Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of Richard Scott Mitchell, Accession #12786, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was received on January 16, 1989 from Hugh M. Leavell, Trust Officer at Jefferson National Bank and bears no restrictions.

Biographical/Historical Information

Richard Scott Mitchell was born on January 28, 1929 in Longmont, Colorado. Trained as a geologist, Mitchell was an expert in mineralogy and crystallography. After earning a B.S. in 1950 and M.S. in 1951 from the University of Michigan, Mitchell became an assistant professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia in 1953. In 1956, Michigan awarded Mitchell his doctorate. His dissertation, Polytypism of Cadmium Iodide and Its Relationship to Screw Dislocations, discussed the numerous structural types of cadmium iodide that Mitchell had discovered and the growth of these structures as evidence for the screw dislocation theory of crystal growth. Mitchell stayed at the University of Virginia for the rest of his career, becoming full professor in 1963, and was acting chairman of the department from 1964 to 1969. He was appointed executive editor of Rocks & Minerals magazine in 1976 and elected to membership in various professional organizations and honorary societies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Mineral Society of America, the Geological Society of America, Sigma Xi, and Sigma Gamma Epsilon. Mitchell died at the age of 59 on August 2, 1988. For a more complete chronology of Mitchell's career, see the entry from American Men and Women of Science (Physical and Biological Sciences, 14th edition, 1979). For an abstract of his dissertation, see the entry from Dissertation Abstracts International (Vol. 17, 1957).

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of ca. 1500 items (8.5 Hollinger boxes, ca. 3.5 shelf feet) and dates from 1937 to 1988. The collection is mostly personal in nature, including correspondence, receipts, invoices, adn photographs. The collection also contains the diaries of Mitchell and his parents, Margaret May Hartman Mitchell and Clarence Floyd Mitchell.