CORVALLIS, Ore.
Although he died in 1994, Linus Pauling still has an office at Oregon State University.
The room on the fifth floor of the Valley Library includes Pauling’s chalkboard (complete with a flurry of White scribbles), his Hewlett-Packard calculator, his two solid-gold Nobel Prizes and an original manuscript of “The Nature of the Chemical Bond,” a research paper appraised at more than $1 million.
The items exemplify a small portion of the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, which are the cornerstone of the university’s archives, known as Special Collections.
While the showcase office sits just off the Special Collections lobby, more than 500,000 items are stored in a climate-controlled area nearby.
Pauling graduated from Oregon Agricultural College in Corvallis and went on to become one of the most celebrated scientists of his era. He won the Nobel prize in chemistry for his work on the nature of chemical bonds among atoms and molecules in 1954 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962.
Pauling also pioneered the field of orthomolecular medicine, using vitamins and minerals to promote health and prevent disease. He was the first researcher to promote taking vitamin C to prevent the common cold, an idea that remains controversial.
