Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1939-1945 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
4 boxes of textual and graphic records
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Professor of organic chemistry, University of Toronto.
Wright was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa and received a PhD from Iowa State College in 1932. He did post-doctoral work at Iowa State, Harvard University and the University of Vienna. He came to Canada to teach at McGill University in 1935 and joined the staff at U of T in 1936. He became a full professor in 1941.
During the Second World War, he helped develop RDX, the most powerful explosive known at the time. For his work he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire and was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the United States.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Four chronologically ordered volumes relating to research carried out by Professor George F Wright on Second World War defence projects for the federal government of Canada through the National Research Council of Canada.
The first volume is Defence Project CE-12 and encompassses the dates December, 1939 to June, 1942. It contains a series of chemical research reports related to wartime defence initiatives. The following three volumes consists of reports to ACE (Associate Commitee on Explosives) covering the dates August 1944 to June 1945. They contain reports, previously marked 'secret' relating to wartime research and experimentation on the explosive properties of compounds. Some of the reports contain photographs tipped in; there is also a file of loose photographs and correspondence.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Chronological
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open