The Atomic Energy Commission's Historical Advisory Committee was established in February 1958, when the

United States Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President ...

was a decade old and continued until 1974 when the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) and later the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...

replaced the commission.

History

In 1957, the United States Atomic Energy Commission appointed Dr Richard G. Hewlett to be the historian of the Atomic Energy Commission. Upon taking up this post, Hewlett proposed the creation of an historical advisory committee for the AEC. His proposal was referred to historians

James Phinney Baxter III James Phinney Baxter III (February 15, 1893 in Portland, Maine – June 17, 1975 in Williamstown, Massachusetts) was an American historian, educator, and academic, who won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book ''Scientists Against Time ...

and

Samuel Eliot Morison Samuel Eliot Morison (July 9, 1887 – May 15, 1976) was an American historian noted for his works of maritime history and American history that were both authoritative and popular. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, and tau ...

and Nobel Prize–winning physicist

Isidor I. Rabi Isidor Isaac Rabi (; born Israel Isaac Rabi, July 29, 1898 – January 11, 1988) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance, which is used in magnetic resonance im ...

. These three men recommended the approval of Hewlett's proposal as a means of giving credibility of the AEC Historical Office's work and avoiding self-serving official history.

Chairman

The following is a chronological list of chairmen, 1958–1974. In cases where a chairman also served as a regular member of the committee, his dates of such service are listed in the alphabetical listing of members. *

, 1958-1967 *

George E. Mowry George Edwin Mowry (September 5, 1909 – May 12, 1984) was an American historian focusing primarily on the Progressive Era. As a professor at UCLA and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he taught large classes and directed over 50 ...

, 1967-1969 *

Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. Alfred DuPont Chandler Jr. (September 15, 1918 – May 9, 2007) was a professor of business history at Harvard Business School and Johns Hopkins University, who wrote extensively about the scale and the management structures of modern corporatio ...

, 1969-1974

Members

The following is an alphabetical listing of members who served on this committee: *

John Morton Blum John Morton Blum (; April 29, 1921 – October 17, 2011) was an American historian, active from 1948 to 1991. He was a specialist in 20th-century American political history, and was a senior advisor to Yale officials. Life and career Blum was bo ...

, 1958-1962 * James L. Cate, 1958-1969 * Thomas C. Cochran, 1973-1974 *

A. Hunter Dupree Anderson Hunter Dupree (29 January 1921 – 30 November 2019) was an American historian and one of the pioneer historians of the history of science and technology in the United States. He died in November 2019 at the age of 98. Early education T ...

, 1968-1973 * Constance McL. Green, 1964-1969 * Ralph W. Hiddy, 1962-1969 *

Thomas P. Hughes Thomas Parke Hughes (September 13, 1923 – February 3, 2014) was an American historian of technology. He was an emeritus professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting professor at MIT and Stanford. He received his Ph.D. ...

, 1973-1974 * Richard S. Kirkendall, 1973-1974 * Richard W. Leopold, 1973-1974 *

Ernest R. May Ernest Richard May (November 19, 1928 – June 1, 2009) was an American historian of international relations, whose 14 published books include analyses of American involvement in World War I and the causes of the Fall of France during World War ...

, 1969-1973 *

, 1962-1967 *

Robert P. Multhauf Robert P. Multhauf (1919–2004) was an American science historian, curator, director, scientific scholar and author. He served as president of the History of Science Society in the year 1979-80, and was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Medal in 1987. ...

, 1969-1973

Sources

* Richard W. Leopold, "Historians and the Federal Government: Historical Advisory Committees: State, Defense, and the Atomic Energy Commission," ''The Pacific Historical Review'', vol. 44, No. 3. (Aug 1975), pp. 373–385. History organizations based in the United States Defunct agencies of the United States government United States Department of Energy Historians of science