Three U.S. government reports for my IGY archive

I've recently obtained three useful government documents pertaining to the IGY. I have not yet read any of them all the way through, so I won't comment on their contents in any detail, although I hope to draw on them in future posts. 

The first is titled Proposed United States Program for the International Geophysical Year 1957-58.  It was put together by the United States National Committee and published in August 1956, 109 pages. It gives a clear overview of the expected IGY work in each of the major areas of research. It is available for download from the National Academies Press. Until recently, this was the only one of these three documents that was readily available for download as a complete document.

A some point in years past I picked up a hard copy of this report (see scan of the cover).

Second, I kept running into references to National Academy of Sciences 1965 Report on the U.S. Program for the International Geophysical Year: July 1, 1957 - December 31, 1958 , but I was surprised not to be able to find a downloadable copy. Because of the great help of the National Academies, this document was tracked down, posted, and can now be downloaded here. It is 906 pages, and again is organized according to the areas of study of the IGY. What a valuable resource! The title page is shown to the right. Note that this is IGY General Report Number 21; I guess I will now have to figure out what and where those preceding 20 reports are.

Third and last is this report: Bullis, H., 1973; The Political Legacy of the International Geophysical Year; Library of Congress, Science Policy Research Division., United States House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on National Security Policy and Scientific Developments; Washington, D.C.; U.S. Government Printing Office, 64 p. It can be viewed at the web site of the Hathi Trust, a partnership of academic and research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world, Not being at a partner institution, I could only download or print this document one page at a time. So I downloaded each page, collated it into a single document, which you can access from my server.  Again, the title page is shown at right.

My college librarian assures me that posting this is ok for a government document. I'll also say here, in response to a question (complaint?) I received, that I do not guarantee any consistency in citation styles sources I refer to in my posts. And, I'll have more to say about the author of this report, Harold Bullis, in my next post.

The Foreword of this document starts with some hopeful words in the midst of the Cold War:

This study examines in detail a specific example of how the world scientific community has worked together in cooperation and good will toward resolving international problems. Its subject is the International Geophysical Year (IGY), the largest and most complex international scientific undertaking ever attempted.

In keeping with the objectives of the series of which it is one part, this study analyzes the contributions made by the IGY in overcoming ideological differences as a means of building bridges between science and diplomacy. More specifically, it attempts to identify and explain the attitudes, behavior patterns, and procedures followed in the IGY as a step toward détente.

Only time will tell of course whether the laudable example set by the IGY represents the major turning point in history claimed by some. Of importance here and now is the message conveyed in this study that indeed international cooperation in science and technology is possible. What remains is for that example to be emulated and extended.

Being able to access government documents online is a pretty amazing capability (although I anticipate making some comments in the next post on documents that are harder to come by).  

Of course, there is a National Archives stamp! Below is the stamp (Scott #2081, 1984) commemorating the founding of the U.S. National Archives. I don't own it, so this image is thanks to Mystic Stamps. I'm not very keen on this stamp design. Why George Washington and Abe Lincoln (with that exaggerated stovepipe hat) profiles? Aren't Washington and Lincoln on enough other stamps? Honor the archivists and the librarians more directly somehow.