American Institute of Physics. Center for History of Physics.

The Project on the History of Recent Physics arose out of the American Institute of Physics' Committee on the History and Philosophy of Physics. Initial funding for the Project came from National Science Foundation grants awarded in 1961 and 1963. Dr. W. James King was named Director of the Project in mid-1961. The early staff also included a full-time secretary and some part-time assistants. The project was overseen by an Advisory Committee chaired by Dr. Gerald Holton of Harvard University. Activities pursued included the collection of historical materials and biographical and bibliographical information on leading physicists. Dr. John J. Beer joined the Project on the History of Recent Physics in 1963 to coordinate the Project's collecting of information and archival material from industrial companies involved in physics research. He served as a staff consultant while still a member of the faculty at the University of Delaware and left the project in 1964 after generating a final report of his efforts.