Papers of John M. Hunt

1962-1994

 

Manuscript Collection 22

(7 linear feet)

Processed by

Stuart Culy

Processing of this collection was partly supported by a grant from
the Friends of the Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics.

                                                                                                     

Access:  Unrestricted.

Copyright:

Permission to publish material from the collection
must be authorized by the Institution Archivist.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Data Library and Archives
MS 8, Woods Hole, MA  02543

April 2001
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Table of Contents

Biographical Note

Provenance

Scope and Content Note

Series Descriptions

Processing Note

Related Collections

Container List


Biographical Note

John M. Hunt was born in Cleveland, OH, in 1918 and received his B.A. in chemistry from Western Reserve University in 1941 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in organic chemistry from Pennsylvania State University in 1943 and 1946, respectively.  In 1947 he joined Standard Oil of New Jersey’s Exploration Research Laboratory in Tulsa, OK.  Dr. Hunt joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as Chairman of the Department of Chemistry in 1964, serving in this capacity until 1974.  Serving as Chief Scientist, Hunt led expeditions to the Red Sea in 1966 and the Black Sea in 1969.  Dr. Hunt chose to step down as Chairman in 1974 in order to devote more time to his research as a Senior Scientist for WHOI.  He was the first American to receive the Treibs Award, the highest international honor in organic geochemistry, in 1982.  In 1984 he was named Scientist Emeritus at the Institution.

In 1964 Hunt became a Distinguished Lecturer of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG).  He worked as an Associate Editor of the Bulletin of the AAPG from 1966 until 1984.  Dr. Hunt has been a member of the U.S. National Committee for Geochemistry sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES) Advisory Panel on Organic Chemistry and Passive Ocean Margins, the American Chemical Society, the AAPG, the Geochemistry Society, and the International Association of Geochemists and Cosmochemists.  He has authored more than 100 publications on petroleum geochemistry, and a reference textbook entitled “Petroleum Geochemistry and Geology.”  Dr. Hunt has testified before both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives on oil pollution.


Provenance

Dr. John M. Hunt donated his papers to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Data Library and Archives in 1999.


Scope and Content Note

The Papers of John M. Hunt consist of 16 boxes of documents from 1962-1994 (7 linear feet).  The files contain memorandum, letters, notes, reviews, proposals, charts, graphs, newspaper and magazine clippings, reports, maps, data, speeches, and translations.  The bulk of the Papers reflect Dr. Hunt’s role as Head of the Chemistry Department and as a Senior Scientist of the Institution, 1964-1994.  One series in the collection, INTEVEP, pertains to Dr. Hunt’s role as a paid consultant for INTEVEP, an affiliate of Petróleos de Venezuela (see series description, below).  Other languages in the collection include Russian and Spanish.


Series Descriptions

Chronological File

Outgoing memorandum and letters with some incoming correspondence attached.  Types of information include administrative correspondence, recruitment letters, scientific correspondence, formal and informal reviews, project and paper proposals, and recommendations.  Gaps in dates correspond roughly with Dr. Hunt’s time at sea.  Two (2) folders contain incoming correspondence of a similar nature, with some outgoing correspondence attached.  Researchers should also see the “Correspondence” and “Subjects” series.

This series contains the same type of material as the “Chronological File”, but is arranged by subject.  Some of this material is duplicative of the “Chronological File”. Researchers should also see the “Chronological File” and “Subjects” series.

Subjects

Arranged alphabetically by subject, thereafter chronologically.  Includes letters, memorandum, charts, maps, graphs, handwritten notes, reviews, clippings, reports, data, project proposals, proposal evaluations, and speeches. Researchers should also see the “Chronological File” and “Correspondence” series.

INTEVEP

Correspondence related to Dr. Hunt’s paid consulting for INTEVEP, an energy corporation affiliated with Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).  Created in 1976, PDVSA is the parent company of the corporation, which is owned by the Republic of Venezuela, and charged with the development of the petroleum, petrochemical, and coal industry of that country.

Book Translations

English language translations from Russian of three (3) chapters of Chemical Composition of Crude Oils and Natural Gas in Relation to their Origin by V.A. Sokolov and M.A. Bestougeff, et al.  English language translation from Russian of one (1) chapter of Petroleum Hydrocarbons by M.A. Bestougeff.


Processing Note

The papers were put into acid-free folders and boxes and labeled. Acidic and fragile papers were photocopied.   Metal clips and staples were removed.  Oversized items and photographs were segregated from the collection.  With the exception of the “Subjects” series, the original order was maintained.  The folders in the “Subjects” series were received in neither chronological nor alphabetical order, and were subsequently arranged in alphabetical order by subject.  Original folder titles were kept when known.

Processing of this collection was partly supported by a grant from the Friends of the Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics.


Related Material

Additional materials relating to John M. Hunt include his oral history interview, and ship’s data from when Dr. Hunt served as Chief Scientist:  Atlantis II, cruise 49-4 and Chain, cruise 61-6 and cruise 61-8.

