What's New/Changelog
6 December 2023
Six new pages:
- Wash U Archives and Library exhibit about Michael (mid 2023)
This comprises a main page and one page about each of the four display cases, plus numerous photos and a link to a new external gallery. - Michael's physics and science books donated to Physics Department Library
1100 books donated to departmental library, with a link to a catalog David created of the collection.
29 April 2023
On the second anniversary of Michael's death
9 pages, 18 PDF documents and 46 images added to the site!
Over the summer and fall of 2022, I was helping my mom, Jessica, in the task of preparing to downsize from their house to an apartment. In the end, nearly 25 additional banker boxes worth of material (a full four-drawer filing cabinet plus more) was given to the Washington University Archives (and other material was kept or discarded). I went through a lot of this page by page, both to determine what was appropriate for the archives and what material I might want to add to this web site.
The most major addition to the site this time is actually external (unrelated) to my parents' house:
a
transcript
of Michael's participation in a debate with Edward Teller on the BBC in September 1971.
New pages
- Testimony before the Alaska Legislative Council and the United States Senate opposing below-ground nuclear tests in Amchitka (Alaskan Aleutian Islands), 1969.
- Numerous articles about his 1962 cosmic ray balloon experiment in Calvinia, South Africa, including what is basically a "local boy makes good" profile article.
- Laudatory letters from multiple Washington University Chancellors and more on academic freedom and leadership.
- His involvement in the effort to secure a presidential pardon for Vietnam War-era protester Howard Mechanic, 2001.
- A 1994 Dean's Award I had not previously known about.
- Context and extra documents about a symposium on Dialogue: The Purpose of Washington University. (The Post-Dispatch article was already on this site, but now I knew more about that which it was reporting.)
- Details about his table tennis involvement in South Africa.
- An item found in his table tennis scrapbook was a remarkable 1951 letter from his uncle, Julius Lewin, a well-known civil rights lawyer, advising him about "pingpong" and race relations.
- Details about his rifle shooting in South Africa and Bristol.
Revised pages
- Education and Universities page. Added Bristol's H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory brochure (1956); more information on the significance of the G-Stack Collaboration paper; scanned cloth patches from Sea Point Boys School and UCT; revised information about Brian May.
- CNI & Baby Tooth Survey page. Replaced graphic at the top of the page of a scan of the Baby Tooth Survey logo with scan of two actual buttons I had found in the house; Found St. Louis Beacon article (2009) (web printout which I scanned) when I previously only had a thank you note from the editor (still on this web page) and a submitted draft of the article text. Added circa 1960 Baby Tooth Survey original booklet. Also included the Amchitka testimony page referenced above.
- Books page. Found original Washingtonian Magazine article with photo of Einstein sculpture (National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.) with a stack of science books, including "Fringes of Science." Added name of magazine, corrected date of magazine issue and added copyright credits.
Other new documents
- A fold-open portfolio from the Chancellor of Wash U with a condolence letter, May 2021.
- 2005 book review of James Gleick's 'Isaac Newton'
- inclusion of scans of cloth patches from jackets and so forth for schools and colleges, and rifle shooting.
- Photos of the college diplomas for Michael's parents (Hirsch in 1916 and Rose in 1920), linked from the family history page sections for each of them.
- Two small newspaper articles about becoming interim chairman of the music department, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Wash U "Student Life", 1984.
- Twelve-page sales brochure for Astronomy: From Stonehenge to Quasars textbook, showing features of the book. 1985.
- Harvard University Press brochures promoting new books:
1990 Science Studies
and 1991 Space Studies;
Also a booklet showing the main selection for February 1990 for the Astronomy Book Club (all three linked from the Cosmic Rays book page) - Flyer and background info for " Science on Trial: The Case of Galileo" held at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Feb 1996
- I (David) assembled a collection of Cahokian covers (1978-2009) showing the importance of the Cahokia Mounds Woodhenge to the organization's mission these days.
Exhibit on Michael's Career at Washington University Olin Library
Also worthy of note: Graduate Student Emily Alberts has worked with Wash U Archivist Sonya Rooney to organize Michael's donated papers. She also decided to do her final project, completing her master's degree in museum studies, on Michael's career. This exhibit, "Reaching New Heights: The Life and Legacy of Michael W. Friedlander", will run for about four months (May 27—Sep 17, 2023) in the Special Collections Reading Room at Olin Library on the Wash U campus.
28 June 2022
While researching for this site, I (David) ran across a number of bibliographic entries for videos (mostly VHS, some DVD) of lectures and colloquia that Michael had given at Wash U over the years. These were all being held by the Washington University Archives. I sent an inquiry this spring to Sonya Rooney, the WU Archivist, whom I had already met a few times because many of Michael's papers were donated to the archives, starting in 2018. She graciously agreed to have these digitized, and I just got the results from her a week ago.
Thus on the Multimedia page, I have added four videos, ranging in time from 1994 to 2004:
- 2004-Oct Saturday Science: Special Relativity
- 2002-Apr Panel discussion about "Copenhagen" play
- 2002-Mar Saturday Science: The Atomic Bomb Projects
- 1994-May In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer
My thanks and credit to Sonya Rooney and her colleagues at the Washington University Archives.
23 May 2022
Having visited home in St. Louis in mid-May, I (David) looked for a variety of documents, finding most of them, and also ran across a series of other documents I was not expecting.
These have now been incorporated into the site.
Most unusual addition (Credit: Walt Schalick) [This is unrelated to the trip to St. Louis] :
In several cases, I had images of the first page of an article but had been unable to track down the full text online. In my father's files I found paper copies of the complete article for each of the following:
- Predictions of Fallout from Project Chariot (1961)
- Nuclear Digging (1964)
- Nuclear Gasbuggy (1968)
- How Many Children? (1969)
- AAUP Bulletin: Report on Corcordia Seminary (1975)
- Academe: Report on UVa (2001)
New photos to illustrate existing pages:
- Wash U Physics page: two photos: Michael at the blackboard and (if one clicks on Library Services Committee) one of Michael seated in the Physics Library. Both of these are scanned from WU brochures, circa 1978-81.
- archaeoastronomy page: Stonehenge with Rachel and David for human scale/interest ; also 1977 fall equinox photo
- Music Dept honorary lifetime chairman award (detail of plaque)
- Founders Day faculty winners together
- cardboard star for Astronomy textbook
- AAUP page
- 2009 letter to editor about tenure
- AAUP reports on academic freedom at Concordia Seminary and the University of Virginia (linked above).
- Articles page
- Is This Trip Necessary? Winter 1970 Wash U Magazine.
- Discovery with no Statistics Required (2010)
- "Science Fact or Fiction" page from May 1989 was also published three other places (e.g., Salt Lake Tribune; Palm Beach Post), and those results are now included here.
- Four complete articles listed above now referenced here.
- Book Reviews by Michael
Quarterly Review of Biology (2003) that I had not previously run across. - CNI & the Baby Tooth Survey
- Link to article from The Appendix
- Education and Universities page
- Hobbies and interests page
Came across shooting trophy and photographed it. This allowed inclusion of inscription and corrected date (1945). Trophy cup is highly reflective and inscription wraps around, so not including actual image for now. - Obituaries page
- Arthur Hughes (1978)
- Public talks and lectures
"Social Reponsibility of Scientists (2013) - Courses for non-physics majors
Added three more courses 1983 to 1999), titles only for now