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**THIS VERSION PROVIDED FOR SEARCHING/INDEXING ONLY**
A more fully navigable version is available at
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms003071

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Claude Elwood Shannon
A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress


Prepared by Joseph K. Brooks 
2003
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress 
Washington, D.C.
Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html
Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress 
Manuscript Division, 2003


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Collection Summary

Title:    Papers of Claude Elwood Shannon , 1932 - 1995 (bulk 1938 -
1989 ) 
ID No.:    MSS84831 
Creator: Shannon, Claude Elwood, 1916-2001 
Extent:    7,000 items ; 20 containers plus 1 oversize, 1 computer file, and
1 classified ; 8 linear feet 
Repository:    Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C. 
Abstract:    Mathematician, information theorist, and computer scientist.
Correspondence, scientific papers, theorems, topical files, articles, notes,
speeches, and miscellaneous material relating to Shannon's professional
life.

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of
person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed
alphabetically therein. 
Names:
Shannon, Claude Elwood, 1916- 
Andrew, Merle M.--Correspondence 
Ashby, William Ross--Correspondence 
Berkeley, Edmund Callis--Correspondence 
Biunno, Vincent P.--Correspondence 
Bode, Hendrik W. (Hendrik Wade), 1905- --Correspondence 
Brown, Gordon Stanley, 1907-1996--Correspondence 
Campbell, John William, 1889- --Correspondence 
Casby, James U.--Correspondence 
Dowling, Kevin--Correspondence 
Elias, P. (Peter)--Correspondence 
Flanagan, Dennis, 1919- --Correspondence 
Flood, Merrill Meeks, 1908- --Correspondence 
Gabor, Dennis, 1900- --Correspondence 
Hubbard, L. Ron (La Fayette Ron), 1911- --Correspondence 
Kleene, Stephen Cole, 1909- --Correspondence 
Lasker, Edward, 1885- --Correspondence 
Levy, David N. L.--Correspondence 
Liversidge, Anthony--Correspondence 
McCarthy, John, 1927- --Correspondence 
Moore, Edward F.--Correspondence 
Pierce, John Robinson, 1910- --Correspondence 
Piore, Emanuel Ruben, 1908- --Correspondence 
Price, G. Baley (Griffith Baley), 1905- --Correspondence 
Sagan, Carl, 1934- --Correspondence 
Shneidman, Edwin S.--Correspondence 
Singmaster, David--Correspondence 
Stratton, Julius Adams, 1901- --Correspondence 
Uttley, A. M.--Correspondence 
Von Neumann, John, 1903-1957--Correspondence 
Weaver, Warren, 1894- --Correspondence 
Bell Telephone Laboratories, inc. 

Subjects:
Computer chess 
Computer games 
Computers 
Games--Data processing 
Information theory 
Telecommunication 

Occupations:
Computer scientists
Information theorists
Mathematicians

Administrative Information
Provenance:
The papers of Claude Elwood Shannon, mathematician, information
theorist, and computer scientist, were given to the Library of Congress by
Mary E. Shannon in 2001.

Copyright Status:
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Claude Elwood
Shannon is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17,
U.S.C.).

Security Classified Documents:
Government regulations control the use of security classified items in this
collection. Manuscript Division staff can furnish information concerning
access to and use of any classified items.

Preferred Citation:
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following
information: Container number, Claude Elwood Shannon Papers,
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note
Date Event 
1916 , Apr. 30 Born, Petoskey, Mich. 
1936  B.S., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 
1940  M.Sc., electrical engineering, and Ph.D., mathematics,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. 
1940 - 1941  Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.J. 
1948  Published "A Mathematical Theory of Communication," Bell
System Technical Journal 
1949  Married Mary E. Moore 
1941 - 1958  Research mathematician, Bell Telephone Laboratories,
Murray Hill, N.J. 
1958 - 1978  Donner Professor of Science, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Mass. 
1985  Awarded Kyoto Prize 
2001 , Feb. 24 Died, Medford, Mass. 

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Claude Elwood Shannon (1916-2001), mathematician,
computer scientist, and information theorist, span the years 1932-1995,
with the bulk of the material dating from 1938 to1989. Shannon
established the field of information theory with several seminal scientific
papers, including "A Mathematical Theory of Communication," published
in 1948. He was first to realize that the bit, expressed mathematically with
only two symbols, ones and zeros, could serve as the basic unit of any kind
of electronically generated information in communications and computer
systems. His papers are organized in Correspondence, Speeches and
Writings, Miscellany, Oversize, Computer File, and Classified series. A
few documents are in French, German, Russian, or Japanese. 
The Correspondence series, grouped in general and postcard files,
documents the promulgation of ideas based on information theory, not
only in mathematics, computer science, electrical engineering and other
scientific and technical fields, but in sociology, law, economics,
psychology, linguistics, and literature as well. The correspondence also
relates to areas in which Shannon's professional and avocational interests
converged, such as programming computers and automata to play chess
and other games, run mazes, juggle, and solve puzzles. There is also
additional material on these topics in the Miscellany series. Scientific
papers attached to general correspondence have been filed in the
Miscellany series. The postcards are related mostly to the distribution of
Shannon's scientific papers during 1948-1951.

Correspondents include Merle M. Andrew, William Ross Ashby, Edmund
Callis Berkeley, Vincent Biunno, Hendrik W. Bode, Gordon Stanley
Brown, John William Campbell, James U. Casby, Kevin Dowling, Peter
Elias, Dennis Flanagan, Merrill M. Flood, Dennis Gabor, L. Ron Hubbard,
Stephen Cole Kleene, Edward Lasker, David N. L. Levy, Anthony F.
Liversidge, John McCarthy, Edward F. Moore, John R. Pierce, Emanuel R.
Piore, G. Baley Price, Carl Sagan, Edwin S. Shneidman, David
Singmaster, Julius Adams Stratton, A. M. Uttley, John Von Neumann, and
Warren Weaver.

Articles and scientific papers among the Speeches and Writings series,
including theorems, are organized in alphabetical and chronological files.
Dated articles and scientific papers are arranged chronologically, while the
undated material is organized alphabetically by title. Shannon's articles
and papers published under the auspices of his employer, Bell Telephone
Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey, and meant for general
dissemination are part of the Speeches and Writings, but technical
memoranda, Shannon's work produced at the company, are part of the Bell
Telephone Laboratories file in the Miscellany series.

Organization of the Papers
The collection is arranged in six series:

Correspondence, 1938-1995, n.d. 
Speeches and Writings, 1938-1987, n.d. 
Miscellany, 1932-1993, n.d. 
Oversize, 1949-1953, n.d. 
Computer File, 1993 
Classified, 1940-1943, n.d.
April 15, 2004