Scope and Content Note
The papers of Isidor Isaac Rabi (1898-1988) span the years 1899-1988, with the bulk of the material dated between 1945 and 1968. The collection documents significant but not all portions of Rabi's life, concentrating heavily on his interests during the later stages of World War II, his service on government policy-making committees in the field of nuclear energy during the 1950s and 1960s, and, to a more limited degree, his teaching career. The papers contain correspondence both to and from Rabi, memoranda, minutes of meetings, reports, charts, graphs, press releases, bulletins, invitations, contracts, newspaper clippings, draft and printed copies of speeches, articles and lectures, notebooks, and miscellaneous material. Letters relating to his wife, Helen, and other correspondence are filed in the Miscellany at the end of the collection.
Born of Jewish parentage in 1898 in what is now Poland but at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Rabi came to America with his mother in the year following his birth. His father, who had come the year before, eventually opened a small grocery store. The younger Rabi grew up in working class areas in Manhattan and Brooklyn and showed great interest in the physical and social sciences, photography, and many other endeavors open to youths of his day with an aptitude for learning. Earning scholarships to Cornell University, he majored in chemistry and was graduated near the top of his class. After failing to win a fellowship to continue his studies in chemistry, Rabi directed his interests to the “irreducibility of matter” and the “whys” of molecular structure rather than observing and recording chemical reactions. He switched his field to physics and entered the doctoral program at Columbia University, supporting himself by teaching and lecturing at the City College of New York.
He received his doctorate in 1927, went to Europe to study quantum mechanics, and then taught quantum mechanics at Columbia. Combining laboratory experiments and teaching during the 1930s, Rabi attained recognition for his studies using the molecular beam and the magnetic resonance method of studying the atom. Publications from these experiments formed the basis for such modern technology as lasers, the atomic clock, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology. These studies culminated in the Nobel Prize in physics in 1944.
As the world came closer to war in the late 1930s and as fear of Germany and its military intentions spread to America, Rabi joined other leading scientists in pressuring the United States government to fund projects to develop atomic power before Germany gained overwhelming advantages. Taking a leave of absence from Columbia in 1940, he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Radiation Laboratory for work in radar and became a consultant to the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos, New Mexico. When the war ended, he worked to persuade the government to develop a science policy for the future that did not separate scientific research from the cultural or political context of American society. His writings during this period, however, indicate that he was not optimistic that politicians would truly understand science, which he termed “the first of the liberating arts.”
The General Correspondence series, dated 1927-1987, is chiefly concerned with his career as a teacher, lecturer, and advisor on scientific matters. His correspondents include many well-known figures in the scientific and political communities. Subjects discussed include the importance of education in science and technology, Rabi's work in the development of radar and the atomic bomb, the relationship between science and the humanities in his 1970 publication Science: the Center of Culture(see Speech, Article, Writings and Lecture File), and civilian control of atomic energy. Letters and telegrams regarding Rabi's 1944 Nobel Prize in physics are filed in the collection's Miscellany.
The state of physics research in America during the 1920s, the difficulty that Jews faced in securing tenure in academia, Rabi's European experience in the 1920s, and Edward Condon's problems retaining security privileges in the 1950s are discussed in correspondence between Rabi and Condon filed in the General Correspondence series. The “Jewish” question is also discussed in correspondence of Louis Finkelstein who tried to interest Rabi in writing at length on the topic. Physics experiments and math are the subject of letters from Charles G. Darwin, J. H. Van Vlect, and Karl Compton. Polykarp Kusch wrote friendly and informative letters regarding life at institutions other than Columbia University and social, personal and family matters. Robert Oppenheimer sympathized with Rabi's reasons for not entering the program at Los Alamos and expressed gratitude for his interest in helping the program as a consultant.
The Columbia University Office File, 1924-1987, the largest series in the collection, is concentrated in the post-World War II period and related to Rabi's career at Columbia as well as his service as a scientific advisor to numerous government agencies and committees. Files prior to the late 1940s include Rabi's work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Joint Research and Development Board during World War II. Files between the years 1950 and 1987 concern scientific research on the national and international level and Rabi's interest in the peaceful uses of atomic energy. A significant portion of the files in this series relate to his work with the United Nations from 1946 to 1979.
Rabi's work with other organizations and committees is documented in such files as “ Aberdeen Proving Grounds,” “ Arms Control and Disarmament Agency” (ACDA), “ Atomic Energy Commission,” “ North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” “ President's Science Advisory Committee,” and “ Pugwash International Conference on Nuclear Proliferation.” Throughout the files are discussions regarding radar development, conscription of scientists, and strategic use of atomic weapons ( Aberdeen files); nuclear test ban (ACDA); attempt to retain Enrico Fermi at Columbia University after the war and population control (Office of Scientific Research and Development); government participation in problems of underdeveloped areas, the reduction of tensions between East and West, using the scientific community to smooth relations between allies, and the government's space program (President's Science Advisory Committee).
Much in the Columbia University series describes Rabi's association with the radiation laboratory at MIT, the Joint Research and Development Board, and the Brookhaven National Laboratories, which he was instrumental in founding. Rabi's efforts in national and international organizations were in large part devoted to developing peaceful uses of atomic energy. Files in this series also relate to the atomic bomb, the nuclear age, the role of NATO, and the United Nations. Rabi's tenure at Columbia University is represented in the Columbia University Internal subseries relating to the administration of the Physics Department, “networking” through other universities to secure students and teachers for a variety of positions, and scientific conferences, meetings, and associations of interest to Rabi as executive officer of the department.
Rabi's thoughts regarding humanism and science, his efforts in arms control, and science and education, though mentioned in his correspondence, are more comprehensively discussed in his speeches and writings in the Speech, Article, Writings, and Lecture File, 1942-1987. Notable files include his article entitled “The Physicist Returns from the War,” published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1945, in which he discussed the subordination of pure science to industrial needs, his article on Oppenheimer, and other articles on the atomic bomb and humanism. Technical writings filed with this series relate to the atomic nucleus, various aspects of the electron and magnetic field theories, and molecular beams. Public policy and the government's role in the sciences are subjects of many of Rabi's lectures. His speeches reflect, as do a large part of his articles, his interest in keeping the public aware of science as a useful tool for human affairs.
The Academic File, 1919-1976, documents aspects of Rabi's teaching and lecturing career as well as his student and postdoctoral years. Notebooks relate to his research in the 1930s and include notes generated from lectures given by physicists Otto Stern and Wolfgang Pauli between 1927 and 1929 regarding quantum mechanics and molecular beam theory.
Many items in the Printed Matter series, 1938-1985, supplement files in the Columbia University Office File. Biographical items relating to Rabi and others, including correspondence, academic and other awards, material regarding his Nobel Prize in physics, and correspondence of Rabi's wife, Helen, are among the Miscellany series, 1899-1988. The Lantern Slides and Experimental Apparatus, 1930-1955, Classified Material, 1945-1972, and Oversize series, 1924-1987, complete the collection.
Correspondents include Edouardo Amaldi, Ruth Nanda Anshen, Hans Bethe, Felix Bloch, Niels Bohr, Vannevar Bush, Edward Condon, Lee A. DuBridge, Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Polykarp Kusch, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Wolfgang Pauli, Emilio Segrè, Lewis L. Strauss, Leo Szilard, Harold C. Urey, J. H. Van Vleck, Antonino Zichichi, and Solly Zuckerman.