Charles Coulston Gillispie Collection

Gillispie, Charles Coulston (1918-2015)

Charles Coulston Gillispie (1918-2015) was an American historian of science and the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History of Science, Emeritus, at Princeton University, where he taught from 1947 until transferring to emeritus status in 1987. The son of Raymond Livingston Gillispie and Virginia Coulston, Gillispie grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1940 with a major in chemistry, where he also completed a thesis in British history. After a year of graduate work in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Gillispie left to pursue graduate study in history at Harvard University in 1941. His studies were interrupted the following year when he was drafted into the United States Army and enlisted as a private on July 29th, 1942. Serving in the 94th Chemical Mortar Battalion, Gillispie's company was involved in the invasion of southern Germany during the final weeks of World War II in Europe. His unit afterward returned to the United States to prepare for anticipated future battles in the Pacific, though they never redeployed following the atomic bombing and subsequent surrender of Japan. Gillispie resumed his studies at Harvard in 1946 and completed his PhD in 1949, going on to become an expert in scientific technological activity in 18th century France and to establish the Program in History of Science at Princeton in the 1960s.

The collection consists of the working papers--a collection of photographs and photocopies of original documents primarily in the Musée de L'Air (Paris), the Montgolfier family archives, and the Archives de l'Ardèche (Privas)--used by Gillispie while researching his book The Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation, 1783-1784 (1983). The book deals with the invention of the balloon as a means of flight and the subsequent inventions and technological developments in combustion and steam engines, locomotives and railroads, bridge-building, and the start of aviation.

Included are copies of correspondence (ca. 1779-1798) of the Montgolfier brothers, Jacques-Etienne and Joseph-Michel, concerning their balloon flights and other inventions, as well as documents about the family's papermaking business. Also present are copies of documents and correspondence relating to the 19th-century engineering firm of Freres Sequin, who furthered industrial development in France. (The Montgolfier and Sequin families are related by marriage.) There are copies of works by Marc Sequin (1786-1875) on bridge-building and engines, and a biography, Marc Sequin, by P. E. Marchal.

In addition, there are miscellaneous notes and correspondence of Gillispie on the history of aviation, printed matter, and a few photographs of a Montgolfier descendant riding in a hot air balloon on her wedding day in 1979.

Series: Sequin, I-II; Montgolfier, I-IV.

Published under same title (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983)

Gift of the author.

Codes in the published work designate the sources used.

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The contents list was compiled by Jerome Jackson in July 2010.

No appraisal information is available.

Use

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Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Charles Coulston Gillispie Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Publisher

Manuscripts Division

Date

2008

Creator

Gillispie, Charles Coulston (1918-2015)

Subject

Aeronautics -- France -- History

Balloonists -- France. -- 18th century

Bridges -- France -- Design -- 19th century

Brothers -- France -- 18th century

Engineers -- France -- 19th century

Engines

Flight

Flying machines

Hot air balloons -- France -- History

Inventors -- France -- 18th century

Locomotives -- France -- 19th century

Papermaking -- France -- 18th century

Stean-engines -- France. -- 19th century

People

Montgolfier, Jacques-Etienne, 1745-1799

Montgolfier, Joseph-Michel, 1740-1810

Sequin, Marc (1786-1875)

Language

English

Form

Photoprints

Correspondence