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Harvard College Observatory

 Organization

Found in 54 Collections and/or Records:

Records of the Harvard College Observatory Associate Director Bart J. Bok : subject files

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.28.5
Overview: The Records of the Harvard College Observatory Associate Director Bart J. Bok : subject files document the activities, research, administrative functions, and social events of the Agassiz and Boyden Stations in Harvard, Massachusetts and Bloemfontein, South Africa, respectively, from 1944 to 1957. The bulk of this series contains records pertaining to Boyden Station; incoming and outgoing correspondence highlights Bok’s engagement with the station's astronomers and staff members. Newspaper...

Records of the Harvard College Observatory Chronometric Expedition

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.349
Overview: In the mid-nineteenth century, the Chronometric Expedition was carried out by the Harvard College Observatory, under the direction of William Cranch Bond and in conjunction with the United States Coast Survey. The expedition used chronometers that were made by William Bond & Son, the Bond family's private business, to determine differences of longitude between the observatories in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Liverpool, England. The records primarily consist of notebooks, data sheets,...

Records of the Harvard College Observatory: circular letters, notices, and forms

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.229
Overview:

The circular letters, notices, and forms in this series document activities and operations related to the Harvard College Observatory from 1877 to 1949. The Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (founded in 1890) merged in 1973 to form The Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The Center is a research institute that carries out studies in astronomy, astrophysics, earth and space sciences, and science education.

Records of the Harvard College Observatory Director Donald H. Menzel

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.37
Overview: Donald Howard Menzel (1901-1976), astronomer and astrophysicist, served as director of the Harvard College Observatory from 1952 until his retirement in 1966. The Records of the Harvard College Observatory Director Donald H. Menzel consist chiefly of incoming and outgoing letters with a variety of correspondents, including many notable scientists from the United States and abroad, and document the research and administrative activities of the Harvard College Observatory from 1951 to 1969....

Records of Harvard College Observatory Director George Phillips Bond

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.6
Overview: The Records of Harvard College Observatory Director George Phillips Bond, consisting of correspondence and subject files, manuscript drafts, and astronomical data, chiefly document the research activities of the Harvard College Observatory from 1859 to 1865. Chronicled are observations of planets, including Mars and Jupiter; efforts to determine the brightness of stars; and the detection of comets, eclipses, and other astronomical phenomena. George Phillips Bond (1825-1865), an astronomer,...

Records of the Harvard College Observatory Director Leo Goldberg

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.38.5
Overview: Leo Goldberg (1913-1987), astronomer and astrophysicist, was director of the Harvard College Observatory from 1966 to 1971. The Records of the Harvard College Observatory Director Leo Goldberg document his tenure as head of the Observatory from 1966 to 1969, and consist of correspondence, memoranda, research proposals, and reports related to the scientific and administrative functions of the Observatory, as well as its relationship with other observatories, projects, and organizations,...

Records of Harvard College Observatory Director William Cranch Bond

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.2
Overview: The Records of Harvard College Observatory Director William Cranch Bond document the founding, growth, and scientific research of the Harvard College Observatory primarily from 1840 to 1859. Also chronicled is the Observatory’s participation in advances made in astronomy, stellar photography, meteorology, continental exploration, and technological improvements in astronomical instruments in the early nineteenth century. William Cranch Bond (1789-1859), American astronomer and instrument...

Records of the Harvard College Observatory Director's Office

Series Identifier: UAV 630.95.3
Scope and Contents: The Records of the Harvard College Observatory Director's Office contains memoranda, reports, minutes, budgets, and correspondence from the Physics, Astronomy, and Earth and Planetary Sciences departments. The series also includes documents from the Oak Ridge Observatory, the Donald Menzel Memorial Service, and the Space Infrared Telescope Facility. It includes materials for visiting committees, curriculum vitae, candidate evaluations, and other records concerning appointments, as well as...

Records of the Harvard College Observatory : Observations of zodiacal light and the gegenschein

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.263
Overview: The Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (founded in 1890) were merged in 1973 to form The Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The systematic examination of zodiacal light and the gegenschein, optical phenomena associated with dust in the plane of the planets, began at the Harvard College Observatory in 1877. The records in this collection, including notes, star charts, and sketches, document the study of zodiacal light and the gegenschein by...

Records of the Harvard College Observatory Phillips Library

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.150.5
Overview:

The Harvard College Observatory's Phillips Library was founded in 1848. The Records of the Harvard College Observatory Phillips Library contain eight bound volumes, mostly dating from 1858 to approximately 1932, which document the published works obtained by the library.

