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FILE Identifier: KG11365-6

Solon Irving Bailey Notebooks, 1894-1923

Dates

  • Creation: 1894-1923

Language of Materials

English

Extent

120 cubic feet (120 boxes)
2531 Volumes

Biographical / Historical

Solon Irving Bailey (1854 – 1931) was the acting Director of the Harvard College Observatory after Edward Pickering died in 1919 and until Harlow Shapley was elected in 1921. A graduate of Boston University, Bailey spent much of his early career as a teacher and then headmaster at Tilton Academy in Concord. It’s unclear what might’ve led to Bailey’s eventual interest in astronomical scholarship, though some accounts suggest it was the Great Meteor Shower of 1866 that inspired him to move his family to Cambridge in pursuit of his second master’s degree at Harvard University. Soon afterwards, Bailey became a volunteer assistant at the observatory, and he eventually accepted a professorship in Harvard’s Astrophysics department. A close associate of Pickering, Bailey worked for the H.C.O. for forty-four years, and played a significant role in overseeing site location and construction of the first Boyden Station in Arequipa, Peru.

Creator

Repository Details

Part of the Wolbach Archives, Wolbach Library, Harvard University Repository

Contact:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street
Cambridge MA 02138 United States