ALS, one page, 5.5 x 6.5, The Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, New Jersey) letterhead, November 30, 1955. Handwritten letter to the wife of educator Ransom Lynch of Exeter, New Hampshire, in full: “This is a bread & butter letter to thank you de tout couer for the delights of your home, for the warmth and spirit, for the talk and food and wood smoke, and much more besides. My very best to Mr. Lynch and to you, & hasta luegito.” In fine condition. Accompanied by the original hand-addressed mailing envelope.
The recipient’s husband, Ransom Van Brunt Lynch (1915-2006), was a prestigious mathematics instructor who taught at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1939 and continued to do so for over 40 years, in addition to teaching stops at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Los Alamos Ranch School, and the Princeton Center for Advanced Studies; although unconfirmed, it appears probable that Lynch and Oppenheimer became acquaintances during their shared tenures in either New Mexico or New Jersey.
In a letter dated March 11, 1955, roughly a year after Robert Oppeheimer’s security clearance was officially revoked by the Atomic Energy Commission, William Saltonstall, the president of Phillips Exeter Academy, extended a formal invitation to the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ with the request: ‘Is it possible that you would be able to come to Exeter sometime this spring as the first Visiting Fellow?’ On November 16, 1955, Oppenheimer arrived at Exeter and, as this letter suggests, stayed with the Lynches during his week in New Hampshire.
The school’s student-run newspaper, The Exonian, reported that Oppenheimer spent eight hours a day speaking with students and teachers: ‘Friday was a typical day. In the morning, the doctor, after having met with the Science Department, held discussions with four science sections. He ate lunch with eight or 10 of the leading science students. After talking with boys for most of the afternoon on the balcony of the Art Gallery, Dr. Oppenheimer had dinner with some of the faculty.’
The week culminated with Oppenheimer’s remarks to the entire Exeter community on a Monday evening in the Academy Building. The address received the highest marks from the school’s students, whom he encouraged ‘to look into some area of science you do not understand, to have a sense of impotence and darkness about it, to find your way gradually into seeing what it is really all about, of seeing how it ties up with things you have known before, to see its order and its beauty. It is something that you will never forget.’
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