A Guide to the Athelstan Spilhaus Papers, 1912-2003 (bulk 1930-1990)

Biographical Note

Scientist, administrator and educator, Athelstan Spilhaus (1911-1998) contributed to oceanography, meteorology, and cartography; served as a dean at the University of Minnesota; and promoted science education and science-based management of the earth’s resources. Born in Rondebosch, South Africa, he held degrees in mechanical engineering (University of Cape Town, 1931) and in aeronautical engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1933).

In 1936 Spilhaus joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. Here he developed the bathythermograph, a device that made possible the measurement of ocean depths and temperatures from a moving vessel. This invention established his international reputation. From 1941 through 1945 he served in the United States Army, teaching meteorology and traveling in Europe and China, where he supervised a network of weather stations and met Chairman Mao Zedong.

In 1948 Spilhaus became dean of science and technology at the University of Minnesota, a position he held until 1967. While there, he promoted the establishment of a Sea Grant Universities program for oceanographic education and research. The U.S. Congress formally established this program in 1966. In 1955 Spilhaus started writing scripts for Our New Age, a science-based newspaper comic strip, which ran until the early 1970s.

President John F. Kennedy in 1961 appointed Spilhaus U.S. Commissioner to the Seattle World’s Fair, also known as the Century 21 Exposition. In 1967 he became president of the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia, but left two years later after difficulties with the museum directors. During the 1970s, he served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, as consultant to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and in other scientific and cultural roles. An advocate for improvements in environmental science and urban development, Spilhaus promoted the Minnesota Experimental City, a project envisioned as a venue to test new urban designs in real-world conditions.

From 1977 to 1978 Spilhaus was a distinguished visiting professor of marine sciences at the University of Texas. During the 1980s and 1990s Spilhaus designed new map projections highlighting the earth’s oceans, as well as map-themed puzzles. During his last years Spilhaus and his third wife Kathleen became known as authorities on antique mechanical toys.

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Scope and Contents

The Athelstan Spilhaus Papers, 1912-2003 (bulk 1930-1990), document the scientific, educational and cultural activities of Spilhaus, and illuminate the evolution of American meteorology, oceanography, cartography and environmental science during the 20th century. Reports and scientific journal articles from the 1930s concern topics in mechanical engineering, notably the evolution of air-powered instruments in aircraft. An early photograph album (1929-1930) depicts Spilhaus’s life in South Africa during his college days, and travel journals, a memoir and photographs from 1936 record his road journeys through Africa. Correspondence, publications and research reports (1937-1955) document the development of the bathythermograph and other advances in oceanography. Military orders, journals, reports, annotated maps, news clippings, and photographs (1941-1946) record Spilhaus’s activities in northern Europe and in China, and document conditions in those regions.

News clippings, magazine articles, correspondence, research reports and transcripts cover Spilhaus’s time at the University of Minnesota and his support of the Sea Grant Universities program, the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, the Experimental Cities project, public health, urban renewal, environmentalism and other topics of public concern during the 1960s and 1970s. Drafts and annotated drafts of his unpublished autobiography and other writings, oral history interviews, and materials assembled for a biography during the 1990s recount Spilhaus’s story in his own words. Furthermore, the collection contains books and articles by him with correspondence related to their publication, maps and cartographic projections devised by Spilhaus, prototypes of games and toys, and production drawings for the newspaper comic Our New Age. Materials also include lecture tapes and transcripts, testimonials, CDs, and DVDs.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Use of some audio material requires an appointment; please contact sound archivist for an appointment.

Use Restrictions

Unrestricted use

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Athelstan Spilhaus Papers, 1912-2003 (bulk 1930-1990), the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Processing Information

Processed by Edward Sevcik, June 2006.

Revised by Evan Hocker, February 2009, and Laurel Rozema, February 2010, July 2010.

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Detailed Description of the Papers

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