A physicist and social activist, Edward G. Ramberg contributed to the early development of electron microscopy and color television, and devoted much of his life to pacifist and Quaker causes. Born in Italy to an American mother and German father, Ramberg experienced the losses of war firsthand during the First World War when his father was killed while serving with the German army. After moving to the United States with his mother, Ramberg attended Reed College and Cornell University before returning to Germany for postdoctoral study under Arnold Sommerfeld. Employed at RCA for most of his career (1935-1972), Ramberg refused any involvement in military or war-related research, and as a conscientious objector during the Second World War, was assigned to duty in Civilian Public Service camps. He continued to work in fostering social harmony until late in life. With his wife, Sarah Sargent, a Swarthmore graduate whom he met through the American Friends Service Committee, Ramberg helped to establish Bryn Gweled, a cooperative community in which people of various religious, social, and racial backgrounds lived and worked together. The bulk of the Ramberg papers consists of files pertaining to his work with Amnesty International, the American Friends Service Committee, and peace groups in the Philadelphia and Bucks County region. Of particular note is a bundle of correspondence with Sommerfeld.

This collection includes correspondence to and from Boskovic; a travel journal in Europe; and a large number of manuscripts on astronomy, hydrography, hydro-mechanics, mathematics, geometry, mechanics, and optics; and a volume of poetry.

Better known to the English-speaking world by the name under which he published most of his works, Jean-Hyacinthe Magellan, João Jacinto de Magalhães was born on November 4, 1722. His work focused primarily on scientific instruments, and is credited with introducing English scientific instruments, and the work of Joseph Priestley (APS member 1785) to the scientific community in France. The João Jacinto de Magalhães Collection consists of eleven letters written by Magalhães in French, and addressed to correspondents in France dealing primarily with the manufacture and distribution of telescopes and optical instrumentation.

Robert Maskell Patterson (1787-1854, APS 1809) was a professor of chemistry and natural philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania (1812-1828) and professor of natural philosophy at the University of Virginia (1828-1835). He was director of the U.S. Mint from 1835 to 1851. His father, Robert Patterson, was a revolutionary soldier, professor of mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania (1779-1814), and director of the U.S. Mint (1805-1824).