Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1420

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

0.2 linear feet (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Robert M. Thrall papers relating to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory, 1940-1971 (bulk: 1944-1946), Ms. Coll. 1420, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1940-1971 (inclusive) and 1944-1946 (bulk)

Creator:

Thrall, Robert McDowell

Form:

Publications (documents) and Photographs

Abstract:

This collection contains publications and photographs pertaining primarily to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory and its personnel. The creator of this collection, Robert M. Thrall (1914-2006), headed the Radiation Lab's Group 91.5 of Division 9, Airborne Systems, which developed radar for airborne bombing and navigation, from 1944 to 1945.

Robert McDowell Thrall (1914-2006) was a mathematician who pioneered the development of modern operations research. He earned his PhD from the University of Illinois in 1937, after which he served as professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor from 1937 to 1969. He then worked as professor at Rice University from 1969 to 1984, retiring as a professor emeritus.

Of particular interest with regard to this collection, Thrall also worked for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory, where he headed Group 91.5 of Division 9, Airborne Systems from 1944 until the Radiation Lab's formal termination in 1945. The "Rad Lab," as it was known, was a microwave research facility that developed radar technology during World War II. According to the Five Years at the Radiation Laboratory yearbook, this division developed a wide variety of radar for airborne bombing and navigation.

This collection contains material pertaining primarily to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory and its personnel. The bulk of the collection consists of MIT Radiation Laboratory publications, including one copy of the Radiation Lab handbook, second edition (1944) and several permanent address lists for Radiation Lab staff members. The collection also contains photographs primarily pertaining to the Radiation Lab and its personnel. Three of the four staff photographs are of the Division 9 Airborne Systems staff, of whom collection creator Robert M. Thrall was a supervisor. It also contains one photograph labeled "Universities of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Sussex First International Conference on O.R. August 1971, England."