Series CERN-ARCH-PLC - Letter Collection

326 items, 0.2 metre, 1 box

After Pauli's death in 1958, Mrs. Franca Pauli, his widow, assisted by Pauli's last assistant, Charles Enz, started to sort and administer Wolfgang Pauli's scientific legacy. The collection mostly contained only letters Pauli had received, but not those he had sent. Franca Pauli, with Victor F. Weisskopf (one of Pauli's former assistants and Director-General of CERN from 1961 to 1965) and Ralph de Laer Kronig, sent out a circular letter inviting friends and colleagues of Wolfgang Pauli to send their copies or originals of his imposing correspondence. Niels Bohr and R. Oppenheimer from Princeton supported the whole operation. On the 25th August 1960 Mrs. Pauli made a first Deed of Gift of part of her late husband's estate to CERN, represented by the Director-General In 1965, Weisskopf's mandate as Director-General of CERN came to an end and he returned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He continued to be an advisor to Mrs. Pauli. The new Director-General, Bernard P. Gregory, became the first ex-officio member of the Pauli Committee, created in 1965. A mandate to look after the collection was entrusted to Alfred Günther, who was at that time the head of the Scientific Information Service. Mrs. Pauli made a second Deed of Gift on the 5th November 1971. After Mrs. Pauli's death in 1987, CERN inherited all author rights for the scientific work of Wolfgang Pauli.

Pauli's widow, Mrs. Franca Pauli, donated most of the collection. Other material has been collected on behalf of the Pauli Committee, much of it by Karl von Meÿenn.

The Pauli Letter Collection contains the correspondence of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Wolfgang Pauli (1900 - 1958). Subject discussed include physics and wider scientific, philosophical, psychological and epistemological issues.

Nothing was destroyed.

A few further items may be collected.

The series is arranged by the names of Pauli's correspondents, then by dates.

See file level description and the CERN operational circular No 3: rules applicable to archival material and archiving at CERN. In general, records on any subject that are over 30 years old, and all records of a purely scientific nature, may be consulted.

Copyright is retained by CERN, no reproduction without permission.

• German

• English

• Russian

• French

• Italian

• Dutch

Listed to item level in Samuel Sabursky's Card index (also available at the CERN Archives) and in the CERN Archives database, with a link to a reproduction of most of the letters in PDF format.

Some of the letters in the Pauli Archive are copies. The originals remain with the recipients or are held in other archives.

Some of the letters in the Pauli Archive have been copied. These copies have been kept by the recipients or have been given to other archives.

Some of Pauli's letters remain at the different institution in which he worked or are part of other prestigious collections: The Pauliana Collection, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zurich (ETHZ), Zurich, Switzerland, contains the Pauli-Fierz and the Pauli-Jung correspondence and it includes different manuscripts, books and articles by and on Pauli. The Bohr collection, Copenhagen, Danemark The Duke University archives, Durham, North Carolina, USA The Einstein collection, Archive of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton * The Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

• Jacob, Maurice. - The Pauli archive, the Pauli Committee and the related publications / M Jacob. - CERN, Geneva, 1996. - PAULI-COM-96-03
• Kuhn, Thomas S. - Sources for history of quantum physics: and inventory and report / Thomas S. Kuhn, John L. Heilbron, Paul Forman, Lini Allen. - Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1967. - ix, 176 p.
• Pauli, Wolfgang. - W Pauli, writings on physics and philosophy / Enz, Charles P, Von Meÿenn, Karl (ed.). - Berlin: Springer, 1994. - 289 p.
• Von Meÿenn, Karl. - Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel mit Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, u.a. Band 1: 1919-1929 / A Hermann, K von Meÿenn and V F Weisskopf. - Springer, New York, 1979. - 577 p. - (Sources in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences; 2)
• Von Meÿenn, Karl. - Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel mit Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, u.a. Band 2: 1930-1939 / K von Meÿenn, A Hermann and V F Weisskopf. - Springer, New York, 1985. - 781 p. - (Sources in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences; 6)
• Von Meÿenn, Karl. - Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel mit Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, u.a. Band 3: 1940-1949 / K von Meÿenn. - Springer, New York, 1993. - 1070 p. - (Sources in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences; 11)
• Von Meÿenn, Karl. - Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel mit Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, u.a. Band 4, Teil 1: 1950-1952 / K von Meÿenn. - Springer, New York, 1996. - 968 p. - (Sources in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences; 14)
• Von Meÿenn, Karl. - Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel mit Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, u.a. Band 4, Teil 2: 1953-1954 / K von Meÿenn. - Springer, New York, 1999. - 1100 p. - (Sources in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences; 15)
• Von Meÿenn, Karl. - Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel mit Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, u.a. Band 4, Teil 3 = Scientific correspondence with Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, a.o., volume 4, part 3: 1955 - 1956/ K von Meÿenn. - Springer, New York, 2001. - 994 p. - (Sources in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences; 17)

Description prepared by Kieran Pavel. Description of the letters of the Pauli Manuscript Collection by Marc Reymond. Date(s) of description: Geneva, the 20th June 2001 - May-August 2002.