Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

University Involvement in the Manhattan Project

Oral History
Henry Frisch’s Interview
March 13, 2017
Cindy Kelly: I’m Cindy Kelly, November 17, 2016, Chicago, Illinois. I have with me Henry Frisch. My first question for him is to say your name and spell it, please. Henry Frisch: Okay. It’s Henry Frisch, F-r-i-s-c-h. Kelly:  Why don’t you tell us who you are? Frisch: I’m a professor of physics here at the […]
Oral History
Roger Hildebrand’s Interview
March 10, 2017
Cindy Kelly: I’m Cindy Kelly, and it is November 16, 2016. I’m in Chicago, Illinois with Roger Hildebrand. My first question for him is tell me your name and spell it, please. Roger Hildebrand: My name is Roger Hildebrand, R-o-g-e-r H-i-l-d-e-b-r-a-n-d. Kelly: Tell us what is your birthday and where were you born? Hildebrand: May […]
Oral History
Peter Vandervoort’s Interview
March 6, 2017
Cindy Kelly: Okay. I’m Cindy Kelly. It is November 17, 2016. I’m in Chicago, Illinois, and I’m with Peter Vandervoort. I would like first to ask Peter to say his name and spell it. Peter Vandervoort:   I am Peter Oliver Vandervoort. Vandervoort has now been spelled in an Americanized way, V-a-n-d-e-r-v-o-o-r-t.  Kelly: Great. Thank you. […]
Oral History
Kennette Benedict’s Interview
February 28, 2017
Cindy Kelly: I’m Cindy Kelly. This is November 17, 2016, in Chicago, Illinois. I have with me Kennette Benedict, and the first thing I’m going to ask her is to say her name and spell it. Kennette Benedict: Kennette Benedict. K-e-n-n-e-t-t-e, Benedict, B-e-n-e-d-i-c-t. Kelly: Great. Thank you, Kennette, for being here. Why don’t we start […]
Oral History
Edwin McMillan’s Lecture
December 14, 2016
Edwin McMillan: Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start with two remarks. First, this is going to be a personal story, so if I use the first person singular, this is not pure egotism, it is simply the fact that that’s the part that I know best. Second remark is, the difficulty of establishing […]
Oral History
Harold Cherniss’s Interview – Part 1
December 13, 2016
Harold Cherniss: Well, you see, I was married on January 1, 1929, in White Plains. When we went back to Berkeley, it was immediately after that that I met  [J. Robert] Oppenheimer. This is the time in which he had come to Berkeley the autumn before, just about this time. Taught one term in Berkeley, […]
Oral History
Geoffrey Chew’s Interview
December 5, 2016
Cindy Kelly: Okay, I am Cindy Kelly. This is Tuesday, August 9, 2016 in Berkeley, California. I have with me Dr. Geoffrey Chew. My first question to him is to say and spell his name. Geoffrey Chew: Geoffrey Chew, G-E-O-F-F-R-E-Y C-H-E-W. Kelly: Very good, so now we will move on to some harder stuff. If […]
Oral History
Roy Glauber’s Interview
October 18, 2016
Owen Gingerich: Professor Roy Glauber is a physicist, a physicist who had an early start in physics because when he was still an undergraduate at Harvard, it was during World War II. A mysterious caller knocked on his dormitory door, and asked him if he would want to participate in some unspecified kind of scientific […]
Oral History
David Hawkins’s Interview – Part 2
August 18, 2016
Martin Sherwin: How much were the dues [to the Communist Party]? David Hawkins: God, I don’t remember. Not very much, or I wouldn’t have been able to afford them. Sherwin: Two bucks, five bucks? Hawkins: Yeah, something like that. Sherwin: A month? Hawkins: A month, yeah. I really honestly don’t remember. Maybe five bucks a […]
Oral History
Robert Bacher’s Interview – Part 1
August 11, 2016
Martin Sherwin: This is Martin Sherwin. Today is March 29, 1983. I am going to interview Professor Robert F. Bacher – B-a-c-h-e-r – in his office on the Caltech campus in Pasadena. Robert Bacher: Look, before we start on this, I want to talk a little bit more about things in general. If you are […]