Fujita, Dr. Tetsuya Theodore "Ted", Papers, 1875-2003 and undated

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10605/298

Descriptive Summary

  • Creator: Fujita, Tetsuya Theodore
  • Title: T. Theodore Fujita Collection
  • Dates: 1875-2003 and undated
  • Abstract: The T. Theodore Fujita collection consists of manuscripts, photographs/slides/negatives, film, video, maps, and miscellaneous artifacts related to the life and career of Tetsuya Theodore Fujita, and to the Texas Tech University Wind Science Engineering Research Center
  • Collection #: S 1697
  • Quantity: 109 boxes and 21 oversized folders (97 linear feet)
  • Language: English.
  • Repository: Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University

Biographical Sketch

Tetsuya Theodore Fujita (1920-1998) was born in Kitakyushu, Japan. After receiving his doctorate from Tokyo University in 1950, he began a career as an associate professor at the Kyushu Institute of Technology. In 1953, he began to teach at the University of Chicago, at which he served as a professor until his death in 1998. During his career, Ted Fujita researched meteorology, focusing on severe storms such as microbursts, tornadoes, and hurricanes. He pioneered new techniques for documenting severe storms, including aerial photography and the use of satellite images and film. He also created the Fujita Scale for assessing tornado strength based on a given storm's wind speed and the amount of damage it caused.

Scope and Content

The Dr. T. Theodore Fujita Collection contains published manuscripts, draft manuscripts, charts, graphs, maps, photographs, photographic negatives, slides, and miscellaneous other materials pertaining to his four decades of meteorological research. A complete set--over 200--reports from Satellite and Mesometeorology Research Project (SMRP) are present. This was his most significant project, documenting for the first time such phenomena as downbursts, multiple-vortex tornadoes, and other groundbreaking meteorological observations and discoveries. Publications, conference proceedings, and research materials from the SMRP, as well as from the National Severe Storms Project (NSSP) and JAWS (Joint Airport Weather Study), comprise the bulk of the collection.

Exclusive of these projects is a geographically and chronologically diverse collection of newspapers documenting such events as 1974’s tornadic Superoutbreak, the F-5 Lubbock tornado of 1970, the large Joplin, Missouri tornado of 1973, and dozens of other incidents. Charts--both printed and hand-drawn with attendant graphs, hundreds of photographs, and a wide variety of other research material formats documenting these occurrences is also present.

The audio/visual portion of the collection contains such items as the first full-motion satellite images of the Earth, the use of which he pioneered as a meteorological assessment and prediction technique. Audio cassettes and CDs, VHS tapes, 8mm and other sizes of film, and a handful of diskettes are a part of the audio/visual component as well.

Organization

The collection is organized chronologically, then topically.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions: Open for research

Index Terms

The subject headings used by the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library are derived from the Library of Congress and/ore locally developed.

Subjects
  • Fujita, Tetsuya Theodore
Subjects (Organizations)
  • Texas Tech University. Wind Science and Engineering Center
  • University of Chicago
  • United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Subjects
  • Cyclones
  • Cyclones--United States
  • Hurricanes
  • Hurricanes--United States
  • Hurricanes--United States--Research
  • Meteorology
  • Meteorology--United States
  • Microbursts
  • Monsoons
  • Monsoons-Asia
  • Satellite Meteorology
  • Satellite Meteorology--United States
  • Satellites
  • Severe Storms
  • Severe Storms--United States
  • Skylab Program
  • Thunderstorms
  • Thunderstorms--United States
  • Tornadoes
  • Tornadoes--United States
  • Tornadoes--International
  • Tornadoes--Forecasting--Research--United States
  • Tornadoes--Photographs
  • Tornadoes--Research--United States
  • Typhoons
  • Typhoons--Pacific Ocean
  • Weather Forecasting
  • Weather Forecasting--History

Satellite and Mesometerology Project (SMRP)

Box 11

Box 12

Box 13

Box 14

Box 15

Box 16

+++Wind Research Laboratory (WRL)

+++SMRP

Box 16

+++WRL

+++Miscellaneous

+++WRL

Box 17

+++General

+++NASA

+++WRL

+++Hurricanes

+++Storm Data Project (SDP)

+++El Nino

+++SDP

+++WRL

+++NOAA

+++WRL

+++SMRP

+++WRL

+++Severe Local Storms Project (SLSP)

Box 18

+++Reports, Formal Publications and Conference Proceedings

Box 83

Box 84

Box 87

Box 88

Box 89

Box 90

Box 91

Box 92

Box 96

    • Folder 1, FLOWS MESONET Paste-ups, 0 through 30, undated
    • Folder 2, PAM Station Paste-ups, 42 through 50, undated
    • Folder 3, LLWAS Paste-Ups, undated
    • Folder 4, PAM Station Paste-ups, 0 through 41, undated
    • Folder 5, "Kenro Setting to Make Negatives for the MIST/FLOWS/SPACE/LLWAS Obstructions Paper;" transparencies, charts, photographs, undated
    • Folder 6, 94% Reduction for PAM, LLWAS, FLOWS MESONET Stations, undated
    • Folder 7, PAM Station, 0 through 41; data, charts, undated
    • Folder 8, 94% Reduction for PAM Station, 0 through 41; data, charts, undated
    • Folder 9, 94% Reduction for FLOWS MESONET, 0 through 30, undated

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