The Harvard College Observatory: The First Four Directorships [Reprint 2014 ed.] 9780674418806, 9780674418783

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THE HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY

Harvard College Observatory in 1851, as viewed from the corner of Concord Avenue and Bond Street in Cambridge.

THE HARVARD COLLEGE T h e F i r s t F o u r Directorships, 1 8 3 9 - 1 9 1 9

BESSIE ZABAN JONES and LYLE GIFFORD

BOYD

Foreword by Donald H. Menzel

THE BELKNAP PRESS HARVARD UNIVERSITY CAMBRIDGE,

OF PRESS

MASSACHUSETTS 1971

© Copyright 1971 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Distributed in Great Britain by Oxford University Press, London Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 73-143228 SBN 674-37460-6 Printed in the United States of America

PREFACE

This history of the Harvard College Observatory reviews the story from the mid-seventeenth century, when the first astronomical observations were made at Harvard; describes in detail the developments from the founding of the Observatory in 1839 through the first four administrations ; and ends with the death of the fourth director, Edward Pickering, in 1919. Of the several other accounts that have appeared in print, three deserve special mention. T h e earliest, which dealt with the period from about 1815, when the Harvard Corporation took its first official step toward the establishment of an Observatory, to the year 1855, was written by the first director, William Cranch Bond, and appeared in volume 1 of the Annals of the Harvard College Observatory. T h e next account, written by Professor Arthur Searle, covered the years 18551876 and appeared in volume 8 of the Annals. T h e third, written by Professor Solon I. Bailey and published in 1931 as Harvard College Observatory Monograph No. 4, recapitulated the events of the earlier periods and brought the narrative up to the year 1927. Unlike the previous histories, which were largely impersonal, the present volume proposes to give more than the bare statistics of physical growth, endowment, instrumentation, and research projects. By liberal quotation from correspondence, both personal and scientific in nature, we attempt also to portray something of the human qualities of the men and women who were closely involved with the Observatory. In addition to Observatory publications such as the Annals, the Annual Reports,

ν

Preface and the Circulars, we have drawn on hitherto unexplored primary material, the letters and documents relating to the Observatory that are preserved in the Archives of Harvard University. Although this book does not purport to be a history of American astronomy, preparing the work has entailed much supplementary reading to provide the necessary background. T h e sources used, other than the Archives, are cited in the notes to the individual chapters. T h e idea of preparing a new history was conceived by Professor Donald H. Menzel, the sixth director of the Observatory. T o make the book possible, he secured a grant from the National Science Foundation and, when that had expired, ensured the completion of the work by use of a gift from the late Richard Perkin of New Canaan, Connecticut. W e acknowledge a special debt to Dr. Menzel, who has generously and patiently advised, criticized, encouraged, and given invaluable help at every stage of the project, especially with reference to the scientific background. Our thanks go also to Mr. Douglas W. Bryant, University Librarian, for providing working facilities in the early months of this project; to Mr. Kimball C. Elkins of the Harvard University Archives, Mrs. Thomasine C. Brooks of the Phillips Library of the Observatory, and Miss Carolyn E. Jakeman of the Houghton Library for their aid in locating elusive material; to Miss Margaret Harwood and Mr. Leon Campbell for furnishing unpublished documents, rare photographs, and personal reminiscences; to Professor Owen J . Gingerich and Dr. Jesse L. Greenstein for reading parts of the manuscript and making helpful suggestions; to Mr. Roger Lowell Putnam, Mrs. Wayland S. Bailey, Dr. I. John Danziger, Miss Eleanor S. Upton, Mrs. Martha H. Liller, and Sr. Fernando L. de Romaña for supplying certain data and photographs; to Professor I. Bernard Cohen for obtaining the photograph of the Hancock telescope ; to Mrs. Catherine Coté and Mr. James K . Ufford of the Fogg Art Museum for help in assembling pictures from the Harvard University Portrait Collection, especially Figures 2, 3, 4, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 19, 21, 23, and 4 5 ; to Mr. Eugen E. Franck of the Observatory's photographic laboratory for securing usable prints of early astronomical photographs; and to Mrs. Abbie McLaughlin, Mrs. Linda McDermott, Miss Olga Choruzi, and Miss Joan Drees, who cheerfully typed a large part of the manuscript.

