The collection is comprised primarily of files, photographs, and two scrapbooks relating to the education and early career of Frank Groom Kirtz. The files are arranged alphabetically by topic and/or by type of document and span in date from 1920 to 2013. The bulk of the collection dates from 1944 to 1962. There are no items dated 2005 to 2012.

The earliest item in the collection is the 1920 marriage certificate of Kirtz’s parents, Frank W. and Elodia R. Kirtz. There are also copies of the Kirtzs’ death certificates (B1/f.9). There are several diplomas and certificates presented to Frank Groom Kirtz including four diplomas from Washington University, qualifications to practice in both the U.S. District Court and the Supreme Court of the United States, and an honorary degree from the Missouri Chiropractic College.

Several folders relate to the development of the atomic bomb. There are two letters received by Kirtz from the Army Services Forces in 1945 explaining that information about any work done on the Manhattan Project falls under the Espionage Act (B1/f.6). The Government released information about the atomic research but any other public disclosures about the work had to be approved by government officials. Among the most significant documents written by Kirtz relating to atomic research are: (1) a 9-11-1945 typewritten opinion about the use of the atomic bomb (B1/f.4); (2) a set of handwritten notes about his work at the cyclotron dated 20 June 1985 (B1/f.4), and (3) notes on relativity (B1/13).

There are many newspaper clippings and LIFE magazine articles about the end of the war, the role of Washington University and Mallinkrodt in developing the atomic bomb, and the future of nuclear energy. Several of the newspaper clippings are retrospective articles from 1985, the 40th anniversary of the use of the atomic bomb to end World War II (B1/f.1-3). The last article from 2013 is the obituary of St. Louis artist Martyl (Schweig) Langsdorf and her memories of the Manhattan Project on which her husband worked. She designed the logo for the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

The first scrapbook dates from 1948 to 1952 (Vol. 1) and the second scrapbook dates from 1952 to 1962 (Vol. 2); both reveal the wide array of interests and activities in which Kirtz engaged. Volume 1 contains items relating to Kirtz’s law career and to his offices at 705 Olive Street along with samples from his Francis Press enterprise which used an offset method of printing with no type setting required. Kirtz published a monthly newsletter, Microscosms: A Monthly Letter to Those Friends We Don’t See Often Enough, (1951 in Vol. 1, two 1954 issues in Vol. 2). In September 1951, he became a playwright when his play, Experiment, was performed by the local community theatre group, The Interplayers, at the Peoples Art Center in Grandel Square (see also B1/f.16). Kirtz translated a French fairy tale that he read when he was young (B1/f.17-18) and he also tried his hand at art (B1/f.14).

Documents regarding Kirtz’a law career include a transcript of his first court case in 1948, U.S. v. Harold Trammel (Vol. 1). There are also photographs of Kirtz in his law offices and seated on the 10th floor ledge of the Civil Courts Building overlooking the city (Vol. 1-2). In 1948, Kirtz witnessed an auto accident, flagged down Judge J. Glennon McKenna in his car, and the pair, along with a patrolman whom they picked up along the way, chased down the fleeing car (Vol. 1). He was also key in identifying an office boy dropping water balloons from the Railway Exchange Building onto passersby. Kirtz eventually moved into politics. In addition to running for public administrator in November 1960, Clifford Greve recommended him for membership on the Metropolitan Board of Freeholders (Vol. 2).

There are many newspaper clippings of notices and reviews in both scrapbooks about the speeches that Kirtz made to local and national groups (e.g. America’s Progress as the Story of Invention; Patents, Inventions, and Screwballs; The Cold War Between Scientists; and The Patent Challenges the Inventor.) The Forum Speakers, Inc., which attempted to bring St. Louis groups together with competent speakers, arranged some of Kirtz’s local speaking engagements. Kirtz also wrote articles, e.g. Science Fiction - It Often Becomes Fact, and book reviews for local newspapers and professional journals. Author Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey wrote to Kirtz thanking him for the favorable book review that appeared in the October 1949 issue of the American Bar Association Journal (Vol. 1/B2). Kirtz was a regular contributor to The Journal of the Engineers’ Club of St. Louis with articles such as Engineering Frontiers in Medicine.

In 1956, the Custom Engineering and Development Company, comprised of Kirtz (secretary), Val T. Effinger (vice president), and Norbert W. Burlis (president), contracted to build the Gibbon heart-lung machine for St. Louis Children’s Hospital using Mayo blueprints, only the fourth machine in the nation (B1/f.8). By 1961, the company’s name changed to Med-Science Electronics, it had 40 employees, it expanded its medical equipment offerings, and it was licensed by the Mayo Clinic and the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia to be the exclusive manufacturer of the heart-lung machine (see also Vol. 2).