Summary
Overview
Wigner, Eugene Paul,
1902-1995.
Eugene Paul Wigner Papers
1930s-1980s (mostly 1940s-1970s)
49.7 linear feet, 116 archival boxes, 1 carton, 1 oversize box, 1 card
file
Princeton University. Library. Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections
Manuscripts Division
One Washington Road
Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA
Abstract
Consists of the papers of Hungarian-born, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Eugene
Wigner, and includes correspondence, subject files, writings, and offprints reflecting
his long career in physics.
Description
Description
The collection consists of the papers of Wigner, including correspondence, subject
files, writings, and offprints reflecting his long career in physics. While some of
the material concerns his work in the early 1930s as a professor at the Technische
Hochschule in Berlin, the bulk of the papers relate to the period after Wigner moved
to the United States. There is correspondence with other physicists and scientsts,
such as John von Neumann, Pascual Jordan, Werner Heisenberg, Leo Szilard, Glenn T.
Seaborg, Frederick Seitz, and Alvin M. Weinberg, as well as correspondence relating
to his receipt of the Enrico Fermi Award, the Max Planck Medal, and the Nobel Prize
for Physics. Additionally, there are 15 cassettes of taped interviews with Wigner
discussing his entire life, conducted by Andrew Szanton from 1988 to 1989. Most of
the papers and correspondence are in English; however, there is some material in
German or Hungarian.
In addition, there are two sets of typewritten lectures on "Solid State" delivered at
Princeton University. The first (138 pp.), dating from the 1930s, contains autograph
notes by Frederick Seitz. The second set of lectures (181 pp.) is titled "Theory of
Solid State" and was delivered at Princeton University between 1948 and 1949.
Collection Creator
Biography
A Hungarian-born physicist, Wigner worked in the early 1930s as a professor at the
Technische Hochschule in Berlin, where he studied the quantum mechanical interpretation
of atomic spectra which resulted in the publication of his book Gruppentheorie und Ihre Anwendung auf die Quantenmechanik Der Atomspektren
(1931), later translated and published as Group Theory
(1951), now a classic in its field. He moved to the United States, where he became
professor of mathematical physics at Princeton University from 1933 to1937 and from 1937
to 1938 at the University of Wisconsin; he then returned to Princeton, where he worked
until 1971, becoming professor emeritus. Prior to World War II, Wigner, along with Leo
Szilard and Albert Einstein, was instrumental in getting the United States government to
investigate the use of atomic energy for military purposes. During the War, he was on
the staff of the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago (the Manhattan
Project) researching ways to produce an atomic bomb, and he helped design the nuclear
reactor at Hanford, Wash., where plutonium was produced. He was a member of the general
advisory committee for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (1952-1957, 1959-1964) and
director of the Civil Defense Research Project at Oak Ridge, Tenn. (1964-1965),
reflecting his interests in civil defense and national security. He received the Enrico
Fermi Award (1958) and the Max Planck Medal (1961), and in 1963 he was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Physics.
Collection History
Acquisition
Parts of this collection were donated by Eileen Hamilton Wigner (1993, 1994), the
American Institute of Physics (1994), Andrew Szantos (1994), Arthur Wightman (1999,
2003), Andrew Lenard (2001), and Jagdish Mehra (2002). A number of photographs of
Eugene Wigner were transferred from the University Archives in 2005. Additional
material was received from the Department of Physics in 2011.
Access and Use
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research use.
Use Restrictions
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of
copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library
does not own the original. Permission to publish material from the collection must be
requested from the Associate University Librarian for Rare Books and Special
Collections. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the
collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of
copyright.
Preferred Citation
Eugene Paul Wigner Papers; 1930s-1980s (mostly 1940s-1970s), Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
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