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Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Smith, Cyril Stanley, 1903-1992  Search this
Interviewer:
Brown, Robert F  Search this
Subject:
Bethe, Hans A. (Hans Albrecht)  Search this
Fermi, Enrico  Search this
Oppenheimer, J. Robert  Search this
Type:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Place of publication, production, or execution:
United States
Physical Description:
2 sound cassettes (2 hr., 35 min.), analog.; 50 Pages, Transcript
General Note:
Originally recorded 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 35 min.
Summary:
An interview with Cyril Stanley Smith conducted 1992 March 18-April 1, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art. Smith speaks of his childhood in Birmingham, England; early immersion in analysis of materials; education at Cambridge University; research at Yale University; his work as chief metallurgist on the Manhattan Project, Los Alamos, N.M., where the atomic bomb was developed, his colleagues there, including Enrico Fermi, Hans Bethe, and J. Robert Oppenheimer; the development of the interdisciplinary research center at the University of Chicago; his position at MIT, where he has been Institute Professor since 1961; and research in the connections between fabrication and aesthetics of art forms and technology.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Cyril Stanley Smith, 1992 March 18-April 1. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Funding:
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
Biography Note:
Cyril Stanley Smith (1903-1992) was a metallurgist from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Smith received a doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1926 and taught there from 1961 until his retirement in 1969. His title of Institute Professor Emeritus of Metallurgy and the History of Metallurgy, one rarely conferred and only on those whose work goes beyond traditional disciplines, reflects the high esteem in which he was held. Smith has had great influence on contemporary metalsmiths, experts in ceramics, and students of Japanese art, among others.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
These interviews are part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
Decorative arts  Search this
Theme:
Craft  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)12116
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)214733
AAA_collcode_smith92
Theme:
Craft
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_214733