I’ve been working in President Houston’s papers these days. This is a collection I haven’t used much since I was in graduate school way back in the 90s and it has proven to be a pleasant surprise. Houston has never really gotten his due here, which is partly my fault but also partly just because his tenure fell in between the consequential eras of Lovett and Pitzer. Anyway, in an attempt to correct this neglect I’m actually working ahead on a couple of posts about him but I’ll start with this mystery: who is the visitor? He looks familiar but I can’t quite place him. I’d guess he’s someone important just because they bothered to take photographs, which in the days before everyone carried cell phones took some effort.
Also — look at that telephone!
Bonus: These oak galls are numbered!
I wish I could make out more details of the books on the shelves. Houston was a physicist, of course, and I would love to know what books of the period he found important enough to have directly accessible – the only one I can make out is “High Energy Particles” – I have no idea who wrote or published this.
I’m sure his own Principles of Mathematical Physics is one of them…
The book Gene noticed was published in 1952, so the photo was not taken before that.
Book ReviewsPhysics and Mathematics
High-Energy Particles. Bruno Rossi. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1952. 569 pp. Illus. $12.50
By JOHN A. WHEELER
See all authors and affiliations
Science 17 Apr 1953:
Vol. 117, Issue 3042, pp. 417-419
DOI: 10.1126/science.117.3042.417-a
It _is_ hard to tease out the titles … but one near the middle of the top shelf is the iconic “Modern Theory of Solids” by Fred Seitz (https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Theory-Solids-Frederick-Seitz/dp/0070560307).
In the lone comment on that Amazon page, Northwestern U. Materials Science & Engineering prof. (and National Academy of Engineering member) David N. Seidman (https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/research-faculty/directory/profiles/seidman-david.html) said, “This is an important book in the historical development of condensed matter physics and materials science as we know them today. Seitz was a wunderkind as this book was published (in) 1940, when he was 29 years old.”
It _is_ hard to tease out the titles … but one near the middle of the top shelf is the iconic “Modern Theory of Solids” by Fred Seitz (https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Theory-Solids-Frederick-Seitz/dp/0070560307).
In the lone comment on that Amazon page is by Northwestern U. Materials Science & Engineering prof (and National Academy of Engineering member) David N. Seidman (https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/research-faculty/directory/profiles/seidman-david.html): “This is an important book in the historical development of condensed matter physics and materials science as we know them today. Seitz was a wunderkind as this book was published (in) 1940, when he was 29 years old.”
I’m going to guess that President Houston’s visitor was Dr. Lee A. DuBridge, who became president of CalTech shortly after Houston left to become president of Rice. DuBridge was the luncheon speaker following Houston’s April 10, 1947, inauguration (https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/99315/sallyport-vol-03-no02.pdf). But after looking at photos of him found on Google (https://www.google.com/search?q=lee+dubridge&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGloTU3NXdAhVDWq0KHUkLAlwQ_AUIDygC&biw=1232&bih=588&dpr=1.5), I think the photos above were taken in the early 1960s.
DuBridge was science advisor to three presidents (Truman, Eisenhower & Nixon) and a long-time member of the National Science Board, which governs the the National Science Foundation and advises Congress and the President.
Yes! That’s him alright. Great call.
How did you do it?
My first hunch was fruitful. I thought he might be someone associated with the U.S. government science-funding system, which was emerging when Dr. Houston was Rice’s president.
I Googled for the history of the National Science Foundation and quickly found this timeline: https://www.nsf.gov/about/history/overview-50.jsp. Its first photo was taken in 1951 of the first members of the National Science Board … and I immediately thought that the fellow standing just right of center might be Dr. Houston’s visitor. Fortunately, this timeline photo included a caption that identified all the board members, so I was able to Google additional information and photos of Dr. DuBridge, all of which seemed to confirm my suspicion.
I believe the cover of the phone book says “June 1954.” But it could be 1956, I guess.
There’s also mention of Dr. DuBridge visiting the campus “during the year” in the December 30, 1955 Houston Chronicle. So I’m leaning toward 1955.
All the ‘Who’s Who’ books on the shelf seem to be 1954 or 1954-55 editions, which would seem to support that date.
I also see that one of the endnotes for chapter 8 of _A history of Rice University : the Institute years, 1907-1963, 1st ed_, which talks about Rice consulting with Cal Tech among other institutions when devising the college system, is:
Presidents’ Papers, Houston, Office Records; Houston to L. A. DuBridge, February 15, 1955
Link: https://ia800306.us.archive.org/17/items/historyofriceuni00mein/historyofriceuni00mein_bw.pdf
Oooh! Nice! I’ll go see exactly what’s in there!
That reference read like it was a trip to CalTech, rather than DuBridge visiting Rice.
I wonder if Melissa’s counterpart at CalTech might have DuBridge’s travel schedules during his long tenure as its president.
There might well be something in Houston’s papers that shed some light on it. Will check as soon as I have a minute.