Helen L. Brooks collection relating to the Harvard University Underwater Sound Laboratory and the Harvard University Division of Engineering and Applied Physics Wives Committee

Helen Lathrop Brooks (1917- ) was born on August 22, 1917 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Brooks graduated with a degree in history from Smith College in 1939, and then went on to receive secretarial training at the Erksine School in Boston. She was a secretary at Harvard Law School from 1940 to 1942, then worked as an editorial secretary at the Harvard University Underwater Sound Laboratory from March 1942 to July 1945. In addition to her secretarial work, Brooks was also responsible for the collection and preparation of the Lab’s Weekly Organization Report of the Sonar Division, which was a scientific report on all personnel in the lab. In 1958, Brooks founded and chaired the Division of Engineering and Applied Physics Wives Committee, which served as a social organization for the department faculty members and their wives until 1977.

The Harvard Underwater Sound Laboratory, or HUSL, was founded in June 1941 under the umbrella of the federal government’s National Defense Research Committee/Office of Scientific Research and Development. HUSL was located on Harvard's campus in Hemenway Gymnasium; eventually, the laboratory occupied Gannett House, and an addition was built onto the main building, extending towards Austin Hall. The lab was directed by Harvard Professor Frederick V. Hunt, and was responsible for many important contributions to undersea warfare; specifically, it was established to improve existing equipment for sonar and the detection of underwater sound, and to design new equipment. The laboratory's advancements helped to develop acoustic target-seeking torpedoes and more efficient sonar systems for the United States Navy in World War II; these technologies are still used today. During the height of the war, the staff expanded to 450 employees. The laboratory officially closed on January 31, 1946.

The Division of Engineering and Applied Physics (DEAP) Wives Committee was formed by Helen Brooks in 1958, after her husband Harvey Brooks became dean of the Division in the fall of 1957. The committee organized many well-attended social events, such as teas and morning coffees, dinners, luncheons, potlucks, holiday parties, sherry and cocktail parties, garden parties, and wine and cheese parties, which were intended to provide opportunities for faculty members and their wives to socialize. The committee existed until 1977, when Helen Brooks retired from her position as committee chair; after Brooks’s retirement, a few sporadic events were held by previous committee members in 1981 and 1982.