Employee Request: Help Preserve Fermilab History
L. Hoddeson, FNAL archivist
History. Every person, industry or organization has one. And documents, tapes, recordings and other memorabilia chronicling Fermilab's roots are now being compiled.
"I cannot overemphasize how important employee cooperation will be to the project," said resident archivist Lillian Hoddeson.
She invited employee contributions in a May 5, 1978 letter to about 230 long-time employees. Others are also welcome to contribute, she said. "It is important that we make serious attempts to preserve information now, while the sources are maximally available," she said.
Hoddeson began collecting Fermilab historical artifacts in January, 1978. She was commissioned by Director Robert R. Wilson and the Fermilab History Committee to work on a quarter-time basis. Holder of a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Columbia University, the historian commutes from the University of Illinois-Champaign where she is a visiting scientist in history in the University's Physics Department.
Notebooks, reports, slides, photos, memos, historical articles/books and unpublished talks regarding Fermilab and history of other accelerators is sought.
Any additional materials documenting employee roles at Fermilab are welcome.
Hoddeson says, "You might consider dictating information on cassette tape." She suggests, "First-person accounts of events that you participated in or witnessed personally, are particularly interesting for historians." She added that a limited number of personal interviews will be taped for inclusion in the collection.
The archivist works out of the "History of Accelerators" room on the 3rd floor of Wilson Hall. "Interviewing current and former Fermilab people has been very interesting and productive," she says. She arranges special taped interviews with physics pioneers visiting the Laboratory in a seminar series sponsored by the History Committee.
Hoddeson may be contacted in the History Room at (630) 840-2543.