vi

Preface In writing the book, each of us has assumed chief responsibility for individual sections. Chapters 1, 2, 3, 7, 11, and 12 were written by B. Z. J.; Chapters 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10 by L. G. B. BESSIE

Cambridge,

Massachusetts

November

1969

ZABAN

JONES

LYLE GIFFORD BOYD

vii

CONTENTS

Foreword by Donald H. Menzel I. Before the Observatory: 1642-1839

xiii 1

II. The Two Bonds, 1839-1865

40

III. Joseph Winlock, 1866-1875

136

IV. Pickering: The Early Years

176

V. The Henry Draper Memorial VI. The Boyden Fund

211 246

VII. The Bruce Telescope

269

VIII. "Some Lofty Mountain" IX. "Harvard Observatory Arraigned" X. Fruits of the Enterprise

287 325 357

XI. A Field for Women

383

XII. Beyond the Observatory

418

Notes

445

Index

485 ix

ILLUSTRATIONS

Frontispiece. H a r v a r d College Observatory in 1851 1. Title page of Vincent Wing's Astronomia Instaurata

2

18. Early experiments at the Observatory in solar and lunar photography

78

19. President James Walker

94

2. T h o m a s Hollis

7

20. E d w a r d Bromfield Phillips

96

3. J o h n Winthrop

10

21. President Jared Sparks

98

4. President E d w a r d Holyoke

13

22. T h e solar eclipse of July 28, 1851

103

23. T r u m a n Henry Safford

104

24. T h e Imperial Russian Observatory at Pulkovo

105

5. Broadside describing the of 1764 6. T h e " H a n c o c k "

fire 15

telescope

17

7. Title page of a report of Winthrop's scientific expedition to Newfoundland

ig

25. Friedrich G. W. Struve

106

8. J o h n Quincy Adams

22

26. Donati's comet

121

9. President John Kirkland

33

27. Alvan Clark

123

10. William Cranch Bond

42

28. T h e nebula in Orion

134

11. President Josiah Quincy

43

29. Joseph Winlock

137

12. T h e D a n a house

44

13. Professor Benjamin Peirce

30. Solar corona at the eclipse of August 7, 1869

167

46 31. Arthur Searle

173

55

32. Edward Charles Pickering

180

15. Pages of a letter (1845) f r o m J o h n Quincy Adams

58

33. Scene from T h e Observatory Pinafore

193

16. President Edward

60

34. Dr. Henry D r a p e r

212

66

35. Mary Anna Palmer Draper

219

14. T h e objective lens Great Refractor

of

Everett

17. T h e Great Refractor

the

xi

Illustrations 36. The Observatory peared in 1887

as it

46. Edward C. Pickering

ap-

37. Harvard station on Wilson's Peak

358

230

47. Gathering to celebrate Pickering's twenty-fiifth anniversary

359

259

48. Maria Mitchell

384

38. Page of Miss Bruce's letter

282

49. A group of women computers

391

39. The Bruce telescope

283

40. The Arequipa station in Peru

302

50. Mrs. Williamina Fleming

393

41. Parlor of Arequipa

303

station

residence,

Patón

51. Miss Antonia Caetano Maury

395

52. Miss Henrietta Swan Leavitt

401

42. Shelter on top of El Misti

317

53. Miss Annie Jump Cannon

404

43. Ascent of El Misti

318

54. Miss Margaret Harwood

410

44. Blessing of El Misti station

319

55. Solon Irving Bailey

431

45. President Charles W. Eliot

338

56. Harlow Shapley

433

FOREWORD

Although Harvard College Observatory was not the first astronomical observatory in the United States, it has been the center of a large number of pioneer projects in astronomy. Many of the great figures in that science—European as well as American—have had more than casual contact with the Harvard Observatory. In the absence of a history of American astronomy, the story of scientific developments within one leading institution helps fill that gap. Harvard astronomers were among the first to recognize the potential of photography for astronomical research. T h e Harvard collection of more than half a million photographic plates provides a unique record of what has been happening in the sky over the past 90 years. Astronomers come to Harvard from all over the world just to consult this record, to see what this particular star or celestial object was doing in the distant past, changing brightness or drifting across the sky. Such studies have contributed materially to the understanding of such unusual objects as the recently discovered quasars. Space exploration, a field in which both the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory have played major roles, has a link to the past as well as to the future. For, as orbiting astronomical telescopes reveal the existence of certain celestial objects with unusual or abnormal characteristics, records of the past will often provide important data for understanding or interpreting these mysteries. T h e history of past science is the paved road along which present-day science must travel into the future. I can only hope that this volume will inspire other historians to write a more detailed, full-scale history of American astronomy. I wish to thank personally the authors and the many other people and organizations that made this volume possible. DONALD H .

