Call Number:

029.002

Repository:

Science History Institute Archives

Extent:

58 photographic prints (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Photographs from the Papers of Spofford Grady English, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, PA.

Date:

1959-1973 (inclusive)

Creator:

English, Muriel Frodin, 1921-2015

Form:

Photograph collections and Photographs

Abstract:

Black and white print photographs primarily documenting the professional activities of Spofford Grady English, a member of the Atomic Energy Commission and Chairman of the Plowshare Advisory Committee, between 1959 and 1973.

Spofford Grady English was born on November 16, 1915 in Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee and received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1943. While at Berkeley, English studied plutonium chemistry under the direction of Glenn T. Seaborg and later became a group leader on the Manhattan Project, working out of Seaborg's Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago. English joined the Atomic Energy Commission (A.E.C.) in 1947 and served as Chief of the Chemistry Branch, Division of Research, until 1960. An advocate of disarmament, English spearheaded a range of non-weapons research and development carried out by the A.E.C., including the development of fission and fusion reactors, biological research, and nuclear education and training. English also served as Chairman of the Plowshare Advisory Committee from 1959 to 1973 and as the Atomic Energy Commission's Assistant General Manager for Research and Development from 1961 to 1973. English retired from the A.E.C. in 1976 as Associate Director, Division of Physical Research. Spofford Grady English died on April 6, 1981 in Bethesda, Maryland.

This collection consists of black and white print photographs primarily documenting the professional activities of Spofford Grady English between 1959 and 1973. Group photographs of attendees at various professional gatherings, including annual meetings of the Atomic Energy Commission (A.E.C.) Laboratory Directors, predominate; photographs chronicling English's work with the Manhattan Project and other research projects are generally lacking. Items of note include a group photograph from English's 1969 visit to Hiroshima, Japan to mark twenty years of service on the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, as well as a series of photographs with Vice President Hubert Humphrey at a 1968 event honoring the Marine Services Council. Several photographs of Argonne National Laboratory and English's mentor, Glenn Seaborg, round out the collection. Photographs have been re-housed; original envelopes bearing annotations by English's daughters detailing the subject, date, and context of the photos have been retained with the collection.