Harry Charles Kelly Papers 19th century-1995

The Correspondence series consists of hundreds of letters between Kelly and his friends and colleagues, arranged chronologically. Early letters pertain to Kelly's education at MIT. One 1933 letter is from Karl T. Compton, a prominent American physicist and president of MIT from 1930 to 1948. The letter informed Kelly that he had received a half-time teaching fellowship in physics. Other correspondence from the late 1930s and early 1940s related to peer-reviews of Kelly's work, A Textbook in Electricity and Magnetism. Kelly asked several prominent physicists, including Dr. Henry Margenau of Yale University, to review drafts of his work and return their comments and suggestions. Many of these comments are included. Other letters are from publishers. A 1939 letter from the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., which is one of the top producers of college textbooks in the country today, declined to publish Kelly's text because it would likely lack a wide readership. When Kelly's book was finally published in 1941, multiple people, including Henry Margenau, wrote to congratulate him.

A 1945 letter from E. K. Smiley of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania offered Kelly a position at his alma mater as a professor in the Department of Physics. Kelly's starting annual salary was $4500. World War II interrupted Kelly's teaching, however. Letters from 1945 detail Kelly's work in MIT's radiation laboratory, where he researched radar technology to aid the military, and his appointment as the Chief of Science and Technology for the Special Projects Unit of the United States Army in Japan. The latter position required Kelly to make frequent trips between the United States and Japan, where he cultivated many friendships with fellow scholars and diplomats. In 1949, for instance, Kelly received a letter from Shigeru Yoshida, the Prime Minister of Japan, thanking Kelly for his efforts in helping Yoshida's son travel to the United States for further education. Other prominent correspondents from the late 1940s include J. Robert Oppenheimer, to whom Kelly wrote in 1949 about his hope to "catch up on the physics I have missed" while away in Japan by becoming the "dean of science in some small technical college." Kelly also corresponded frequently with Australian engineer and military officer, John W. O'Brien, who led the Australian Scientific Mission to Japan in 1945-1946. Kelly and O'Brien shared their impressions of Japan and of the scientific missions in which they both participated.

Letters from the early 1950s detail Kelly's work with the National Science Foundation, for which he was the Assistant Director for Scientific Personnel and Education, and later the head of Naval Research. Much of this correspondence concerned routine activities, such as attending conferences and meetings. Yet, Kelly also maintained his ties to the academic community, participating in discussions about and peer reviews of other scholars' publications. A number of letters from this time period are from Gerald W. Fox, head of the Department of Physics at Iowa State College and Kelly's personal friend. Other letters discuss Kelly's ongoing international work to promote science education. A memorandum from 1958 discussed Kelly's participation in a U.S.-led educational mission to the Soviet Union. A separate dispatch from the same year discussed potential university seminars to introduce in Yugoslavia. After Kelly was appointed the Chairman of the United States Delegation to the United States-Japan Committee on Scientific Cooperation in 1961, much of his correspondence was once again with Japanese scientists and diplomats, including Kankuro Kaneshige, the head of the Japanese delegation to the Committee on Scientific Cooperation. Some of these materials are in Japanese.

Although Kelly continued to be involved in international efforts to promote educational cooperation and exchange during the 1960s, letters from 1962 and after largely pertain to Kelly's new role as the Provost, Dean of Faculty at North Carolina State University. Included in this correspondence is Kelly's offer letter from North Carolina State University Chancellor John T. Caldwell in 1962. Also included are letters from Kojiro Nishina, son of the famous physicist Yoshio Nishina and a prominent physicist in his own right, asking Kelly for letters of recommendation for a Fulbright grant; the two later developed a personal correspondence. Other prominent correspondents include North Carolina politicians B. Everett Jordan, Nick Galifianakis, and Sam J. Ervin, Jr. Kelly wrote to these politicians in 1972 to protest the United States' involvement in Vietnam, which he saw as placing "our young people in an impossible moral dilemma as to what actions they should take." In 1973, Kelly also wrote to Senators Daniel K. Inouye, Lowell P. Weicker, and others advocating for President Richard M. Nixon's impeachment.

As a scientist, academic, government envoy, and member of the Washington, D.C.-based social organization, the Cosmos Club, Kelly developed numerous friendships with his co-workers and colleagues. Much of the correspondence in this series is therefore of both a combined personal and professional nature.

This is the bulk of the collection. It includes hundreds of articles, reports, speeches, research material, and agendas relating to science, technology and education in United States and Japan. The series is divided among three headings: National Science Foundation; United States-Japan Committee on Scientific Cooperation; and Miscellaneous. All have an abundence of reports, articles, agendas, and research material. Some of the text is in Japanese language, most is translated to English and added to the files.

This series includes newsclippings relating to an event, an award or significant meeting that pertained to Kelly. Also among the awards and honors are journal articles in which Kelly's work has been cited by the author, or the author has included Kelly in their reports. The book by Hideo Yoshikawa, Science Has No National Borders is reviewed, and Samuel Coleman's senior thesis covers Harry Kelly's involvement in international affairs.

The photographic material is identified and contains: one hundred and fifty-three slides of Dr. Kelly, family, and friends in the United States and Japan; two negatives of cyclotrons; three movie reels that also pertain to family life in Japan and United States; travel and friends in Japan. There are also several hundred photographs. A lengthy, comprehensive item-level description of loose photographs from thirty-one file folders is included. Numbers on the upper left corner of each photograph correspond to the item-level description documented in the finding aid.

This limited series consists of correspondence, articles, and reports. Contained in the collection are Dr. Samuel Coleman's transcripts of a telephone discussion between Coleman and Dees, and a 1987 interview with Dees.

Artifacts included are Japanese print album from the Edo art period (1600-1868), no date on album; and two additional Japanese albums and children's flashcards. Also among the artifacts is the "balance medal," awarded to Kelly from the Physical Society of Japan.

Associated Materials includes charts and soft-cover children's books.