November

21,

1970

MENZEL

THE HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY

BEFORE THE OBSERVATORY 1642-1839

I Until the third decade of the last century it was still true that an American observatory was little more than a "tube with an eye at one end and a star at the other." 1 Astronomy at Harvard, however, did not wait upon the possession of tubes, much less upon an observatory building. As early as 1642 the "Laws, Liberties and Orders of Harvard College" listed astronomy as one of the subjects in the curriculum. Students heard lectures in their third (then senior) year; after Harvard added the fourth year in 1652, "Junior" and "Senior sophisters" studied from special texts, supplemented by disputations once a week on "phylosophical and astronomical questions." At what point Copernicus displaced Ptolemy in the curriculum is not exactly clear, but Samuel Eliot Morison concludes from his great study of the question that the "Copernican system was well established at Harvard before the 'New England Almanac for 1659' appeared." 2 These almanacs, prepared by tutors who were usually candidates for the ministry and chosen for the task by the President, were printed annually on a small press in the College Yard. That for 1659, produced by Zechariah Brigden, included an exposition of the Copernican system in an essay Morison regards as "the earliest extant . . . by a Harvard graduate," perhaps even the "first in popular science published in the English colonies" (Fig. 1). In another almanac following shortly on this example one author wrote gaily that the planets "dance 'illipticall Sallyes, Ebbs and flowes,' by reason of 'Magneticall Charmes' emanating from the Sun." (This description contains more truth than the writer could have known at the time, for although there is no connection with plane1

Ö R»

A new and compendious Rcftauration

ASTRONOMIE. In Four Parts. f t · Logiftica Aftronomica:

Aftronomicall Arithmetick, (hewing how torefolvethe four S pedes thereof in Aftronomical Fraaions, and tofindethe Part Proportionall in any queftion thereunto belonging.

-J1 υ I

a, O

fj

.3

Dodrina Sphamca : Τώ of, the Sphere, praaicañf propounded, and appljfMui all quéftlons tending to the Diurnali Modo«.

5 . D o f t r i n a T h c o r t c a : The Thwrie to which D r . M e a d and other Gentlemen made v e r y c o n f u t a b l e additions : A l f o Anatomical cuts and t w o compleat Skeletons of different f e x e s . T h i s colleition would have been very ferviceable to a ProfelTor of P h y f : c and A n a t o m y , when the revendes of the College ihould have been fufficient to fubfift a gentleman in this c h a r a û e r . — A few ancient and valuable Manufcripts in different l a n g u a g e s . — A pair of excellent new Globes of the largeft fize, prefented b y A n d r e w Oliver, j u n . E f q j — A variety of Curiofities natural and artificial, both of American and foreign p r o d u c e . — A font o f G r e e k types (which, as we had not yet a printing-office, was repofited in the library) pre· fented by our great benefaftor the late worthy T h o m a s Hollis, E f q ; o f L o n d o n ·, whofe pitture, as large as the life, and i n i t i a t i o n s for two P r o · feflorihips and ten Scholarlhips, p e r i l l e d in the flames,' - S o m e of the m o f t con fui e rabie additions that had been made of late years to the librar y , c a m e f r o m other branches of this generous Family. T h e library contained above five thoufand v o lûmes, all which were con fu m e d , cxcept a f e w books in the hands of the members of the houfe -, and t w o donations, one made by our late honora· ble Lieutenant G o v e r n o r D u m m e r , to the value o f 5 0 1 , fterling t the other of 5 6 v o l u m e s , by the prefent worthy T h o m a s Hollis, E f q ; F . R . S. of I .ondon, t o w h o m we have been annually obli-

