Women

Jean Bacher: Ruth Valentine said, “I shall take Ruth [Tolman]’s desk.” She always saved letters. She had marvelous long letters from Robert, you know, especially at the time of the hearings. I knew they were just terribly close and shared a great deal. On the drawer of the desk, she’d said, “Destroy these.” Martin Sherwin: […]

Martin Sherwin: You mentioned a point that others have mentioned that intrigue me: [J. Robert] Oppenheimer’s summer in Corsica. You said that Oppenheimer had once told you that reading [Marcel] Proust’s Memory of Things Past was one of the great experiences of his life. Haakon Chevalier: Yes. Sherwin: I have two questions about that. One, could you elaborate on that? […]

Martin Sherwin: I’m interviewing Robert Serber at his home in New York City. Date is January 9th, 1982. Let me just begin at the beginning and ask you, how did you get to Berkeley? Why did you go there? Serber: I got my degree at Wisconsin with [John] Van Vleck, and that was ’34. You didn’t have […]

Martin Sherwin: This is Martin Sherwin, I’m on my way to interview William Fowler at Caltech in Pasadena. Today is March 29, 1983. William A. Fowler: Yes, I came to Caltech just fifty years ago in 1933 as a graduate student, and I have been here ever since. I am now the oldest graduate student […]

Martin Sherwin: You must have met the Oppenheimers when Murph [her husband, Marvin Goldberger] met them? Mildred Goldberger: No. Sherwin: No? Goldberger: No, Murph met [J. Robert] Oppenheimer quite early on, I think. Not during the war. But he was an early invitee to the Rochester Conferences. I am sure Oppenheimer was there. In any […]

Martin Sherwin: Today is July 31, 1979. This is an interview with Verna Hobson in New Gloucester, Maine. I think the best way to proceed is probably to start with when you first met [J. Robert] Oppenheimer and how you got the job. Verna Hobson: Okay. We were living in Princeton. My husband commuted to […]

Martin Sherwin: Martin Sherwin, I am about to interview Dr. Hempelmann at Strong Memorial Hospital. You know, simply from all of the Los Alamos records, but who told me you were at Strong? That was, I think, Dorothy McKibbin. Louis Hempelmann:  Oh yeah. Sherwin: No, she confirmed it. She said you were coming out to […]

Dan Robinson: I’m Dan Robinson recording this oral history for the Atomic Heritage Foundation on April 1st, 2016, here in Levittown, Pennsylvania. Roslyn: My name is Roslyn Robinson. At times I use the initial “D,” because at one time there was another Roslyn Robinson and the mail was being mixed up. So, I’m either Roslyn […]

Martin Sherwin: I am in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 26, 1982. Were you married when you were in Los Alamos? Alice Kimball Smith: Yes. We had been married for twelve years. Sherwin: I see. So you and your husband, Cyril Smith, went to Los Alamos and you were promptly put to work as a schoolteacher. […]

Martin Sherwin: Did you know Robert [Oppenheimer] when he was going out with Jean Tatlock? Chevalier: Yes, but I don’t think I ever saw them together. Sherwin: When we first spoke over the phone, you called me from the airport about three or four years ago. I was living in Princeton, New Jersey. Chevalier: Oh, yes. Yes, that’s right. […]