Records of the Harvard College Observatory : Photographs, 1887-approximately 1930? and undated

Series Identifier: UAV 630.271
Overview: These photographs depict the activities, personnel, and research of the Harvard College Observatory, including Observatory personnel, buildings, equipment, and surrounding landscape in Cambridge and at observatory stations in Colorado, California, possibly Jamaica, and South America (chiefly Peru). Research was primarily astronomical, but involved some meteorological observation to determine where the Observatory stations should be sited. Approximately 600 of the photographs depict South...

Records of the Harvard College Observatory: records kept by Administrative Officer Robert G. Reed

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.50.xx
Overview: The records in this series, kept by Harvard College Observatory Administrative Officer Robert G. Reed, including correspondence, memoranda, agreements, and reports, document the management and research program of the Harvard College Observatory, chiefly from 1966 to 1982. The records highlight the financial challenges of maintaining an astronomy program at Harvard, the astronomical work conducted at the Harvard Radio Astronomy Station at Fort Davis, Texas, Boyden Station in South Africa, and...

Records of the Harvard College Observatory: records of the Administrative Assistant to Director Donald H. Menzel kept by Velma A. Adams and Helen S. Federer

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.50
Overview:

The records in this series, kept by Velma A. Adams and Helen S. Federer, document the restoration program of the Harvard College Observatory, which was led by Donald H. Menzel and aimed to replace aging buildings and equipment, centralize financial management, simplify business processes, and support the Observatory's scientific program between 1953 and 1964.

Records of the Harvard College Observatory: records related to astronomical research

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.230
Overview: Circular letters, meeting minutes, memoranda, reports, and other records in this series document the activities and astronomical research of the Harvard College Observatory from 1877 to 1957. The Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (founded in 1890) merged in 1973 to form The Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The Center is a research institute that carries out studies in astronomy, astrophysics, earth and space sciences, and science...

Records of the Harvard College Observatory relating to meteor research kept by Willard J. Fisher

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.30
Overview:

Willard James Fisher (1867-1934), physicist and astronomer, was a Harvard Lecturer of Astronomy and Research Associate at the Harvard College Observatory from 1922 to 1934. Fisher's fields of interest were lunar eclipse phenomena and meteoric astronomy. This series documents Willard J. Fisher's meteor research from 1924 to 1934 conducted at the Harvard College Observatory.

Records of the Harvard College Observatory relating to photographic photometry kept by Edward S. King

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.35
Overview:

Edward Skinner King (1861-1931), an astronomer, was an observer (1887-1913), assistant professor (1913-1926), and Phillips Professor of Astronomy (1926-1931) at the Harvard College Observatory in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This series documents King's work in photographic photometry, a technique used in astronomy to measure the flux or intensity of light radiated by astronomical objects, at the Harvard College Observatory from 1899 to 1931.

Records of the Harvard College Observatory Time Service

Sub-Fonds Identifier: UAV 630.377
Overview: In 1872, under Director Joseph Winlock, the Harvard College Observatory established the world’s first public time service, which it provided as a commercial service until 1892. The Observatory sold its time service to railroads and businesses by sending hourly signals over Boston’s fire alarm system and distributing time across the region via Western Union telegraph lines; this work eventually resulted in the establishment of the country's first time zone. The Records of the Harvard College...

Records related to construction at Oak Ridge Station

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.43x
Overview:

Building specifications in this series document the erection of a Central Building at Oak Ridge Station in 1932, and blueprints highlight landscape improvements around the Oak Ridge Lodge in 1938. The Harvard College Observatory operated the Oak Ridge Observatory in Harvard, Massachusetts, first constructed in 1932.

Records related to the Harvard College Observatory Series of books on astronomy

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.440.xx
Overview:

In the 1940s, a series of nine books by Harvard College Observatory staff members, edited by Harlow Shapley and Bart J. Bok, was published to present an overview of astronomy to teachers, students, amateur astronomers, and the public. This series documents the production of the first nine books published in the Harvard College Observatory astronomy book series.

Margaret Mayall personal archive

Collection Identifier: HUM 294
Overview: Margaret Walton Mayall (1902-1995) was an American astronomer. After receiving her MA from Radcliffe College in 1928, she began working at the Harvard College Observatory. This collection contains 35 black and white photographs, which depict the Harvard College Observatory staff camping in southeastern Maine to watch the total solar eclipse on August 31, 1932. Also includes Mayall’s 1957 G. Bruce Blair Award and a copy of Mayall’s 1970 Manual for Observing Variable...

