GEORGE HENRY DERN | SIGNED LETTERS TO AND REGARDING FREDERICK GARDNER COTTRELL
1934. One-page TLS and one-page ALS from U.S. Secretary of War George Henry Dern. TLS is addressed to Cottrell, dated April 14, 1934; ALS is addressed to a Col. Waite, undated. Very Good minus TLS with Very Good ALS. The TLS discusses Cottrell’s recommendation of Jim Elton for the next Director of the Bureau of Mines; the ALS requests that Waite communicate with Cottrell and Elton about the “Great Salt Lake Dike scheme”. Both letters are on War Department letterhead, with the TLS on a full-size sheet and the ALS on a smaller card. TLS is faintly creased and lightly age toned, with mild wrinkling and some rust marks in the top margin. ALS is more moderately age toned, with light wear along edges. TLS signed in pencil, ALS signed in black ink: “Geo. H. Dern”. Shelved at DuPont Cottrell binder.
1415088
Special Collections
Price: $300
NOTES
This piece comes from a large collection of letters to, from, and concerning Frederick Gardner Cottrell, a prominent American inventor and physical chemist. Best known for his invention of the electrostatic precipitator, a device which revolutionized emission-heavy industries, Cottrell rose to prominence for his endeavors to fund American scientific research through the establishment of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. Cottrell was highly regarded by the other leading scientific minds of his age, a fact reflected in this collection of his letters with historic figures in research, academia, and American politics. Among these are Cottrell’s correspondences with Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and Nobel laureates William Ramsay (discoverer of the noble gases) and J. J. Thompson (discoverer of the electron), as well as exchanges with two American presidents, Herbert Hoover and Woodrow Wilson.