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David and Clara Shoemaker Papers, 1930-2000

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Shoemaker, David P.
Title
David and Clara Shoemaker Papers
Dates
1930-2000 (inclusive)
Quantity
39 linear feet, (78 boxes), (266 books)
Collection Number
MSS Shoemaker
Summary
David P. Shoemaker (1920-1995) served as chairman of the Oregon State University Chemistry department from 1970-1981. Primarily an X-ray crystallographer, he was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1947 and enjoyed a long career during which he was elected to a number of leadership positions within the profession. His wife Clara Brink Shoemaker (1921-2009), received her doctorate in chemistry in 1950 from Leiden University, where her research focus was also X-ray crystallography. Clara Brink met David Shoemaker in 1953 while working as a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - the couple wed in 1955. Clara Shoemaker was promoted to the rank of senior research professor at Oregon State University in 1982 and, as with her husband, retired as professor emeritus.
Repository
Oregon State University Libraries, Special Collections and Archives Research Center
Special Collections and Archives Research Center
121 The Valley Library
Oregon State University
Corvallis OR
97331-4501
Telephone: 5417372075
Fax: 5417378674
scarc@oregonstate.edu
Access Restrictions
Restrictions on Access

Permission to examine will be granted to qualified researchers upon completion of an "Application for Use" form, and contingent upon the researcher's agreement to abide by the rules and policies governing the use of manuscripts.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Historical Note

David Powell Shoemaker (1920-1995) was born in Kooskia, Idaho on 12 May 1920, received a from Reed College in 1942 and his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1947, both in chemistry. In 1947 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship which he spent at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen. He returned to Caltech as a senior research fellow (1948-1951) before going to MIT as an assistant professor. He moved to Corvallis in 1970 as chairman of the Chemistry Department at Oregon State University and retired in 1984. During his time as chairman (1970-1981) he had primary responsibility for the construction of the Gilbert Hall Addition, a teaching facility.

Shoemaker's primary research was in x-ray crystallography. He and his wife, Clara, determined the structures of complex transition-metal phases, research begun with the determination of the structure of the sigma phase at Pauling’s laboratory at Caltech.

While at MIT Shoemaker also worked in the structure of commercially important zeolites. He co-authored a laboratory text (with Carl W. Garland, Jeffrey I. Sternfeld and later Joseph W. Nibler), Experiments in Physical Chemistry (1962), now in its sixth edition. Among his professional services were 15 years on the United States National Committee for Crystallography (1969), chairman of the American Crystallographic Association (1970), member of the executive committee of the International Union of Crystallography (1972-78) and regional editor of Acta Crystallographica.

David Shoemaker died in 1995.

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Historical Note

Clara Brink Shoemaker (1921-2009) was born in Rolde, the Netherlands. She received the Ph.D. in chemistry in 1950 at Leiden University. Her major professor was the inorganic chemist A.E. van Arkel. The subject of her thesis was the crystal structures of complexes of monovalent ions determined by x-ray analysis, under which she studied with Professor Caroline MacGillavry in Amsterdam. From 1946-1950 and 1951-1953 she was an instructor in Inorganic Chemistry at Leiden University. From 1950-51 she had a fellowship of the International Federation of University Women, which enabled her to work with Dorothy Hodgkin in Oxford on the structure Vitamin B12.

In 1953 she became a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she began working with David Shoemaker on the crystal structures of transition metal phases related to the sigma phase. They married in 1955 and continued their work on the crystal structures of these more and more complicated intermetallic compounds for almost 40 years. Originally these compounds, with only tetrahedral interstices between the atoms, were only known for causing brittleness in steels, but later they gained some interest as possible story materials for hydrogen and as model structures for quasicrystals, discovered in 1984. In 1970, Clara moved with her husband to Corvallis, Oregon, where she became a research associate, and in 1982 a senior research professor, retiring in 1984.

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Historical Note

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Content Description

The Collection contains approximately 39 linear feet (78 boxes) of material that has been organized into seven series. The bulk of the collection consists of personal correspondence, organizational records and research notebooks, kept both by the Shoemakers and by their many graduate students. The Shoemakers' long-standing interest in the study of transition metals is reflected in the collection's manuscripts and publications holdings, as are David Shoemaker's research on the concept of "hydrosmoelectric power." David Shoemaker's eleven years as chair of the Oregon State University chemistry department are also closely detailed in the three boxes of organizational records extant from that time. Small collections of books, photographs and scientific artifacts round out the collection.

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Other Descriptive Information

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Use of the Collection

Alternative Forms Available

Alternative Forms Available

Preferred Citation

Preferred Citation

Courtesy of the David and Clara Shoemaker Papers, Special Collections, Oregon State University Libraries.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The Shoemaker Papers have been organized into seven series. Broadly speaking, the contents of each series have been arranged chronologically, although many items in Series 4 and Series 7 are arranged alphabetically.

Custodial History

Custodial History

Acquisition Information

Acquisition Information

Accessioned from the Shoemaker family in Fall 1999.

Future Additions

Future Additions

Processing Note

Processing Note

Preliminary arrangement by Tina Renk. Final arrangement by Chris Petersen, Maarika Teose and Rachel West.

Separated Materials

Separated Materials

Related Materials

Related Materials

An oral history conducted with Clara Shoemaker is available at the Archives of Women in Science and Engineering, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University Library. WISE Archives: Oral History Collection.

The Shoemakers' relationship with Linus Pauling is also well-represented in the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, particularly in correspondence files 363.3 and 363.4.

The Special Collections & Archives Research Center's collections also include the Chemistry Department Records (RG 098), which document the research and graduate programs in chemistry at Oregon State primarily in the post-war period of the late 1940s to early 1960s.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Finding aid prepared by Chris Petersen, Tina Renk, Maarika Teose and Rachel West.
2004

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