Our Society Heritage

What, Where, and Who

In 2006 the Health Physics Society (HPS) celebrated its 50^th anniversary since the original charter in 1956. This anniversary was an occasion to look back at our beginnings and the evolution of the Society over the past half century. Fifty-year Charter Members were honored with a special award at the Society's annual meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, on 27 June 2006.

The Society's History Committee is charged with the task of documenting and preserving our heritage. The following notes provide information on where documentation can be found to trace the origins and development of the HPS.

Part A - Health Physics Society Collections

The Archival Center for Radiation Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee

This endowed center holds the Health Physics Society's official archives organized by the Society, but managed by the Archival Center. These archives contain the following records:

1. A complete set of the Membership Handbook & Directory. These directories include complete rosters each year for officers, committee members, affiliates, chapters, and members.
2. A complete set of annual and topical (midyear) meeting programs.
3. A partial set of Board of Directors and committee meeting minutes and correspondence.
4. Presidential papers (not complete).
5. The beginnings of a collection of chapter and section records.
   
   

Secretariat, Health Physics Society 

As expected, the Secretariat has extensive files. These include much financial and administrative information, most of which is not in the archives. The Secretariat organization is geared primarily for present operations rather than archival research. "Early days" information is stored off-site and not easily accessed, but the Secretariat can accommodate specific requests for information about Society business with sufficient notice.

The Secretariat also has a large collection of slides and photographs taken by various photographers at meetings over the years. In 2006 a project was initiated to scan all of these photos for creating digital files. The History Committee is still determining how to make these photos available.

Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU)

Oak Ridge Associated Universities houses an incredible collection of early instruments and artifacts related to the radiological sciences at its training facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Although this collection is owned by the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Foundation, it is regarded as the Society's official choice for gathering instruments and historical items. Parts of the collection can be seen online at the Health Physics Instrumentation Museum Directory.

For additional information contact the Society's Instruments Archive Manager:
Paul Frame
PTP MS 11
ORAU PO Box 117
Oak Ridge TN 37831-0117
865-576-3388
framep@orau.gov

Professional Enrichment Program (PEP) Library, University of Cincinnati

This is primarily a videotape collection. It is relatively new, having begun as a means for preserving both the tapes and handouts developed for the Professional Enrichment and Continuing Education programs at both annual meetings and midyear topical symposia. In addition, it contains a few much earlier videotapes, such as "Vignettes of Early Radiation Workers," and may expand beyond tapes.

The collection is in the process of being moved from San Diego State University to the University of Cincinnati. A mechanism is being readied for renting out or otherwise using the collection. It is to be operated by "Trefoil," the student branch of the HPS in Cincinnati.

Details can be obtained from Henry B. Spitz, Center for Radiological Assessment and Measurement, University of Cincinnati, PO Box 210072, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0072, phone: 513-556-2003, fax: 513-556-3390.

Note: The teaching materials and audiovisuals from the summer schools are archived by the HPS Continuing Education Committee. Several books have resulted from these summer school courses. Contact the Executive Secretariat or the current chairperson of the Continuing Education Committee for details.

Photographs

Through the diligence of our official photographers, a valuable photo history exists, particularly of the Society's meetings. A large box containing mounted and unmounted photos is part of the archival collection at the University of Tennessee. The hundreds of slides taken by Joe Sayeg reside with the Secretariat, as mentioned earlier. The counterpart collection developed by Don Collins remains a private collection in his hands until a suitable central repository for photographs, with inventory and indexing, can be developed.

In the interim, a direct contact with one or more of the three sites might help anyone seeking specific items.

General Purpose Collections Not Directly Under HPS Auspices

National Radiobiology Archives (NRA)

This archive was sponsored by DOE primarily to house the data, specimens, microscope slides, and publications developed from the many long-term animal experiments that extended over several decades. It includes materials from Argonne National Laboratory, Colorado State University, Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest Laboratory, University of California at Davis, University of Rochester, University of Utah, and Brookhaven National Laboratory. All but the material from Brookhaven and data on the rhesus monkey from Lawrence Berkeley are open collections and have been indexed and computerized.

The archive has been expanded to hold the "J. Newell Stannard Collection" (primarily the supporting documents for the book Radioactivity and Health - A History), the work of the Committee on Interagency Radiation Research Policy (CIRRPC), and its own technical files.

The archives are currently housed at Battelle, Pacific Northwest Laboratories but will be gradually transferred during the current fiscal year to the Washington State University Tri-Cities facility in Richland described immediately below.

For current information contact Charles W. Watson, Director, National Radiobiology Archives, Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, PO Box 999, Mail Stop P7-82. Richland, WA 99352, phone: 509-376-3483, fax: 509-376-4533.

U.S. Transuranium and Uranium Registries (USTUR)

The registries began many years ago for the accumulation and analysis of tissues and other information from workers using these elements. Although many publications have resulted, the ongoing questions led to continued archiving. Also, the USTUR has plans to develop a definitive reference collection in radiobiology and related fields.

