Herring Brain Box

The Herring Reference Archive is a digitized version of the Herring Brain Box, a collection of scientific references identified and cataloged by Dr. W. Conyers Herring, head of the Theory Group at Bell Labs during the Laboratory’s golden years – 1945 to 1985. It differs from a conventional catalog in being tastefully selective. Dr. Herring, an excellent theoretical physicist, personally examined each reference and made an entry only if he judged it to be important. His standards were high. Nothing made it into the archive unless it was very fine physics or very fine engineering – and preferably both. The Herring archive eventually became incorporated into Bell’s corporate personality and influenced many of its research decisions. The archive is thus a fascinating historical record of the birth of the electronic age. Herring’s references were not, unfortunately, recorded digitally but instead written by hand as scribbles on 3×5 cards – mostly in English but occasionally in Russian, German or French.

Here are the digital version of many Herring Brain Boxes:

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