Dorothy W. Weeks papers
Scope and Contents of the Collection
The collection contains biographical information about Dorothy Weeks, the first woman to receive a PhD in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and helps to illustrate the career paths of women scientists in the 20th century. The collection also includes material about the "Charm School," George Harrison's name for the summer sessions in the late 1940s during which young women worked with him in the spectroscopy lab on compiling wave length tables.
Correspondents in the collection include Margaret Compton, wife of MIT president Karl Compton, and Katharine Dexter McCormick, MIT class of 1904.
Dorothy Weeks’s master and doctoral theses are part of the MIT Libraries/Institute Archives thesis collection.
Dates
- 1940 - 1980
Creator
- Weeks, Dorothy W. (Person)
Access note
This collection is open.
Digital Access Note
Some parts of this collection are available online. Links to specific online digital items are found within their entry in this finding aid.
Conditions Governing Use
Access to collections in the Department of Distinctive Collections is not authorization to publish. Please see the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy for permission information. Copyright of some items in this collection may be held by respective creators, not by the donor of the collection or MIT.
Biography
Dorothy Walcott Weeks, 1893-1990, BA 1916, Wellesley College; MS in physics, 1923, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; MS 1925, Simmons College; PhD in mathematics, 1930, MIT, was a professor and head of the physics department at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, from 1930 to 1956. From 1956 to 1964 she worked at the Army Materials Research Agency in Watertown, Massachusetts, where she coordinated a program that developed radiological shielding materials. From 1964 to 1976, she was a spectroscopist at the Harvard College Observatory.
Extent
0.2 Cubic Feet (1 half manuscript box)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The collection contains biographical information about Dorothy Weeks, a physicist, and the first woman to receive a PhD in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The collection also includes material about the women who gathered in summer terms at MIT in the late 1940s to work with George Harrison in the spectroscopy lab on compiling wave length tables.
Location
Materials are stored off-site. Advance notice is required for use.
Processing Information note
Some collection descriptions are based on legacy data and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. Description may change pending verification. Please contact the MIT Department of Distinctive Collections if you notice any errors or discrepancies.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Charm School
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Spectroscopy Laboratory -- Research
- Weeks, Dorothy W.
- Women scientists. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
Creator
- Weeks, Dorothy W. (Person)
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of Dorothy W. Weeks
- Status
- Ready For Review
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries. Department of Distinctive Collections Repository
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries
Building 14N-118
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge MA 02139-4307 US
distinctive-collections@mit.edu