Howard Plotkin

Edward C. Pickering and the Endowment of Scientific Research in America, 1877-1918

THROUGHOUT THE NINETEENTH CENTURY astronomy was the most richly supported physical science in the United States. By the beginning of the last quarter of the century, private support had financed the establishment of several major observatories, including the Cincinnati, Harvard, Dudley, Detroit, Leander McCormick, and the Lick. 1 It soon became clear to American astronomers, however, that they also needed support for their research. Obtaining money for scientific research, some feared, would be a difficult task. The late nineteenth century has been characterized by one historian as an

Edward C. Pickering, the Henry Draper Memorial, and the beginnings of astrophysics in America

Summary Henry Draper, one of Americas pioneer astrophysicists, launched a great period of advancement in astrophysics in 1872 when he succeeded in obtaining a photograph of a stellar spectrum exhibiting absorption lines. Shortly after his death in 1882, his widow established the Henry Draper Fund at the Harvard College Observatory, where Edward C. Pickering and his assistants began a long-range program of photographing, measuring, and classifying the spectra of the stars. As a result, Harvard was able to establish itself as the foremost institution in the United States for astrophysical research. Pickerings investigation culminated in the publication of ‘The Henry Draper Catalogue’, in which nearly a quarter of a million stellar spectra are measured and classified. The classification scheme embodied in the Draper catalogue is still heavily relied on today by all astrophysicists, and the Henry Draper Memorial has become a milestone in the history of astrophysics.

Meteorites and the Smithsonian Institution

Abstract Meteoritics at the Smithsonian Institution is intimately linked to the broader growth of the science, and traces its roots through influential individuals and meteorites from the late 18th century to the dawn of the 21st century. The Institution was founded with an endowment from English mineralogist James Smithson, who collected meteorites. Early work included study of Smithson’s meteorites by American mineralogist J. Lawrence Smith and acquisition of the iconic Tucson Ring meteorite. The collection was shaped by geochemist F.W. Clarke and G.P. Merrill, its first meteorite curator, who figured in debate over Meteor Crater and was a US pioneer in meteorite petrology. Upon Merrill’s death in 1929, E.P. Henderson would lead the Smithsonian’s efforts in meteoritics through a tumultuous period of more than 30 years. Collections growth was spurred by scientific collaborations with S.H. Perry and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and a sometimes contentious relationship with H.H. Nininger. Henderson played a key role in increasing meteorite research capabilities after the Second World War, placing the Smithsonian at the forefront of meteoritics. After 1969 involvement in the fall of the Allende and Murchison meteorites, lunar sample analyses, the recovery of the Old Woman meteorite and recovery of thousands of meteorites from Antarctica produced exponential growth of the collection. The collection today serves as the touchstone by which samples returned by spacecraft are interpreted.

William H. Pickering in Jamaica: The Founding of Woodlawn and Studies of Mars

William H. Pickering spent the last twenty-seven years of his life, 1911-38, working in colonial splendour but nearly total isolation at his Woodlawn observatory in Mandeville, Jamaica. The extensive observations of Mars he made there and the theories of its canals he formulated won the Harvard astronomer world-wide notoriety, but ostracized him from his scientific peers and made him a virtual outcast from the astronomical community of his day. The story behind this has never been well understood. Although previous accounts have related many details, I they have failed fully to appreciate the extent to which Williams unique personality, and his complex relationship with his older brother Edward, the director of the Harvard College Observatory (HCO) (Figure 1), helped shape events, and the real reasons behind his ostracism. The present study, based not only on the traditional printed sources but also on an extensive examination of the Edward and William Pickering papers in the Harvard University Archives and lengthy personal interviews and correspondence with Williams daughter and eldest granddaughter, will shed light on this intriguing episode.

Henry Tappan, Franz Brünnow, and the founding of the Ann Arbor School of Astronomers, 1852–1863

Summary Through the combined efforts of Henry P. Tappan (1805–1881) and Franz F. E. Brunnow (1821–1891), the University of Michigan played a major role in the training of professional astronomers in the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century. Tappan, the universitys first president, was a firm adherent of the Prussian system of education, and endeavored to transform Michigan into a distinguished institution modeled on the German university ideal. One of the keys to his success was Brunnow, who was lured to Ann Arbor from Berlin. Brunnow became the first director of the universitys new observatory, and taught advanced classes in practical and theoretical astronomy based on the mathematically rigorous German method. He strongly believed that the training of future professional astronomers was as important as his own research. As a result, he forged the first link in a continuous chain of astronomers trained in the German method at Michigan, a group now known as the Ann Arbor school...