Oral history interview with Cyril Stanley Smith
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 35 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Smith, Cyril Stanley, 1903-1992
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: Bethe, Hans A. (Hans Albrecht), 1906-2005
label: Names
content: Fermi, Enrico, 1901-1954
label: Names
content: Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 1904-1967
topic: label: Occupation
content: Physicists
label: Occupation
content: Metallurgists
label: Topic
content: Decorative arts
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: 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.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Smith, Cyril Stanley, 1903-1992
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Cyril Stanley Smith (1903-1992) was a metallurgist from Cambridge, Massachusetts.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.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2 Items (sound cassettes (2 hr., 35 min.), analog.)
label: Extent
content: 50 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1992 March 18-April 1
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.smith92
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: 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.