discoveries and views [...]

“There is no substitute for doing things with your own hands.”

In the archival world, scrapbooks are typically regarded to be “high-value” items, deserving of close descriptive and preservation attentions.  As we work our way through the arrangement and description of the Roger Hayward Papers, we are reminded again as to why scrapbooks are held in such high regard.
Though the Hayward Papers consist primarily of correspondence [...]

Pauling’s Best Friend: Lloyd Jeffress

As a child, Linus Pauling had relatively few friends. After moving from Condon, Oregon to Portland, the death of his father and subsequent poverty forced him to work when not in school. The remainder of his time was consumed with studying and household chores, leaving little room for companionship. Pauling, even as [...]

Dr. Paul Emmett, 1900-1985

The catalysis chemist Dr. Paul Emmett is one of many distinguished scientists to have attended Oregon State University. He was born in Portland, Oregon on September 22, 1900 to a railroad worker and his wife, and had two sisters. Historian Dr. Burt Davis, who is writing a biography of Emmett’s life, notes that [...]

Resident Scholar, Dr. Burt Davis

For several weeks in April, there was a new yet familiar face roaming the stacks of the OSU Libraries Special Collections. It was Dr. Burtron “Burt” Davis of the University of Kentucky’s Center for Applied Energy Research, who had traveled across the country to research his former mentor, Dr. Paul Emmett. Dr. Davis [...]

William P. Murphy: Condon’s Other Nobel Prize Winner

Condon – as you are undoubtedly already aware if you are a regular reader of this blog – is a very small town in Gilliam County in North-Central Oregon. According to the 2000 census, the town’s population consisted of only 759 people, and in the early 1900s, when the Pauling family lived in Condon, the [...]

Peter Debye (1884-1966)

On March 24, 1884 – one hundred and twenty five years ago today – Peter Debye, an extremely influential physicist and chemist, was born. In honor of the anniversary of his birth, today’s post is devoted to discussing Debye’s life and a handful of his major contributions to the fields of both physics and chemistry.
Peter [...]

Pauling’s Contacts with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Linus Pauling is recognized as one of the greatest peace activists of the 20th century. From the end of World War II until his death in 1994, Pauling was a central figure in the fight for nuclear disarmament and a great proponent of human rights. Though his primary focus was international peace and [...]

Carleton Gajdusek, Doug Strain and Richard T. Jones

Before settling completely in to 2009, we would like to take a moment to note the 2008 passing of three men who had, in various ways, inhabited the Pauling orbit.
D. Carleton Gajdusek died on December 12, 2008 at the age of 85.  Gajdusek was a former graduate student of Pauling’s who received international acclaim – [...]

Now Available: “Face Furniture,” by Roger and Elizabeth Hayward

“The Haywards were not aiming to improve people’s physical vision in the real world.  Their endeavor was intended as fun stuff, exploring possibilities for facial adornment appropriate to a type of individual.  This eyewear was designed with the wearer in his/her right mind, or out of it, as the case may be.“
- Jim and Miriam [...]