GI history nugget: The Geophysical Institute comes into being

We often see references to the Geophysical Institute’s official founding date as a July 31, 1946, act of Congress. But it turns out that is actually the date when the bill, HR 7486, was signed by President Truman, thereby becoming Public Law 580. The process that led to the creation of the GI actually started long before that day.

The University of Alaska Board of Regents unanimously approved, on Oct. 6, 1936, a resolution calling for the university to provide the federal government a site on which to build a research facility. The resolution approved by the regents was to offer a site for “a structure suitable for branches of research, including, anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, atmospheric electricity, aurora ethnology, formation and testing of soils, geology, geophysics, ionosphere, meteorology, natural history, paleontology, plant photosynthesis, seismology and terrestrial magnetism.”

The 1946 act establishing the Geophysical Institute authorized the expenditure of up to $975,000, though the money wouldn’t actually be appropriated — it’s a two-step process in Congress — until President Truman signed a broader government funding bill in April 1948. The $975,000 that Congress authorized equates to $13.3 million in 2021 dollars.

Read more: University of Alaska History multi-part series: Geophysical Institute History: "The Beginning"

Download a facsimile of the bill creating the GI from the 1946 Congressional Record