T H E following articles were afterwards fent us b y M r . T h o m a s Hollis, N e p h e w t o that g e ncrous Gentleman, v i z . an O r r c y , an a n n i i U r y Sphere, and a box of Microfcopes j all of t x q u i Are workmanrtiip. F o r Aflranemy, we had before been f j p p l i e d with Telefcopes nf different lengths * one of 3 4 feec 1 and a brafs Q u a d r a n t of 2 feet r a d i u s carrying · T e l e f c o p e of a greater length ; which f o r m e r l y belonged to the celebrated D r . Hal lev. W e had alfo the m o f t ufefül Tnftruments for Dialling and for Surveying, a brafs femicircle, with plain fights and magnetic needle. A l f o , a curious 1 « · lefcope, with a complete apparatus f o r t a k i n g the difference of L e v e l ·, lately prefented b y Chr'iftopher K i l b y , E f q ; M a n y very valuable additions have of late years been made to this apparatus by feverai generous benefattori, w h o m it would be ingratitude nut to c o m m e m o r a t e here, as no v e f t i g e s of their donaf o n s remain. W e are under obligation to mention particularly, the late Sir Peter W a r r e n , Knc. Sir H e n r y l-'rankland, Bart. H o n . Jonathan Belcher, E f q ; L t . G o v e r n o r of N o v a - S c o t i a ; T h o mas H a n c o c k , E f q · , J a m e s B o w d o i n , Efij·, E z e k i d Goldthwait, E f q ; John Hancock, A . M . of B o f t o n , and M r . Gilbert H a r r i f o n of L o n d o n , Merchant. F r o m thefe Gentlemen w e received fine reflecting Teieícopes of different m a g n i f y i n g powers i and adapted to different obferv„tions * Microfcopes of the fevcral forts now in ufe ·, H a d · l e y ' s Q u a d r a n t fitted in a new manner ; a nice Variation C o m p a f s , and D i p p i n g needle : with inftruments f o r the feveral magnetica! a n d d e l i n cal experiments—all new, and of excellent w o r k -

ged for valuable

m an (hi p.

additions to our late library :

chines for experiments of falling bodies, of the centre o f g r a v i t y , and of centrifugal forces ; — t h e lèverai mechanical powers, balances of different f o n s , levers, pullies, axes in peritrochio, w e d g e s , c o m p o u n d engines ¡ with curious models of each in brafs. In Hjdriflaliu, v c t y nice balances, jars and bottles of various files fitted with brafs caps, v e f Iiis f o r p r o v i n g the grand hydroliatic P a r a d o x , liphons, g ' a f s models of p u m p s , hydroftatic balance, 8rc. In PntumaHa, there was a number of different tubes for the Torricellian experiment, a large d o u ble barrell'd A i r - p u m p , with a gteat variety of receivers of difflrent fizes and (hapes ; fyringes, cxhaulling and condenling -, Barometer, T h c r mometer ¡ —with many other articles, In Opliti, there were leverai forts of mirrors, concave, c o n v e x , cylindric -, Letlfes of different foci j inflruments f o r proving the fundamental law of refrafiion 1 Prifms, with the whole a p p a raius for the Newtonian theory of light and c o l o n s the camera obfeura, & c . A n d a variety of inftruments for mifcellaneous purpofes.

A L I DESTROYED I

W h i c h donations, being but lately received, had , , ^ nor the proper boxes prepared for them 5 and f o Cambridge, Jan. 26. 1 7 6 4 · A s the G e n i a l efcaped the general ruin. AfTembly have this day cheerfully and unanimoufvotcd t0 A s the library records are burnt, no doubt f e m e rebuild « Ι Π / Λ Γ * H a l l , it encourages us valuable benefactions have been omitted in this ac- t o hope, that ^ L I B R A R Y and A P P A R A T U S will cuunt, which was drawn up only by m e m o r y . alfo be repaired by the pnvate m u n i f i c e n c e o f t h o i e w h o Wlih 10 A m e r i c a , have a regard f o r N e w Of the A P P A R A T U S . E n g l a n d , and k n o w the importance of literature 10 the C h u r c h and State, W H E N the late worthy THOMAS H O L L I S , i « i - ^ i t

£

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Of t & o - U ^ « y r t f v r U J S d . eAí+^i^d

3,

« w t

CX

«ríj~

ífc-e £»για^«iv^rA V e n u ^

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FIG. 15. Pages of a letter (1845) from John Quincy Adams, chairman of the Visiting Committee, to President Josiah Quincy, outlining his views on the administration of the Observa-

58

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