Scope and Content Note
The papers of Frederic Eugene Ives (1856-1937) and Herbert Eugene Ives (1882-1953), father and son, span the years 1869-1957, with the bulk of the material dating from 1900 to1952. Scientists and inventors, the pair received credit for over 150 inventions, and their papers include patents and patent applications. The interrelationship of the two men’s work precluded the separation of their papers, most of which are arranged in a chronological order. The majority of the papers are concerned with the work of Herbert Ives and are organized into the following series: General Correspondence , Printed Matter , Speech, Article, and Book File of Herbert Eugene Ives , Miscellany , Addition , and Oversize.
Frederic Ives is represented in the collection primarily through his journals in Miscellany , 1870-1930, and by his letters received, which are in the early years of the General Correspondence. The rest of the collection contains articles, correspondence, scrapbooks, and related material pertaining to Herbert Ives.
The elder Ives was a self-educated man and essentially a photographer rather than a scientist. His inventions were the result of his interest in photography. He invented the first simple method of photographic development, was one of the first to produce relatively permanent color photographs, and is credited with the invention of the short-tube optical microscope.
Herbert, following in his father’s footsteps, also developed an interest in photography. His work evolved from an interest in optics and photography to serious criticism of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. During World War I, the United States Army sent Herbert Ives on a special mission to Europe to produce burial photographs of Germany and Italy. After being discharged from the service in 1919, he began work for Bell Telephone Company, where he was employed until his retirement in 1948. During this period he wrote over two hundred articles for scientific journals on subjects as varied as the light of the fire-fly and Dutch impersonations of English gold coins in the sixteenth century.
In 1924, Herbert Ives was credited with developing the first wire telephoto service. In 1927, he directed the first practical demonstration of the production and the sending of live images over wire. The latter experiment was one of the direct forebears of commercial television. Among his nonscientific interests were painting and coin collecting.
Prominent in the collection is the General Correspondence containing letters received by various members of the Ives family and copies of letters sent by Herbert Ives. Letters in the late 1940s and the early 1950s sent to Herbert Ives from E. E. Butterfield describe the dissatisfaction in certain scientific circles with Einstein’s theories. Einstein and his followers are castigated as left-wing radicals responsible for some of the turmoil of the early 1950s.
Among correspondents in the collection are George Eastman, King George V of England, Courtney H. Hodges, Harry S. Truman, and Albert Einstein.