Scope and Content Note
The papers of Edward Goodrich Acheson (1856-1931) cover the period 1872-1968 with the bulk of the material falling between 1899 and 1930. They consist of diaries, letterbooks, laboratory notebooks, business and general correspondence, and miscellaneous material relating to Acheson's scientific career and his companies. The collection is arranged in Diaries, Letterbooks, Business Correspondence, General Correspondence, Miscellany, and Oversize series.
The diaries date from 1884 to 1931 and record Acheson's everyday activities and appointments. A typescript of his diaries, 1906-1926, is also included. Letterbooks date from 1889 to 1915 and relate primarily to his businesses.
The majority of the collection is included in the two correspondence series that reflect the organization of the files when they arrived at the Library. Business Correspondence consists of Acheson's communications with a relatively few people including his sons, Edward Goodrich Acheson (1887-1962), George Wilson Acheson, John Huyler Acheson, and Raymond Mahler Acheson; John P. Deringer; Thomas A. Edison; William Acheson Smith; and Edmund C. Sprague. Material in the General Correspondence series generally reflects Acheson's work and connections with firms that were founded by him and carry his name, including those established in Europe to commercialize the products and processes he had originated. Correspondents include Alfred E. Hunt, John Seys Huyler, Andrew W. Mellon, E. L. Nichols, and Walther Rathenau, and organizations such as Bakewell & Bakewell (patent attorneys), the Cowles Electric Smelting and Aluminum Company, and the Electrochemical Society. Included at the end of the General Correspondence are papers generated by Acheson's biographer, Raymond Szymanowitz, in collecting data relating to his study.
The Miscellany series includes financial notebooks, newspaper clippings, biographical sketches, a typescript of Acheson's autobiography, A Pathfinder, printed matter, scrapbooks, and scientific notebooks of his experiments and inventions. Oversize consists of two volumes of court proceedings relating to a case in which the Carborundum Company was involved in 1894.