Professional Papers

Scope and content:

The Professional Papers include those non-family-related papers reflecting Paul Dirac's life as productive scholar, Nobel Prize laureate, and lecturer as the holder of the Lucasian chair at Cambridge (1932-1969) and as Professor at Florida State University (1972-1984). It includes materials associated with appointments at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Studies (1934-1935), and War-related employment (1941-1945). It also contains materials dealing with his extensive travels and lecturing in Western Europe, the Soviet Union, the United States, Japan, China, and briefer visits to Canada, Italy, the Vatican, India, Israel, and elsewhere. His attendance at the conferences for holders of the Nobel Prize in Physics held at Lindau in Bavaria is also well documented. Dirac's topical and correspondence files are also in this section. The 'subject' files have been kept intact, but the potential archival value of the context of correspondence files was lost by a previous arrangement effort and they are currently arranged chronologically. It was not his practice to keep copies of out-going correspondence, but there is a large collection of letters that he received, often with brief notes indicating the nature of his responses. There is an extensive collection of calculations, usually in pencil and often on undated and on whatever paper was readily at hand. Dirac's publications are arranged by the dates and numbers as listed in the Dalitz bibliography (see below). The convention used is as follows: The date and number is followed by an 'm' for a draft or manuscript, a 'p' for a proof, and a 'w' for the work as published. A '*' indicates an item not listed in Dalitz. Publications by others are arranged by their authors' names. In addition, papers associated with his employment at Florida State University, insurance-related matters (including medical records for himself and family members), and financial matters related to his retirement and death benefits are also found here. Condolences, obituaries, memorials, and items incidental to the dedication of the Paul A. M. Dirac Science Library on campus are included in this group of papers. Realia is limited to a few items transferred from his office at the time of his death (including his desk pen set, a magnifying glass, a framed section of a blackboard with an equation in his hand, etc.), and a bronze bust on a pedestal are among them.

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