These, plus the materials from the National Radiobiology Archives (described immediately above), make the USTUR collection especially valuable for research on health effects including cancer and for comparison of animal and human responses.

Recently the Registry developed a special facility called the National Human Radiobiology Tissue Repository. This repository will house tissue samples, histopathology slides, tissue blocks, and other materials, not only from the Registry but also from the collection of tissue samples from the radium patients—both MIT and Argonne—housed at Argonne National Laboratory.

These collections are housed on the Richland Washington Campus of Washington State University. For more information contact Ronald Kathren, Director, USTUR, Washington State University, 100 Sprout Road, Richland, WA 99352, phone: 800-375-9317, fax: 509-375-1817.

NOTE: Dr. Kathren also has an extensive personal collection of early publications in the field of radiology and a significant collection of early instruments.

Other U.S. Government Sources

The Washington Headquarters of the Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessor agencies consistently had a resident historian and frequently also an archivist. The collections of the early days were the basis for several publications, but enormous amounts remain in federal repositories including the Library of Congress. The Washington collections lean more toward financial and administrative than technical aspects. The latter reside primarily at the venerable Oak Ridge Technical Information Center and the several national laboratories.

Ways to access the DOE collections in Washington and those of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency are part of a list titled "Source of Information and Publications" in the HPS 1995-1996 Directory and Handbook (pp. 281-283).

Each of the national laboratories has and keeps extensive records. These records tend to be the responsibility of a historian or an archivist or both. Many of the collections contain enough classified material to make access quite restricted. However, the laboratories also have extensive libraries. Much is contained in annual reports that are extremely useful for surveying the activities of the past and frequently contain notes on items or details not present in published materials. Space does not permit a detailed listing here. If there is sufficient interest, the historian will attempt to assemble such a list.

International Sources (General)

Ways to access the International Commission on Radiological Protection, the Headquarters of the International Radiation Protection Association and its Executive Council, the International Council on Radiation Units and Measurements, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Japan, and other publications of the United Nations are given in the HPS Handbook.

In general, these are not functioning archival collections. The access directives are mostly for publications. Nevertheless, the publications of many of these organizations are voluminous and provide full bibliographical backup. This is especially true of the several United Nations operations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. See the HPS Handbook under "UN."

Recently the existence of broad-based radiobiology collections in Belgium and in Japan have come to my attention. Dr. George Gerber is spearheading a European archival effort (address: B-24500 Mol, de Heylanden 7, Belgium) and the Japanese effort is under the aegis of the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, JAERI (address: Dr. Shin Saigus, Radiation Dosimetry Division, Dept. of Health Physics, JAERI, Tokai, Ibaraki 319-11 Japan).

Specialized Collections

Though frequently quite large, the collections listed in this section are centered on a limited subject or research area. They were developed around specific problems and have tended to remain so oriented.

DOE Coordination and Information Center

This center was organized to collect, consolidate, and make available for public use records and data dealing with off-site radioactive fallout from the U.S. testing of nuclear devices. It is operated for DOE by Bechtel Nevada in Las Vegas, Nevada. About 390,000 documents have been collected and organized. A public reading room, a research area, many library services, and Internet connections are available.

Recently the collection was expanded to include some of the documents pertaining to the human radiation experiments.

Contact Martha E. DeMarres, Chief, Document Research Section, Health Protection Department of Bechtel Nevada at PO Box 98521, Mail Stop NLV040, Las Vegas, NV 98521-8521, phone: 702-295-0731, fax: 702-195-0877.

The President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE)

This committee, under the aegis of the Human Radiation Interagency Group, assembled and analyzed a prodigious amount of information concerning the U.S. Human Radiation Experiments conducted from 1944 to 1974. This effort involved nearly every institution using federal funds in the biomedical field as well as for environmental studies. The collection is measured in millions of cubic feet and has led to a voluminous final report with several appendices.

The final report (061-000-00-848-9), an executive summary and guide (061-000-00849-7), and three supplemental volumes (061-000-00850-1, 061-000-00851-9, and 061-000-00857-7) may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, phone: 202-512-1800, fax: 202-512-2250.

The National Security Archives at George Washington University in Washington, DC, contains complete records of the ACHRE actions, primary and secondary research materials, and the interim reports. This can be accessed at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/radiation/. Presumably many of the original documents remain at their original sites and have only been cataloged by ACHRE.

The Department of Energy issued two interim reports that give information primarily on the major sites and records. The reports are titled "Human Radiation Experiments: The Department of Energy Roadmap to the Story and Records" (DOE/EH-0445, February 1995) and "Human Radiation Experiments Associated with the U.S. Department of Energy and its Predecessors" (DOE/EH-0491, July 1995).

