John Brackett Hersey (1913-1992) was born in Wolfsboro, New Hampshire. After graduating from Princeton University with an A.B. in 1934 and an M.A. in 1935, Hersey took a Ph.D in physics with a minor in geology from Lehigh University in 1943. His was the first doctoral degree in physics given by the department and it was here that Hersey came under the influence of Maurice “Doc” Ewing.

Employment and military service prior to his years at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) included work for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Phillips Petroleum, a teaching assignment in Lehigh’s Geology Department, and a tour with the U.S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory. In 1944, he was commissioned in the U.S. Naval Reserve and retired two years later as a lieutenant.

Before and after World War II, Professor Ewing, Hersey and other students from Lehigh used Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ships in their research. This exposure lured Hersey to Woods Hole in 1946 and he remained with the Institution for more than 20 years. He started as a Research Associate and rapidly progressed to Senior Scientist. In 1963, Hersey was made the first Chairman of the Geology and Geophysics Department, a position he formally held until 1968. Hersey took a leave of absence in 1966 to work for the Office of Naval Research principally as Deputy Assistant Oceanographer and Special Assistant to the Assistant of the Navy for Research and Development. He resigned from WHOI in 1968. Hersey’s Civil Service retirement in 1979 was followed by 11 years with Science Application, Inc, (SAIC) as Senior Staff Scientist. Honors during his military and civilian career included an Individual Citation Medal and Distinguished Civilian Service Medal from the U.S. Navy and the Fleming Medal given by the American Institute of Geonomy and Natural Resources.

Hersey’s principal scientific interests were in solid earth geophysics, marine seismology and geology, underwater acoustics, and sound scattering by marine animals. While he received patents for methods of study and applications in marine seismology and underwater acoustics, his best-known patent was for the Continuous Seismic Profiler which was used for continuous measurement of layered sediment structures beneath the ocean floor. Hersey authored or co-authored over 50 scientific journal articles and has an equal number of unpublished manuscripts on subjects of interest to the U.S. Navy. He also contributed approximately 10 review chapters in scientific books on underwater acoustics, marine geophysics, marine animal acoustics and oceanographic instrumentation. Other projects Hersey was involved in include Projects Nobska, Medea, and Atlantis; and with Allyn Vine on SOSUS.

Hersey was a Fellow in the Acoustical Society of America, Geological Society of America and the Royal Astronomical Society. His membership in scientific societies included American Geophysical Union, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Seismological Society of America. While at WHOI Hersey served on a number of committees for the Navy, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, and others.

During the 1970’s, John Brackett Hersey’s secretary, Florence Mellor, transferred 6 boxes to the Data Library and Archives (DLA) from the department of Geology and Geophysics. In 1995, Mrs. Sally Hersey, Brackett’s wife, gave WHOI 7 boxes which were delivered to the Institution by Contemporary Naval Historian Gary Weir. Cruise data acquired by the DLA arrived at various times.

The Papers of John Brackett Hersey consist of 18 boxes of documents dating from 1940 to 1989 (7.5 linear feet). These contain departmental records, correspondence, memorandum, committee minutes, proposals, reports, reviews, patent information, drafts of papers, book chapters and speeches, notebooks, cruise journals, daily logs, data, charts, news clippings, drawings, 8 rolls of film, 63 photos of instruments, and over 100 other photographs. The bulk of his papers span the years 1960-1970 and encompass Hersey’s role as Chairman of Geology and Geophysics at WHOI and his work for ONR. There are six series: Personal, Chronological, Correspondence, AMSOC-MOHOLE, IIOE, and Manuscripts.

Personal

Contained within this series are notebooks of essays and lecture notes from 1956-1962 when Hersey taught courses in Oceanography part-time at MIT, journals from cruises aboard Yamacraw and Chain 19, daily logs, correspondence and memberships. A draft of his autobiography covering the years 1946 -1948 is located in Box 18 (Oversized).

Chronological

Folders are arranged chronologically and then by subject and contain materials similar to those found in other series. Included are letters, memorandum, drawings, handwritten notes, patent information, proposals, and articles. Major subjects include Thresher, JOIDES, Big Sparker, Gulf of Maine, the Navy’s ten-year program (TENOC), Tongue of the Ocean, and correspondence regarding Harold Edgerton’s “Boomer” paper.

Correspondence

Correspondence was grouped by Agency, Company, and Individual and then chronologically within groups. Additional correspondence with Harold Edgerton may be in found Edgerton, Germeshausen & Grier, Inc. files. Roy Rather, who left WHOI for Commercial Engineering Corporation has correspondence in those files.

AMSOC – MOHOLE

As an American Miscellaneous Society (AMSOC) member, Hersey served on the site selection panel for Project Mohole. This series includes minutes of various AMSOC Committee and Panel meetings, memoranda, letters, articles, documents on drilling contractors and platforms as well as information on Soviet drilling projects and LOCO. The contents of this series also reflect Hersey’s work in 1961 on R/V Chain and his partnership with Maurice Ewing and Roger Revelle in forming the Consortium for Oceanic Research and Exploration, Inc. (CORE).

IIOE

Hersey participated in the International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE) during the 1960’s. This series includes correspondence, memoranda, proposals, notes, articles, a list of participants and cruises in this multidisciplined project.

Manuscripts

This series contains articles and drafts written by Hersey, as well as lectures, speeches, and reprints of his published papers that may not be available in the MBL/WHOI Library. The topics reflect Hersey’s interest in underwater sound transmission, acoustics, explosive echo-ranging and thermistor chain data. Also included is his personal account of the work of the Thresher advisory group. A large section of folders is devoted to material that is presumed to be a work or works in progress Hersey was preparing with Helen Roberts, another WHOI scientist, on the underwater acoustic ray theory. Included are drafts and revision of an historical overview, approximately seven chapters, and bibliographical material. A draft of Hersey’s autobiography can be found in the Personal series (or oversized) and other writings may be integrated into the Chronological and Correspondence series.

Some technical reports and data have been integrated into the Data Library and Archives collection. Except for the grouping of the “Correspondence Files” by Agency, Company, and Individual, there was no discernable order to the remaining contents. Metal clips and staples were removed, acidic and fragile materials were photocopied, and the papers were put into labeled, acid-free folders and boxes. Photographs were put into archival sleeves. Bottom photos, film, charts and ship tracks, and additional reports were integrated into the various Data Library and Archives collections.

 Additional materials relating to John Brackett Hersey include his 1991 oral history. Materials may also be found in the departmental records from Geology and Geophysics (AC 12) and in the papers of Columbus Iselin, Allyn Vine, Sydney Knott, and Frederic Hess. The Navy has additional Hersey materials in the collection at the Naval Research Laboratory.

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