Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

Correspondence of Howe, dealing with various departmental affairs such as supplies, laboratory equipment, building maintenance, personnel, students, and examination questions. The chief correspondents are two of Howe's colleagues in the Dept. of Metallurgy, Bradley Stoughton and Arthur Lucian Walker. The Stoughton correspondence runs from 1902 to May 1908, at which time he left Columbia and was replaced by Walker. Although Walker remained in the department until 1929, only his correspondence from May 1908 to 1909 is included. Throughout the correspondence there are frequent references to steel. Most of Howe's letters are originals, while Stoughton and Walker's replies are almost entirely carbon copies. Also, a group of letters of inquiry and letters of reference regarding Howe's effort to find a new assistant during July and August of 1916. The manuscripts and documents consist of twenty reports, with covering letters, by Howe as a metallurgical consultant to various mining and metal companies, 1890-1911; lecture notes, 1884-1896; two scrapbooks of metallurgical photographs; four volumes of blueprint graphs illustrating metallic content; a volume of Howe's experiments on refrigeration, ca. 1888-1889; and various other metallurgical notebooks.