Classified, numbered and inventoried in 1989 except for exceptions indicated in the file. (Files found, classified and inventoried in 2016 and integrated into the 1989 inventory)
This collection contains all documents relating to the International Institute of Physics Solvay (IIPS). The IIPS was created in 1912, following the First Solvay Physics Council of 1911. In 1973, the IIPS and its colleague for chemistry, the IICS merged into a single international institute: The International Institutes of Physics and Chemistry Solvay. This collection concerns the IIPS until 1973. As of this year, the archival documents will therefore be grouped around a third collection: the IIPCS. In this collection, it is possible to find the documents for the creation of the Institute, the minutes of the CA, the minutes of the CS, the budgetary exercises of the CA and the CS, biographical notices, press cuttings, photographs, correspondence at all administrative and scientific levels of the Institute and documents relating to the preparation, follow-up and publication of the reports of the first fourteen Solvay Physics Councils.
A. 1-256 Foundation and organisation of the Institute, 1912-1914.
This sub-collection is divided into three files which contain all the documents relating to the foundation of the IIPS, its first statutes and its regulations in 1912 and 1913. It also contains the correspondence of Walther Nernst and Ernest Solvay with various companies and scholars of the time as well as a series of press clippings relating to the creation of the Institute.
B. 258-646 Administrative commission, 1912
This sub-collection is divided into two files which concern the founding of the Administrative Commission and its first steps as the administrative structure of the Institute. The former concerns the first minutes of the Institute as well as a series of reports and correspondence between the various members of this commission and Ernest Solvay. The latter deals with the granting of research or travel grants to various members of the Institute from 1912 to 1948, as well as the annual budget expenditure exercises of the IIPS, ordered by academic year.
B.I. 258-332 Composition and activity of the commission, 1912-1959
Deliberations of the administrative commission and various minutes of the first meetings, composition of the board and correspondence of the members of the board.
B.II. 333-646 Scholarships Grants, 1913-1942
Exercises of the IIPS administrative commission from 1913 to 1942. A series of correspondence relating to the granting of scholarships and budgetary expenditure is also included.
B.III. 1-167 Activity of the administrative commission, 1945-1962
Dossier found in 2016 and inserted in the 1989 classification
B.IV.1-629 Accounting, 1912-1961
Dossier found in 2016 and inserted in the 1989 classification
C. 647-1309 Scientific Committee, 1912-1954
This sub-collection is divided into two files. The first concerns the composition and activities of the scientific committee as well as various correspondence between scientists and scholars from 1912 to 1954. The second concerns the subsidies given by the scientific commission to scientists for their research grants abroad, the researchers Belgians wishing to be financed as well as the funds allocated to the establishment of various conferences and Solvay Physics Councils from 1912 to 1938.
C.I. 647-1115 Composition and activity of the scientific commission
Minutes of the scientific commission from 1912 to 1954 and various correspondence between the members of the scientific committee. Changes to the scientific commission's statutes can be found there. A copy of the manifesto of the 93 and a file about the resumption of scientific exchanges with the Germans after the Second World War are included in this file (out of respect for the original order). Finally, several press releases and clippings concerning the scientific commission are also included in this file.
C.II. 1116-1309 Subsides, 1912-1938
Budgetary exercises of the scientific commission, expenses for the granting of scholarships to foreigners or Belgians as well as those for the establishment of the councils from 1912 to 1919. A press file from 1913 to 1934 can be also found here.
C.III.1-41 Correspondence and activities of the scientific commission, 1947-1963
Dossier found in 2016 and inserted in the 1989 classification
C.IV.1310-1317 Statutes, 1911-1949
Dossier found in 2016 and inserted in the 1989 classification
C.V.1318-1686 Conferences, 1914-1967
Documents relating to several lectures given by renowned physicists between 1914 and 1967. In particular, the documents concerning the lectures of Hendrik A. Hendrik Lorentz on March 27, 1914; P. Weiss, February 28, 1920; M.Leblancen1921; as well as A. Rateau's conference project. Also, a series of diversified documents about these conferences is contained.
D. 21687-5427 International Physics Councils, 1911-1967