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Container List

Box Folder Title
Chronological File
1 1964
1965
1/1967-9/1967
1/1968-4/1968
 
2 5/1968-7/1968
1/1969-4/1969
9/1969-12/1969
1/1970-4/1970
5/1970-8/1970
 
3 9/1970-12/1970
1/1971-4/1971
5/1971-7/1971
8/1971-12/1971
1/1972-3/1972
 
4 4/1972-8/1972
9/1972-12/1972
1/1973-4/1973
5/1973-7/1973
 
5 8/1973-2/1974
3/1974-5/1974
6/1974-8/1974
9/1974-12/1974
1/1975-6/1975
6 7/1975-9/1975
10/1975-12/1975
1/1976-6/1976
7/1976-4/1977
5/1977-12/1977
1978
7 1979
1980
1981
1982
1985
1986, 1987
Incoming, 1974-1980
Incoming, 1985-1987
Correspondence
8 Abiogenic Methane, 1979
American and Canadian, 1965-1974
China, 1987-1990
Czechoslovakia, 1965-1978
Department of Energy (DOE), 1984
European, 1964-1979
Huc, Alain, 1980-1981
Israel and India, 1967-1978
Japan, 1968-1975
Moscow Trip, 1976-1977
Taiwan, 1986-1995
USSR, 1978-1979
USSR, 1980-1984
Subjects
9 American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Continuing Education, 1969-1976
AAPG Education, 1983-1984
Analytical Methods, 1962-1973
Argentina, 1982
Associate Editor, 1978-1980
Austin Chalk, 1980
Awards and C.V., n.d.
Black Sea Data, 1975 (2 folders)
C 8 Figures, 1993
 
10 Caspian Sea, 1972-1978 (2 folders)
China, 1983-1986 (3 folders)
Comments and Suggestions for Research Program in Valdez Area, n.d.
Compaction and Pore Pressure, 1991-1992
Control of Liquid Effluent Wastes from VCM Complex, Proposed for the Netherlands Antilles, n.d.
Crosby Visiting Professor Position, MIT, 1980-1981
Deep Gas – Articles and Notes, 1979
DOE Meeting, Oklahoma City, 1986
Dow Geochemistry Services, Inc. (DGSI), 1985-1987
DGSI, News, 1987-1992
Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) – Samplers – Organic Carbon Data, Black Sea [Leg 42 B], 1976
DSDP, Leg 63 and 64, n.d.
DSDP Samples [Leg 63, 64, and 69], 1978-1979
11 Eastern Europe Trips, 1972-1976
E-DI – 2385 M, 1979
Equipment Operations, 1981
Europe Trip, 1962-1963
Europe Trip, 1965
Gas Chromatography, 1978-1979
Gas Research Institute (GRI) Programs, 1987-1990
GRI Symposium Notes, 1992
Global Basin Research Network (GBRN), 1989
GBRN, 1990-1991
GBRN, Organic Geochemistry Meeting, 1988, 1991
Geochemical Society Translations Committee, 1968-1973
Geochemical Studies of Hydrocarbons, 1966, 1971
Geochemical Technique, 1980
8th International Congress on Organic Geochemistry, 1977
Japan National Oil Corporation (JNOC), 1988-1991
JNOC Symposium, 1988-1989
Japan Travel, 1989
 
12 Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES), 1968-1972 (2 folders)
JOIDES, Florida, 1966-1968
JOIDES, Organic Geochemistry Panel, 1970-1979
JOIDES, Reprints, 1974
Lopatin, 1976
Meeting Notes, 1974-1979
Meetings, AAPG, 1981-1984
Mobil, 1974-1984
Mobil vs. Coastal, 1982
 
13 Notes, 1980-1981
National Science Foundation (NSF), 1981
NSF, GA-25234, Black Sea, 1968-1973
Ocean Industry Program, 1977-1984
Oil on the Outer Continental Shelf Hearing, Atlantic City, 1976
Oklahoma, 1982-1983
Office of Naval Research (ONR), 1976-1977
ONR Proposals – Ratings, 1977-1984
Organic Carbon Analysis, 1971-1975
Organic Geochemistry, 1979
Paris Meetings on Organic Chemistry, 1973-1974
 
14 Passive Margin, 1976-1981
Personnel and Tenure, 1971-1988
Philp, Dr. R. Paul, 1980-1989 (2 folders)
Production Data, 1979
Publications Submitted, 1971-1985
Pyrolysis, 1972, 1975, 1980-1981
Reviews, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1983
Sample Requests, 1977-1979
Slope Wells, 1978-1984
Speeches, 1967-1972 (2 folders)
Treibs Medal Committee, 1990-1991
Trinidad Geological Conference, 1965
 
15 USSR (Russia), 1990-1994
USSR Letter, 1977
Venezuela, 1981-1983, 1985 (3 folders)
Western Taiwan Fold and Thrust Belt, 1967-1992
Wilde, Pat, 1976-1977
INTEVEP
General, 1983
Correspondence, 1983-1984
Consultation, 1986
Report # 7, 1985
Report # 8, 1986
Report # 9, 1988
 
16 Book Translations
Chemical Composition of Crude Oils and Natural Gas in Relation to their Origin, General and Correspondence, 1974-1976
Chemical Composition…, Chapter 2
Chemical Composition…, Chapter 3
Chemical Composition…, Chapter 5
Petroleum Hydrocarbons, Chapter 3

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