- Collection Overview
- Collection Description & Creator Information
- Access & Use
- Collection History
- Find Related Materials
Series 1: Personal and Scientific Correspondence, 1929-1978 (mostly 1930-1975)
Collection Overview
Collection Description & Creator Information
- Scope and Contents
Incoming letters, and copies of outgoing letters, with friends and scientific colleagues; also letters of recommendation. Virtually no family correspondence. Major correspondents include Paul Bernays, William Boone, Paul J. Cohen, Gotthard Günther, Arend Heyting, Georg Kreisel, Karl Menger, Oskar Morgenstern, Abraham Robinson, Paul A. Schilpp, Dana Scott, Gaisi Takeuti, Jean van Heijenoort, John von Neumann, and Hao Wong.
Filed along with correspondence are notes taken by Gödel during oral discussion with some correspondents. They are indicated separately as "discussion notes" under the name of the correspondent. Some short preprints related to accompanying correspondence are also filed here.
- Arrangement
Boxes 1a-3c. Incoming and outgoing correspondence filed together, alphabetically by correspondent, and therein chronologically. Unidentified correspondents at end of series.
Collection History
- Custodial History
The papers of Kurt Gödel (1906-1978) were bequeathed by him to his wife Adele, who donated them to the Institute for Advanced Study in his memory prior to her death in 1981. Under terms of her will, literary rights to the papers are also vested in the Institute for Advanced Study. In 1985, the papers were placed on deposit in Princeton University Library.
- Appraisal
No appraisal information is available.
- Processing Information
This collection was processed by John W. Dawson, Jr. in 1984. Finding aid written by John W. Dawson, Jr. in 1984. Revised by Rebecca Schoff in 1997.
Access & Use
- Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
- Conditions Governing Use
The Institute for Advanced Study reserves all copyrights and other literary rights to the materials, which may not be reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of the Institute. Please contact the Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, archives@ias.edu, for permissions and additional information. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.
- Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
- Credit this material:
Series 1: Personal and Scientific Correspondence; Kurt Gödel Papers, C0282, Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library
- Location:
-
Firestone LibraryOne Washington RoadPrinceton, NJ 08544, USA
- Storage Note:
- Firestone Library (mss): Boxes 1-3; 1a; 1b; 1c; 2a; 2b; 2c; 3a; 3b; 3c
Find More
- Existence and Location of Copies
Note on the 1998 Preservation Microfilm:
In 1998, the Kurt Gödel Papers were microfilmed for the purpose of preservation. Funded by the Sloan Foundation Grant (95-10-14) in support of the Collected Works of Kurt Gödel, Oxford University Press, the preservation microfilm includes the entire collection, excepting only a few items which are listed below. These items are largely photocopies of original material from other collections, preserved by other institutions. Also omitted are Gödel's collection of the preprints and offprints of his colleagues' work, and a small collection of cancelled checks, stubs and debits, most blank and physically difficult to film. The microfilm reels of Kurt Gödel's papers are available at the Historical Studies Library of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and in the Special Collections Department of Princeton University's Firestone Library. The preservation microfilm does not constitute a microfilm edition, and is subject to the same copyright restrictions as the original material.
Portions not Filmed: Only the following items have been omitted from the 1998 filming of the Kurt Gödel Papers:
Series / Box(es) / Folder
IV -- 7a -- 3 -- TMs [photocopy] of the final typescript of Gödel's doctoral dissertation, [1929]. Original is deposited at Universität Wien.
IX -- 13b -- 12 -- Cancelled checks, stubs, and debits.
XIII -- 15 -- 6 -- LsS [photocopies] from the Gödel/Paul Bernays correspondence. Originals are stored at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zurich.
XIII -- 15 -- 8 -- LsS [photocopies] from the Gödel/Arend Heyting correspondence. Originals are stored at the Heyting Archief, Entschede.
XV -- 17-23 -- Gödel's collection of the preprints and offprints of his colleagues' work (the entirety of Series XV).
- Bibliography
References Dawson, John W., "The Published Work of Kurt Gödel: An Annotated Bibliography," Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 24 (1983), 255-284; Addenda and corrigenda Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 25 (1984), 283-287. Dawson, John W., "Kurt Gödel in Sharper Focus," The Mathematical Intelligencer, 6:4 (1984), 9-17. Dawson, John W., Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel, Wellesley, Mass.: A. K. Peters, Ltd., 1997. Gödel, Kurt, Collected Works, edited by Solomon Feferman, editor-in-chief; prepared under the auspices of the Association for Symbolic Logic: Vol. I, "Publications 1929-1936," edited by Solomon Feferman, John W. Dawson, Jr., Stephen C. Kleene, Gregory H. Moore, Robert M. Solovay, and Jean van Heijenoort, 1986; Vol. II, "Publications 1938-1974." edited by Soloman Feferman, John W. Dawson, Jr. [et al], 1990; Vol. III, "Unpublished Essays and Lectures: Selections from the Nachlass," edited by Solomon Feferman, John W. Dawson, Jr., [et al], New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Kreisel, Georg, "Kurt Gödel, 1906-1978, elected For. Mem. R.S. 1968," Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 26 (1980), 148-224; corrigenda, 27 (1981), 697; further corrigenda, 28 (1982), 697.
- Names:
- Gödel, Kurt (1906-1978)
