Digitized versions of the forty-six research notebooks of two-time Nobel
laureate Linus Pauling (1901-1994) will be released on-line to the public on
February 28, 2002. The notebooks will be made available via Oregon State
University's Valley Library Special Collections website.
As with many scientists, Dr. Pauling utilized bound notebooks to
record and manipulate the details of his research as it unfolded. A testament to the remarkable length and diversity of Dr. Pauling's career,
the Pauling Papers include forty-six research notebooks spanning
the years 1922 to 1994 and covering any number of the myriad scientific
fields in which Dr. Pauling involved himself. The notebooks'
7,500 pages contain many of Pauling's laboratory calculations and
experimental data, as well as scientific conclusions, ideas for further
research and numerous autobiographical musings.
Pauling biographer Tom Hager, author of Force of Nature: The Life of Linus
Pauling, is enthusiastic in his praise for the digitized notebooks website. "AOSU Special Collections has created a unique window on scientific history
in the making," says Hager. "The online publication of Linus Pauling's
research notebooks, a vast array of primary and uncensored material from
one of the world's great researchers, represents a milestone in archival
accessibility and a great boon for scientists, historians, teachers and
students."
The digitization effort, carried out by the OSU Special Collections staff,
will be revealed to the public on what would have been Dr. Pauling's 101st
birthday. By proclamation of Gov. John Kitzhaber, February 28th is, in
perpetuity, "Linus Pauling Day" in the state of Oregon. Each year, in
celebration of Linus Pauling Day, OSU's Pauling Heritage Committee
coordinates a series of events that focus attention on the remarkable
life and career of the university's most famous graduate.
The National Library of Medicine will
observe this anniversary with a new Profiles in Science digital
exhibit dedicated to Linus Pauling. The exhibit includes over 200 scanned letters,
manuscripts and photographs outlining Pauling's biomedically related work.
Dr. Pauling, an internationally-recognized humanitarian and one of the
greatest scientists of the twentieth century, was born in Portland, Oregon,
where he attended high school. Pauling received his undergraduate
education at Oregon Agricultural College, later to become Oregon State
University. He remains the only person to have won two unshared Nobel
Prizes, the first for Chemistry in 1954 and the second for Peace in 1962.
The Pauling legacy is represented at OSU by the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling
Papers in the Valley Library's Special Collections, a vast archive of over
500,000 items donated by Dr. Pauling in 1986; the Linus Pauling Institute
and its two endowed chairs; the Pauling Chemistry Lecture in the College of
Science; the Linus and Ava Helen Pauling Lecture on World Peace in the
College of Liberal Arts; and an endowed chair in the Department of Chemical
Engineering.
Chris Petersen
The Valley Library
Oregon State University
Corvallis, Oregon
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