The Archival Center for Radiation Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee

The center described above has, in addition to the Health Physics Society Archives, over forty collections from the lives and work of prominent radiation scientists. Included among the older collections are papers of Antoine Lacassarne, L.H. Gray, Alexander Hallaender, L.S. Taylor, Egon Loteny, D.E. Lea and Robert Reyh, Charles Congdon, George Hevesy, Arnold Sparrow, Forrington Daniels, Silvonus Thompson, Otto Rohn, Charles Ponham, and Richard Setlow. Recent additions include many contemporaries in our field.

The center has a composite guide to the radiation research collection that lists all items folder by folder. For further information contact Dr. James B. Lloyd or a member of his staff at Special Studies, Haskins Library, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-4000, phone: 615-974-4480.

Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Rockville, Maryland

The U.S. Public Health Service had major involvement with research, education, and administration in our field. (They call it "Radiological Health.") There were several regional laboratories as well as an extensive grant system. It is not easy to pinpoint where the older records are. The earlier period, 1946-1969, was surveyed by James Terril ("The Role of the U.S. Public Health Service in Radiological Health, 1946-1969," HHS Publication FDA82-8198, September 1982). More recent and present collections are presumed to be stored in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, which operates as a part of the Food and Drug Administration. Call 301-594-3332 for information.

The CRDH library maintains a collection of historic Bureau of Radiological Health (BRH) materials, such as BRH (and some earlier Division of Radiological Health and National Center for Radiological Health) reports, and some Public Health Service (PHS) reports on various radiological health topics. The library also has a collection of the "Radiological Health Data and Reports" series.

The Division of Mammography Quality and Radiation Programs/Office of Health and Industry Programs maintains historical and current material related to ongoing radiological health programs within the division. These include the Nationwide Evaluation of X-ray Trends (NEXT), diagnostic x-ray quality assurance, the "Tissue doses" series of handbooks, and mammography.

The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP)

The headquarters of the NCRP has a small but very pertinent library and essentially complete records of its committees and all of its publications. There is also a complete set of publications of its longtime president, Lauriston S. Taylor.

Because of close relationships between NCRP and the counterpart international organizations, the collection includes considerable information on international operations. In fact the relationship is close enough that the headquarters and files of the International Council on Radiation Units and Measurements are housed under the same roof with NCRP.

Contact David A. Schauer, Executive Director, NCRP, 7910 Woodmont Ave., Suite 400, Bethesda, MD 20814, phone: 800-229-2652, fax: 301-907-8768.

NOTE: Because of space limitations, the NCRP collections are not open for additional donations.

American Institute of Physics

Located in New York City, this venerable organization emphasizes physics and the physical establishment. There is some radiological physics, including the archival records of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. Many photographs of its meetings are included.

American College of Radiology

In addition to records of the college and files of its journals, its headquarters houses a museum of early radiological equipment and some other organizations.

Countway Library, Harvard University

Materials from Dr. L.S. Taylor not left at NCRP are here, plus the papers of Dale Trout, a pioneer radiological physicist. Many instruments were also sent to Countway Library by Dr. Taylor.

University of Washington, Seattle

The University of Washington, Seattle library contains a special collection of the works of Herbert M. Parker, the developer of early treatment patterns with radium and the legendary manager of the Hanford Works. This collection is open to the public.

Contact University of Washington Collection Info, Parker Collection, Manuscripts and University Archives, University of Washington Library, Box 352900, Seattle WA 98195-2900, phone: 206-543-1879, email: mssarch@u.washington.edu.

Battelle Press

Numerous publications have been and are still evolving involved in our field. However, few of them are historically oriented. Battelle Press is currently handling some new items bearing on our history. These include The Plutonium Story - The Journals of Professor Glenn T. Seaborg, 1939-46, the second printing of Radioactivity and Health - A History by J.N. Stannard, Radioactive Waste by Raymond L. Murry, and publications in environmental science.

Contact Battelle Press, 505 King Street, Columbus, OH 43201-2693, phone: 800-451-3543, fax: 614-424-3819.

Comment

The above collections involve widely different institutions and purposes. Some are organized and prepared for easy public access; others require considerable arranging. The ability and interest that each collection has in acquiring new materials is also variable. In most cases any serious research effort or donations of a major collection will require arranging and frequently a visit to the site. Nevertheless, a fairly complete listing of the field was considered preferable to selection on an arbitrary basis and has been presented above. Even so there are some necessary omissions.

Essentially none of the archival centers want journal collections since the journals are very likely to be in an adjacent library. Nevertheless, do not destroy your journal collections. There are institutions that want them, including many in third world countries. For example, the International Organization for Medical Physics Libraries Program has a well-organized program for sending journals and books far and wide. It selects the institutions and pays shipping expenses. Contact Catherine Alekhteyar, 7649 Cedar Elm Drive, Irving, TX, 75063-3556, phone: 214-302-7538, fax: 214-302-7470. Journals should not be sent to Catherine, but if contacted, she will find a location that would appreciate the donation.