Energy History
Collections focused on nuclear energy history primarily relate to Penn State's role as a hub for nuclear engineering research, which began in 1953 when Penn State President, Milton Eisenhower (the U.S. President's brother) approved funding for a research reactor on campus. Many of our collections are the research papers of faculty in engineering, who often held prominent national roles related to nuclear energy research and policy. Some of our collections speak to the environmental health impacts of nuclear energy. The partial reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island, located a approximately 100 miles from Penn State, raised concern and awareness about the potential dangers of commercial nuclear energy production.
- Forrest Remick papersThis collection documents the career of Penn State professor of nuclear engineering Forrest J. Remick, including research administration records, and national and international policies for nuclear regulation. Included are correspondence, reports, records, and some manuals and publications, 1956-2005.
- Pennsylvania State University collection on the American Nuclear SocietyThe collection contains records from the American Nuclear Society kept by Warren F. Witzig between 1954-1995 including meeting minutes, bylaws, rules, and a history of the society. The collection also contains Betacam videos recordings of the Society's 1980 "Enhanced Reactor Safety" conference dedicated to studying the findings of the accident at Three Mile Island, featuring a plenary panel presentation and individual expert interviews.
- Nunzio J. Palladino Papers, 1928-2000Nunzio J. Palladino came to Pennsylvania State University in 1959 as a professor of engineering. He served as dean of the College of Engineering from 1966 to 1981 after which he chaired the Nuclear Regulatory Commission until 1986. The papers document the college and Penn State's role in the Three Mile Island nuclear power plan. Materials include meeting minutes, publications, papers, articles, presentations, reports, budget materials, correspondence, course materials, newsletters, and research materials.
- Decommissioning plan for the Shippingport Station Decommissioning Project, 1981-1984This collection contains the decommissioning plan for the United States’ first commercial nuclear reactor, in Beaver County, PA. The plan is comprised of 11 volumes, and was prepared by Burns and Roe Industrial Services Corporation and Nuclear Energy Services for the U.S. Department of Energy.
- Edward J. Walsh papersSociologist Edward J. Walsh joined Penn State's faculty in 1975. This collection consists of articles, book chapters, journal articles, and data relating to his research on the partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979.
- Warren F. Witzig travel diary about the Chernobyl nuclear reactor site and UkraineWarren F. Witzig was professor of engineering and nuclear power at Pennsylvania State University. Travel diary from Professor Witzig's travel to Russia and Ukraine to visit the Chernobyl nuclear reactor site shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Includes Witzig's technical observations of Chernobyl as well as cultural and personal reflections. Various documents laid in, including a pamphlet, Research activity, from Chelyabinsk State University, 1992 (in English and Russian; one additional page of handwritten note, Kyiv, dated Tuesday PM (likely either 1992 June 16 or 23); and letter from Witzig to Ambassador Robert S. Strauss, 1992 May 4, concerning his upcoming trip to Moscow and Ukraine.
Penn State Special Collections Library has several archival collections related to the history of solar energy technology and development, most prominent among them being the records of the American Solar Energy Society.
- American Solar Energy Society recordsThis collection contains the organizational records of the American Solar Energy Society dating largely from its inception in 1971 as a national section federated with the International Solar Energy Society. Included are primary source records and proceedings documenting ASES-sponsored annual meetings, conferences, and symposia; correspondence files and reports covering the activities of ASES directors and executive board, administrative committees, technical divisions and regional and student chapters. ASES membership information; publications series, communications, and press releases.
- Frederick H. Morse papersFrederick H. Morse worked for the U.S. Department of Energy in the 1970s and 1980s. This collection consists of 47 reports related to solar energy studies conducted by Dr. Frederick H. Morse in conjunction with several different research groups, mainly during the 1970s. The collection also contains printed PowerPoint presentations from the early 2000s and 35 mm slides depicting solar energy projects prior to the 1990s.
- Russell Ohl papersRussell Ohl, a 1918 graduate of the Pennsylvania State College, conducted research in the field of chemical engineering and physics. His research led to the invention of many items, most notably the silicon solar cell, which is central to solar photovoltaic energy production. The collection includes technical memoranda, letters and notes, drawings, charts, graphs, experiment data, and published papers concerning his research, especially with silicon.
