A small collection of papers and images from Robert S. Arthur (1916-1995), a physical oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Robert S. Arthur Papers, 1938-1987 (SMC 70)
Extent: .8 Linear feet (2 archives boxes and 2 oversize folders)
Digital Content
Slides, one photograph, and the Pacific cloth survival charts from this collection have been digitized.
Robert Siple Arthur (1916-1995), emeritus professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, received his bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Redlands in 1938. He began graduate studies in mathematics at UCLA in 1940, but changed to meteorology as the United States entered World War II. He was commissioned as an aerological officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1942 and was assigned to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, in 1944 to carry out research with Harald Sverdrup on ocean waves.
Arthur continued at Scripps after the war as a student and received his doctorate in 1950 in physical oceanography. He was appointed to the faculty in 1951 and retired in 1979. He was a member of the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society. He served on many of the Scripps administrative committees.
Arthur published numerous research papers on waves, ocean temperature, currents, and tsunamis during his career, but teaching physical oceanography remained a primary professional interest.
Adapted from "University of California: In Memoriam, 1996."
A small collection of papers and images from Robert S. Arthur (1916-1995), a physical oceanographer and professor emeritus at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The collection contains a small amount of correspondence and photographs, including prints from the 1951 dedication of the T. Wayland Vaughan Aquarium-Museum, and a snapshot of Harald Sverdrup and Walter Munk from 1946. The bulk of the material consists of teaching outlines and lecture notes from Oceanography 110 (Introduction to Physical Oceanography), administrative papers relating to courses and historic enrollment at the SIO, and an assortment of slides documenting the 1952 Shellback expedition, the coastline of La Jolla, the UC San Diego campus, the ship E.W. Scripps, and Friday Harbor, Washington.
The collection also includes four World War II-era cloth survival charts. To increase the odds of recovery and rescue of airplane crash survivors in the Pacific, in 1942 the Army Air Forces initiated a contract with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to design a series of Pacific area charts illustrating ocean currents and drift patterns. Harold Sverdrup designed an unidentified number of charts, some of which may have been printed on acetate rayon fabric and distributed to pilots and aircraft personnel. Charts in this collection were issued by the Naval Air Combat Intelligence, Hydrographic Office (NACI-HO) and Army Air Forces.
Arranged in two series: 1) PAPERS, PHOTOS AND SLIDES, and 2) CLOTH SURVIVAL CHARTS.