Descriptive Entry

These records primarily document the research programs and administration of the Radiation Biology Laboratory (RBL), 1965-1983, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), 1983-1986, under Director William H. Klein. Also included are smaller amounts of material created by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) and the Division of Radiation and Organisms (R&O).

The records include incoming and outgoing correspondence of Klein, and Assistant Director, Walter Shropshire, Jr., 1965-1986; correspondence, proposals, and reports documenting research conducted under contracts with the Eppley Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States Department of Energy, the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health; files concerning the establishment of RBL in 1965, its facilities in the Smithsonian Institution Building, and the move to the Rockville building in 1970; records relating to the merger of RBL and the Chesapeake Bay Center for Environmental Studies to form SERC in 1983; correspondence, memoranda, and reports concerning the Carbon-Dating Laboratory; correspondence with equipment suppliers; requests for information from the general public; staff reviews of scientific manuscripts; budget files of R&O, RBL, and SERC; a manuscript by Earl S. Johnston on sunlight and plants; photographs of SAO, R&O, and RBL personnel including Charles G. Abbot, Loyal B. Aldrich, and Klein; photographs of equipment and facilities; glass plate negatives of SAO expeditions to Chile, 1918, and Africa and India, 1925; and glass plate negatives containing solar radiation data.