- Edward Kush solar energy research collectionThis collection contains research publications and supporting research files related to the solar energy work of Dr. Edward Kush. The materials primarily document his research on solar assisted heat pump (SAHP) technology. Some of these final reports are available through government document databases, but Kush's collection includes supporting documents that offer additional context to the materials, as well as Kush's own research materials and notes. Also included are some research files related to photovoltaic (PV) technology.
- Solar Heat TechnologiesThis series of books from MIT Press were edited by Charles A. Bankston, and lated donated to Special Collections by his family.
Selected Books related to solar energy history:
- Solar Age Catalog : A Guide to Solar Energy Knowledge and Materials 1977. Port Jervis, N.Y.: SolarVision.
- Ericsson, John. 1876. Solar Investigations. New York: Printed by J. Ross & Co.
- Mouchot, A. 1879. La Chaleur Solaire Et Ses Applications Industrielles. Deuxième édition revue et considérablement augmentée ed. Paris: Gauthier-Villars.
- Pope, Charles Henry, Colonial Press, and C.H. Simonds & Co. 1903. Solar Heat : Its Practical Applications. Boston, Mass.: Charles H. Pope.
- Rankins, William H., David A. Wilson, and Faris A. Ashkar. 1975. Practical Sun Power : 5 Projects to Help Free You from Depending on any Fuel Other than the Sun. Black Mountain, N. Carolina: Lorien House, publisher.
- Wasserman, Harvey, John F. Kennedy, and Pete Seeger. 2007. Solartopia! : Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030. Bexley, OH: Harvey Wasserman.
Image from brochure for Veedol Motor Oil describes the history of Tide Water Oil Company and the construction of the Tidewater pipeline, 1879, which transported crude oil from the northeast Pennsylvania oilfields.
The modern commercial petroleum industry can be traced to Titusville, Pennsylvania, where Edwin Drake successfully drilled his first oil well in 1859. By 1865, the United States produced seven thousand barrels of crude oil per day, most of it in Pennsylvania, where each barrel would sell for over six dollars. In the decade after Drake launched the industry, the United States became the first and largest producer of petroleum, accounting for 85 percent of the world’s crude oil by the 1880’s.
Since its first commercial production of oil in 1859, Pennsylvania has hosted many “firsts” in oil and gas innovation. Pittsburgh was home to one of the world’s first oil refineries in 1853. Hydraulic fracturing methods have been a central component to Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale natural gas boom in the early 2000’s, but well fracturing is a technique that began in the early Pennsylvania oil fields, with the use of nitroglycerin torpedoes. The first oil pipelines are believed to have been constructed to bust labor unions (crude oil being previously loaded into whiskey barrels and transported via barge or rail).
Our collections mainly focus on this Pennsylvania history.
- John P. Herrick oil history collectionThe collection consists of research materials relating to the early commercial oil and gas industry in New York and Pennsylvania, and includes materials documenting production, refining, pipelines, transportation, and biographies of individuals involved in the oil business. Materials range from 1797-1963, with the bulk being from 1930-1949.
- Pennsylvania State University, Petroleum Refining Laboratory recordsThe Petroleum Refining Laboratory began in 1931 under the direction of Merrell Fenske. It gained international recognition for research resulting in the conversion of heavy viscous oils into marketable products. The Laboratory merged with the Department of Chemical Engineering in 1959, which joined the College of Engineering in 1963. This collection of the Pennsylvania State University Petroleum Refining Laboratory contains research and progress reports, meeting minutes, technical data books, correspondence, and information on research with the military, various chemical, oil, electrical, and auto industries.
- Pennsylvania Shale Energy web archiveThis web archive documents Pennsylvania's experience with contemporary natural gas development enabled by a process known colloquially as fracking. Because the communities most directly impacted by natural gas development are least likely to have their experiences formally documented in archival repositories, the emphasis of this web collection is on resources created by and relating to grassroots, local environmental advocacy groups in Pennsylvania.
The Special Collections Library also holds numerous rare publications from and about the early Pennsylvania oil industry. These items can be found by searching in the Library catalog, and narrowing the search results to "Special Collections Library."
For more information see: Special Collections catalog search results for OIL (excluding the word "painting")