]> ms.61 Ames (Joseph Sweetman) 1864-1943 Papers 1888-1968 Ms. 61 Cynthia H. Requardt Special Collections, The Milton S. Eisenhower Library, The Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 USA Phone: (410) 516-8323
Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Diwakar Bhandari Finding aid written in English Ames (Joseph Sweetman) 1864-1943 Papers 1888-1968 Ms. 61 Special CollectionsThe Milton S. Eisenhower Library The Johns Hopkins University Contact Information Special Collections The Milton S. Eisenhower Library The Johns Hopkins University 3400 North Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-8323 Cynthia H. Requardt June 1989 Diwakar Bhandari

©2003 The Johns Hopkins University

 Descriptive Summary Ms. 61 Ames (Joseph Sweetman) 1864-1943 Papers 1888-1968 Ames, Joseph Sweetman,1864-1943 Johns Hopkins University. Special Collections 1 document box (.5 linear feet) English The material in this collection deals largely with Ames's work at The Johns Hopkins University. There is only one item from his student days the notebook of notes he took while attending Henry A. Rowland's lectures on light in 1888. The letters in this collection are ones recommending Ames for various positions at Hopkins. There is Franklin D. Roosevelt's letter (1939) accepting Ames's resignation from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The 17 speeches (1931-35) in this collection are ones given by Ames as President of Hopkins. Most were given on commencement or Commemoration Day. Other speeches were ones to the P.L. Club on "The Fringes of Science," the American Bible Society, and the Maryland State Normal School and speeches on the re-opening of Homewood House and on Dr. John H. Latan‚. The largest part of the collection is copies of class lectures Ames delivered in the Physics Department at Hopkins. According to a former student, Ames did not allow note-taking in his classes. He wrote out all of his lectures and reproduced them for his students. Included in this series are 5 sets of Ames's lecture notes. They date from 1918 to 1923 near the end of Ames's teaching career. These lectures were not published, but the ones on Theoretical Mechanics are part of the text by the same name which Ames published with Francis D. Murnaghan in 1929. Three of the lectures, the ones on thermodynamics, mechanics and electricity, are from a three-year sequence which Dr. Ames gave as a course in theoretical physics to graduate students. These lectures along with Ames's two works Textbook of General Physics (1904) and A Manual of Experiments in Physics (1896) which he wrote with Hopkins colleague W.J.A. Bliss and R.W. Wood's Physical Optics give a good view of the Hopkins physics curriculum between 1915 and 1925. The lecture notes on relativity are the typescript of the original. They are from a course Ames gave once or twice. They are interesting as constituting one of the first courses on relativity given in the U.S. The fifth set of lecture notes are from lectures Ames delivered at the Bureau of Standards in 1918-1919. There are 7 photographs of Ames in this collection. Two are formal portraits, one shows Ames working at his desk and one is of him after receiving an honorary degree from the University of Pennsylvania. There is also a photograph taken in 1917 of Ames and General William Mitchell taken in front of an airplane in France. An undated photograph shows Ames seated around a conference table with Hopkins colleagues William H. Howell, William Bullock Clark, William H. Welch, Basil L. Gildersleeve, and Edward H. Griffin. Related Collections:Ames's genealogical research files were donated to the Maryland Historical Society. Administrative Information Provenance

The materials in this collection have been collected from various sources. Most of the letters were transferred from the University's Alumni Records Office in 1972. The letter from Franklin D. Roosevelt (1939) was donated by Hans Mark of the Ames Research Center in 1971. The volume of notes Ames took in Rowland's course on light in 1888 were given by Ames to a student J. Kaplan who donated them to the University in 1972. Apparently upon his retirement Ames gave some of his library to some of his favorite students. The copies of Ames's lectures were donated by another former student Richard T. Cox in 1968. The reprint of Ames's "Certain Aspects of Henry's Experiments on Electromagnetic Induction" was donated by Dr. R.E. Gibson in 1977.

Use Restrictions

Access to this collection is unrestricted.

Permission to publish material from this collection must be requested in writing from the Manuscripts Librarian, Milton S. Eisenhower Library, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Md. 21218.

 Preferred Citation

Joseph Sweetman Ames Papers Ms. 61 Special Collections Milton S. Eisenhower Library The Johns Hopkins University

Biographical Note

Joseph Sweetman Ames was born July 3, 1864 in Manchester, Vermont the only child of George L. and Elizabeth L. Bacon Ames. Ames attended the Shattuck School in Faribault, Minnesota from 1872 until 1883. Ames took his B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University in 1886 after which he studied in Helmholtz's laboratory at the University of Berlin.

Ames returned to Hopkins in 1887 to do work in spectroscopy and took his Ph. D. in 1890. During this period (1888-1891) Ames held an assistantship in Henry A. Rowland's laboratory. Upon Rowland's death in 1901, Ames became Director of the Physical Laboratory. Ames became an associate professor at Hopkins in 1891 rising to full professor in 1899. He taught until becoming provost of the University in 1926 and president from 1929 to 1935.

Although most of his time was taken up with teaching and administration at The Johns Hopkins University, Ames was a long- time member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. One of the original members from the Committee's creation in 1915, Ames served as chairman of either the executive committee or the full committee from 1919 until his retirement in 1939.

In 1899 Ames married Mrs. Mary B. Harrison. Ames died in 1943.

For a more detailed analysis of Ames's career and his complete bibliography see Crew, Henry, "Biographical Memoir of Joseph Sweetman Ames, 1864-1943." National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs 23 (1944): 181-201.. A copy is filed with the biographical material in this collection.

 Description of Series/Container List Container List Container List 1 document box Box Contents 1 biographical material, 1937-1968 1 correspondence, 1888-1939 1 photographs , 1917-33 1 speeches , 1931-35 1 course lecture notes, 1918-23 Relativity Electricity electrostatics electrostatics electrokinetics electrodynamics notes on vector analysis Theoretical Mechanics Thermodynamics Notes on Lectures Delivered at the Bureau of Standards by Prof. Joseph S. Ames 1 Ames reprints, 1890-1937 1 notes on H.A. Rowland's lectures on light, 1888