Robert A. Millikan Papers

The core of the Robert A. Millikan Papers consists of the official papers generated by Millikan during the 25 years that he was the executive officer at the Institute. The bulk of the papers consist of correspondence, lecture notes, and other materials dealing with scientific and academic matters.

For scholars pursuing topics related to Millikan’s professional activities, the first five series will hold the greatest interest as they contain the bulk of correspondence and other papers dealing with scientific and academic matters. Millikan’s lecture notes offer glimpses of Millikan's classroom technique as well as an insight into the state of physics at the turn of the century. Of similar interest is the assortment of notebooks in which Millikan recorded data from his scientific experiments. Millikan played a significant role in the mobilization of science for national defense during World War I, much of which is documented by materials in series 2.

However, the preponderance of the material in this part of the collection deals with the period between 1921 when Millikan came to Caltech and 1953 when he died. Millikan’s Chicago years are not well represented. (Some material is scattered through several collections at the University of Chicago, but no systematic collection of his early papers is extant.) Millikan was in actuality, if not in title, executive head of Caltech until his retirement in 1945, and his correspondence reflects an administrator’s concerns. He was determined to put Caltech in the front ranks of scientific research and teaching institutions; his papers illuminate the methods through which that goal was realized. There is little in the collection pertaining directly to his own scientific work during these years. He remained active in the affairs of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Research Council, and similar organizations devoted to the promotion of scientific research; materials relating to these activities will be found in abundance. He was for many years a trustee of the Henry Huntington Library and Art Gallery in nearby San Marino. Much of his activity in that capacity is documented in the collection.

Millikan was an avid correspondent. Among his most frequent correspondents were fellow scientists and administrators, such as Frank B. Jewett, Karl T. Compton, Paul Brockett, Albert Barrows, and Gano Dunn; and Southern California business figures, such as Harry Chandler, Henry M. Robinson, Arthur H. Fleming and John A. Fleming. Herbert Hoover and other political figures appear often in the collection. Millikan worked closely with astronomer George Ellery Hale and aerodynamicist Theodore von Kármán; their papers (also housed in the Institute Archives) contain a great many more Millikan letters. The critical role played by Caltech during World War II is shown in his extensive correspondence with Henry H. (“Hap”) Arnold and Vannevar Bush.

The most intensively indexed part of the collection is that portion dealing with Millikan's professional affairs. The remainder is material of a more personal or family nature. Here one finds the voluminous correspondence that passed between Millikan and his wife, Greta, during the frequent periods when they were apart. Greta’s correspondence with other family members and friends is also found here. Together, these letters provide a rich social commentary, not only on the private lives of the Millikan family, but also on contemporary events, and in Greta’s case, on the roles played by the wife of a famous scientist and administrator.

Other family material in the collection includes letters and writings by the couple’s three sons, Clark, Glenn, and Max, as well as members of each of their families. (The Institute Archives also has the papers of Clark Millikan, who was a professor of aeronautics at Caltech from 1928-1966). This portion of the collection includes a variety of scrapbooks, photo albums, newspaper clippings, legal papers, diaries, notebooks, manuscript drafts, and reprints.