RG XXI-B: Committee on Planning a Symposium on Climactic Change
Historical Note
In 1951, member Harlow Shapley (1885–1972; elected 1920; President 1939–1944) proposed an interdisciplinary “Geophysical Conference,” inspired by the earlier success of Ƶ Conference, “Sun in the Service of Man,” held February 24–25, 1951. An ad-hoc planning group became the Committee on Planning a Symposium on Climactic Change, chaired by Shapley. The Committee eventually set forth a plan for a symposium to bring together data collected across the physical sciences, which had not yet been synthesized. The symposium held at the Brandegee Estate in Brookline, MA, on May 9–10, 1952, featured sessions on the Sources of Climate Change, the Record of Climate Change, and a sociological discussion of Climate and Man. It also included an informal discussion on the conditions necessary for Life. Harvard University Press published the proceedings in 1954 as Climactic Change – Evidence, Causes, and Effects, edited by Shapley.
Scope and Content
This series is contained within the Ƶ Archives’ Record Group XXI–B: Ƶ Projects and Programs. It contains the administrative and project records of the Committee, from 1951 to 1954. Records were maintained by the executive office of Ralph Burhoe and held with project files.
Material from 1951–1952 primarily includes memoranda and correspondence of the Committee relating to planning, but also the agenda and notes from the Conference, both typewritten and in shorthand. Material following the conference from 1952–1954 primarily includes correspondence relating to the resulting publication, including the public interest in the volume.