The collection is open for research.
The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials. Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form: http://bit.ly/scuareproduction. Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form: http://bit.ly/scuapublication. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives (specref@vt.edu or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Irving J. Good Papers, Ms1982-018, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The Irving J. Good Papers were donated to Special Collections in several accessions between 1982 and 2013. A final donation of the last 5 volumes of Good's bound works were donated in June 2016.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Irving J. Good Papers was completed in May 2013. The 2016 donation was processed in June 2016.
Irving John Good (December 9, 1916-April 5, 2009) was an Emeritus University Distinguished Professor of Statistics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Educated at Cambridge University (Ph.D., mathematics, 1941; Sc.D., 1963) and Oxford University (D.Sc., 1964), Good went on to work with Alan Turing breaking German naval ciphers from 1941-1943. Following World War II, Good taught at Manchester University and Oxford University until 1967 when he moved to the United States. From 1967 until his retirement in 1994, Good taught at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He became a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and a distinguished member of the Crypto-Mathematics Institute as well as the author of
For more about Good, see the SCUA blog post, "I. J. (Jack) Good: Virginia Tech's Own Bletchley Park Connection" by Marc Brodsky, January 15, 2015.
The Irving J. Good Papers, 1925-2004, consist of forty-one bound volumes of photocopied articles reviews, interviews, correspondence, and lectures, created and complied by Irving John Good. Also included is a videotape, "From Codebreaking to Computing," which features interviews with Good and Donald Michie, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of their joint work on the breaking of German codes for the United States during World War II. Additionally, there is a publication by Good, "Early Notes on Electronic Computers," a list of his published works, and some correspondence included in the collection.
The collection is organized into two series: Series I. Collected Works and Series II. Papers. The collected works were donated to Special Collections already bound and numbered. They are arranged in order, according to the spine labels. The Papers are in their original order from the time of donation.
The guide to the Irving J. Good Papers by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/).