Albert A. Bartlett Papers

Albert Allen Bartlett was born on March 21, 1923 in Shanghai, China. Bartlett's parents were Willard W. and Marguerite Allen Bartlett. Willard Bartlett was born in 1884 in Parishville, New York. Marguerite Allen Bartlett was born in Muncie, Indiana, in 1888. At the time of Albert Bartlett's birth, Willard Bartlett was Principal of the Shanghai American School.

A cholera outbreak in Shanghai in 1923 induced Willard Bartlett to send his wife and son to the United States when Albert was about three months old. Mrs. Bartlett took Albert to a relative's home in Franklin, Indiana to await her husband's return.

During Albert Bartlett's infancy, his father was the assistant to the president of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. In 1927, Willard Bartlett became president of Rio Grande College in Rio Grande, Ohio. The family lived in Gallipolis temporarily before moving to a home on the campus of Rio Grande.

In 1929, the Bartletts, now with a second son, moved to Columbus, Ohio where Willard Bartlett began studies leading to a doctorate in education. Upon graduation, Willard Bartlett became a professor and head of the Department of Education at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio. Albert Bartlett completed much of his primary and secondary education in Columbus and Westerville. His graduation from high school in Westerville occurred in 1940.

Albert Bartlett enrolled in Otterbein College for the fall term of 1940 and continued an interest in photography begun in high school. After completing the academic year, Bartlett obtained employment on the iron ore freighter PONTIAC. Many of the photographs in this collection were taken from June through December 1941 on the PONTIAC. Bartlett continued briefly at Otterbein College in the spring of 1942 and then transferred to his father's alma mater, Colgate University. After working on the PETER WHITE into August 1942, Bartlett began fall term classes at Colgate. Photographs taken on the PETER WHITE complete this collection.

Physics became Albert Bartlett's primary field while at Colgate. Upon graduation in 1944, Bartlett began working as a member of the Manhattan Project team at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Through the remainder of World War II, Bartlett conducted mass spectrometer tests at Los Alamos. Nuclear research became a further component of Bartlett's early career through membership on the project team conducting tests at Bikini Atoll. These tests were conducted in 1945 and 1946.

Bartlett returned to the United States and began his own family by marrying his wife Eleanor on August 24, 1946. In the fall of 1946 the Bartletts moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Albert enrolled for graduate work at Harvard University. Bartlett received a masters degree in physics in 1948 and a doctorate in 1951.

Before completing the work leading to his Ph.D., Bartlett was hired as a professor of physics by the University of Colorado. The Bartlett family included one year old Caroline as they arrived in Boulder, Colorado for the fall term of 1950.

Albert Bartlett remained at the University of Colorado through his retirement on January 1, 1988. Bartlett served as a professor emeritus in physics at the Boulder campus. During their years at Boulder, the Bartletts added daughters Jane in 1952, Lois in 1955, and Nancy in 1957.

Professional highlights beyond numerous publications include teaching summer courses in physics at Harvard in several different years. In 1963, the Bartletts began a year in Stockholm, Sweden, where Albert taught at the Nobel Institute for Physics. In 1970, Albert Bartlett became chair of the University of Colorado Faculty Council and became a member of the Boulder Campus planning council. He remained active in the National Association of Physics Teachers throughout his career. Bartlett served as president of this organization in 1978.

Albert Bartlett passed away in 2013.