Letter from Robert Huke, Dartmouth College, to Robert Oppenheimer, Princeton University, 11 September 1958
September 11, 1958
Dr. Robert Oppenheimer
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, New Jersey
Dear Dr. Oppenheimer:
As chairman of the Dartmouth College Lecture Series for 1958-59, I would
like to extend an invitation to you on behalf of the College and the Lecture
Series to visit the Dartmouth campus and speak to the College community.
The Dartmouth College Lecture Series is a long established institution on
our campus and, football aside, is the leading extra curricula activity. It
is a non-profit organization operating on a small budget from the college’s
general fund. Lectures are well attended and, indeed, looked forward to not
only by the students and faculty but by the leading citizens within a consider-
able radius of Hanover.
Our aim is to bring to Hanover outstanding personalities to discuss topics
of current and lasting importance but topics which are normally not covered tho-
roughly in an average student’s curriculum.
During the past two years we have had speakers such as Alistair Cooke, Hugh
Gaitskell, Bennett Cerf, Abba Eban, and Daniel Schorr. In the forthcoming year
we have scheduled Clement Atlee and Professor George B. Cressey.
One special reason why we would like to have you speak on our campus is that
this year we have instituted a unique “Program of Independent Reading” for Fresh-
men and Sophomores and your book Science and the Common Understanding is on the
reading list. To have your lecture on our campus would not only be a stimulus to
this new program but would be an event never to be forgotten.
The dates I have in mind are: Thursday, April 9 Ch. E Wilson 1st May Tuesday, April 14; or Tuesday,
April 21. If none of these dates are convenient, perhaps Thursday, January 22, or
Wednesday, January 21 would be better . The lecture would be scheduled for 8:30 p.m.
Calvert on 21st, Dec Dec 4 March 3rd 5th 10th
It goes without saying that the College will take care of all accommodations
for you and for your wife, if she cares to accompany you. There is also an honor-
arium of $350. $500.
Date in March
Yours sincerely,
Robert E. Huke
Chairman, Dartmouth College Lecture Series
REH/ces
March would
follow Atlee
He will call again Wed.
Text and image reproduced here with permission from the papers of J. Robert Oppenheimer, held in the manuscript division of the Library of Congress.
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