From Nazi-Occupied Denmark to the Labs of 4 Nobel Laureates

Written by Justine Rothbart

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Following up on Katie Rodda’s post about discoveries, I wanted to share another discovery I made in the American Association of University Women’s (AAUW) Archives. As I was processing the AAUW Fellowship Files, I came across the amazing story of Hilde Levi’s escape from the Nazis and three letters written by Nobel Prize-winning scientists:  Niels Bohr, George de Hevesy, and James Franck. Just as Katie mentioned in her blog post, these letters could have easily been overlooked. If it wasn’t for remembering the Bohr model of the atom from my high school chemistry class, this discovery would have not been made!

Nobel laureate Neils Bohr’s letter I discovered in the AAUW Archives

Click here to read my blog post about this discovery in the AAUW Archives.

Jonas Salk, Polio Vaccine Inventor, Wrote Us a Letter

Written by Justine Rothbart

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It’s never a dull day in the AAUW archives. I never know what treasure I am going to find in our fellowship files. Each fellow is unique. Each one has their own story. In Helen Claudia Henry’s 1955–56 International Fellowship file, I came across two letters written by Jonas Salk, the virologist who discovered the polio vaccine. As I held the letters in my hands, I could not believe that letters from a world-famous scientist are here in the AAUW archives.

As I dug deeper, the story of the letters began to take shape.

Click here to read the full story about this new discovery in the AAUW Archives.