Papers of Donald Howard Menzel, 1931-1986

Collection Identifier: HUG 4567
Overview: Donald Howard Menzel (1901-1976) taught astronomy at Harvard, and was director of the Harvard College Observatory from 1952 to 1966. According to the National Academy of Sciences' Biographical Memoir, "Menzel was one of the first practitioners of theoretical astrophysics in the United States and pioneered the application of quantum mechanics to astronomical spectroscopy." These papers chiefly document Menzel's professional life of research, writing, and participation in professional...

Papers of Dorrit Hoffleit, 1906-2005

Collection Identifier: MC 529
Overview:

Papers of Dorrit Hoffleit, astronomer at Harvard and Yale Universities and at the Maria Mitchell Observatory in Nantucket.

Papers of Helen Meriwether Lewis Thomas, 1890-1997

Collection Identifier: SC 142
Overview:

Papers of Helen Meriwether Lewis Thomas, Radcliffe College Class of 1928.

Papers of Henrietta Hill Swope, 1917-1982

Collection Identifier: 82-M146 – 85-M7
Overview:

Papers of astronomer Henrietta Hill Swope.

Records of the Harvard College Observatory kept by Willard Peabody Gerrish

Collection Identifier: UAV 630.25
Overview: Willard Peabody Gerrish (1866-1951) was an assistant professor of astronomy at the Harvard College Observatory, where he worked under Edward Charles Pickering and, later, Harlow Shapley, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The records contain three volumes of letterbooks, booklets, blueprints, and correspondence dating from 1887 to 1939. The correspondence is between the Harvard College Observatory and other Harvard University departments, companies, and observatories...

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Subject
Astronomy -- Research. 6
Astronomers -- United States. 5
Astronomy. 5
Harvard University -- Astronomy 5
Photographs 5
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Telescopes. 5
Astronomical observatories -- Massachusetts -- Cambridge. 4
Astronomy -- 19th century. 4
Correspondence. 4
Diaries 4
Longitude -- Measurement -- History. 4
Time measurements. 4
Astronomy -- History. 3
Chronometers. 3
Financial records. 3
Solar eclipses -- Observations. 3
Amateur astronomy. 2
Astronomers 2
Astronomical clocks -- United States. 2
Astronomical instruments -- Design and construction. 2
Astronomical photography. 2
Astronomical photometry. 2
Astronomy -- Observations. 2
Boyden Station (Bloemfontein, South Africa) 2
Chronograph. 2
Horology. 2
Manuscripts (documents) 2
Observatories. 2
Occultations. 2
Photoprints. 2
Scientific apparatus and instruments. 2
Scientists 2
Scientists--United States 2
Stars -- Clusters. 2
Surveying -- Geodetic. 2
Variable stars. 2
Women astronomers--United States 2
Women in astronomy -- History. 2
Aberdeen Proving Ground (Md.) 1
Account books. 1
Aging--United States 1
Albums. 1
American Association of Variable Star Observers. 1
Annual reports. 1
Asteroids--Orbits. 1
Asteroids. 1
Astrometry 1
Astronomers -- Archives. 1
Astronomers--United States 1
Astronomers. 1
Astronomical observatories -- South Africa. 1
Astronomy 1
Astronomy -- Societies, etc. 1
Astronomy -- Study and teaching. 1
Astrophysics. 1
Auroras--Spectra. 1
Auroras. 1
Autobiographies 1
Autobiographies. 1
Black-and-white photographs 1
Black-and-white photographs. 1
Clocks and watches -- Marketing. 1
Comets--Orbits. 1
Comets. 1
Contracts. 1
Cryptography. 1
Diplomas. 1
Donati comet. 1
Drawings 1
Eclipses, Solar -- 1973. 1
Emigration and immigration 1
Family records 1
Geodesy -- Observations 1
Geodesy. 1
Glass plate negatives 1
Harvard College Observatory (Cambridge, MA) 1
Harvard College Observatory -- Photographs. 1
Harvard University -- Finance. 1
Harvard University -- Women. 1
Immigrants' writings, German 1
Lantern slides. 1
Lecture notes 1
Letterpress copybooks. 1
Letters (correspondence) 1
Letters. 1
Magnetic fields -- Measurement 1
Magnetic fields. 1
Magnetism. 1
Maine. 1
Manuscripts for publication 1
Maps 1
Medals 1
Memoirs 1
Meteorology 1
Meteorology -- Observations 1
Meteorology. 1
Meteors -- Orbits 1
Meteors. 1
Mothers and daughters--United States 1
Motion pictures. 1
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