Scope and Content Note
The papers of Edward Lindley Bowles (1897-1990) span the years 1869-1990, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period 1920-1982. Every aspect of Bowles's life is documented extensively by these papers except for the time during which he directed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (M.I.T.) research station in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, for which there is relatively little record, and the last years of his life during which he lived with Parkinson's disease.
Bowles was an inventor, educator, and consultant. He was associated with academic institutions, corporations, and government, often simultaneously. His scientific interests were focused, but the ways in which he manifested these interests were diverse. His papers, reflecting this diversity, are grouped into nine series: Correspondence File , Subject File , Corporate File , Government File , University File , Patent File , Oral History File , Writings File , 2020 Addition and Classified.
Incoming and outgoing correspondence of a general nature make up the Correspondence File , including a reading file of outgoing material documenting more than two decades of Bowles's life.
The Subject File consists of a broad range of information not confined to any one institution, activity, or time in Bowles's life. There are files for Vannevar Bush and Carlo Luigi Calosi, each mentioned elsewhere in these papers, but each of whom Bowles knew in more than one institution or activity. There are also files regarding the Italian magnetic torpedo (Siluro Italiano Calosi) of World War II, Samuel Eliot Morison, David Rines, and Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt. Also, these files contain papers of Gleason Leonard Archer, president of Suffolk University; George A. Campbell, a prominent early inventor in telephone communications; Hammond Vinton Hayes, former chief engineer of American Telephone and Telegraph Company; and Admiral Harry E. Yarnell's activities during World War II.
Bowles's ties to the corporate world began while he was a student at M.I.T. and became extensive after World War II, when he became general consultant to the president of Raytheon Company and president of Whitin Machine Works. He also served as consultant to or on the boards of directors of other firms. The Corporate File holds material concerning all such interests, but the documentation concerning Raytheon and Whitin is the most extensive. Principal correspondents in the Raytheon papers include Charles F. Adams (1866-1954), and Calosi. The principal subjects include direction and governance of the company, its research aims, and the Submarine Signal Division. There are many handwritten notes from Adams, who was president of Raytheon during Bowles's tenure. Whitin Machine Works was purchased by White Consolidated Industries, to whose board of directors Bowles was then appointed. The Whitin papers document the end of Whitin as an independent company and the affairs of White from Bowles's perspective on the governing board, as well as the affairs of subsidiaries White Motor Company, J.D. Ferry Company, and American Type Founders Company.
Bowles served the federal government in numerous capacities, most notably as consultant to the War Department during World War II, scientific warfare advisor to the secretary of war during the Korean conflict, and as chair of a United States Senate ad hoc advisory committee on television frequency allocations. Additionally, he served on the National Defense Research Committee, or NDRC (later part of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, or OSRD), and on a congressional ad hoc committee on reforming the patent system. Papers regarding all of these ventures are found in the Government File . Bowles's work in the War Department during World War II is well represented and features correspondence with Henry Harley Arnold, Harold Gardner Bowen, Vannevar Bush, Alfred L. Loomis, and Watson-Watt concerning the development and deployment of radar, the United States Air Force's Project RAND and its evolution into Rand Corporation, antisubmarine warfare, and the temperament and tactics of Ernest Joseph King, as well as scientific research efforts in general. The armed forces retained Bowles's services through the late 1950s, and correspondence and reports reflect his concern for battle effectiveness, prevailing military strategies, research methodology, unification of the armed forces, and weapons development.
The University File documents Bowles's associations with Washington University and M.I.T., and two institutions he served as director, Bentley College and Kodály Musical Training Institute. M.I.T.'s development is reflected in correspondence with Julius Adams Stratton and other contemporaries. Files concern M.I.T.'s Round Hill research division and the Edward H. R. Green estate on which it was located, electrical engineering laboratory and courses, Sloan School of Industrial Management, the NDRC radiation lab, and Vannevar Bush, K. T. Compton, C. S. Draper, and Ernst A. Guillemin.
The Patent File documents Bowles's activities as a private consultant for companies and individuals securing or defending patents, including the Radio Corporation of America, Samson Electric Company, Sperry Gyroscope Company, Stockton Profile Gauge Corporation, United Artists Corporation, and Ernst Fredrik Werner Alexanderson, Edwin H. Armstrong, Walter G. Cady, Alexander McLean Nicholson, and George Washington Pierce. Correspondence in this file contains information regarding patent applications and research in general. A companion subseries contains Bowles applications and assignments. Interferences, or challenges to applications, are filed as part of the contested applications.
The Oral History File consists of transcripts of Bowles's recollections. These recollections were recorded between 1979 and 1984 and primarily concern his years in Westphalia, Missouri, M.I.T., Bell Telephone Company and the development of telephone communication, World War II, Henry Harley Arnold, Vannevar Bush, Henry L. Stimson, NDRC, OSRD, and Project RAND.
The Writings File consists of articles, newspaper columns, and speeches by Bowles concerning various subjects.
The 2020 Addition consists of a subject file covering a broad range of information pertaining to Bowles's personal and professional interests, including atomic material, travel, foreign relations, construction and design, arts, science, and the law.