This collection contains documents dating from 1909, when the Physics Department was associated with the Engineering School, although the study of physics at Princeton University can be traced to the arrival of Professor of Natural Philosophy Joseph Henry in 1832. Under the leadership of Chairman William F. Magie (1908-1929), the Department gained independence from the Engineering School and increased its faculty to include noted professors such as Henry D. Smyth, Allen G. Shenstone, and Louis A. Turner. The Department became an international center for theoretical physics when Eugene P. Wigner and John von Neumann joined the faculty and when the University's association with the Institute for Advanced Study began in 1930. During the 1930s, the Department began to conduct research in the field of nuclear physics under Milton G. White and convinced the University to build a cyclotron in Palmer Laboratory. During World War II, most of the Physics Department faculty engaged in the war effort by joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Radiation Laboratory, becoming involved in the top-secret development of the atomic bomb, and teaching physics to servicemen who trained in Princeton. With the Nazi persecutions in Europe, eminent physicists such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Rudolf Ladenburg immigrated to the United States and became members of the Institute for Advanced Study, where they maintained close ties with Princeton's Physics Department. During the post-war years, the Department turned its attention back to theoretical physics and continued to expand its research with the help of generous government grants.
From the guide to the Physics Department Records, 1909-1971, (Princeton University. Library. Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections.)
