A-Z, 1921-1952 and [undated]

This subseries contains correspondence between Shapley and a variety of correspondents, including astronomers from the United States and abroad, such as Walter Baade, Jorge Bobone, Bart J. Bok, Dirk Brouwer, Hermann A. Brück, William A. Calder, Leon Campbell, Alice F. Swain Carlston, Edwin Francis Carpenter, Tord Elvius, Luis Enrique Erro, Alice H. Farnsworth, E.A. Fath, Willard P. Gerrish, Margaret Harwood, Ejnar Hertzsprung, Frank S. Hogg and Helen Sawyer Hogg, A.O. Leuschner, Helen Howarth Lewis, Bertil Lindblad, Donald Howard Menzel, Jan Oort, William Henry Pickering, Henry Hemley Plaskett, Pieter Johannes van Rhijn, Henry Norris Russell, Jan Schilt, Willem de Sitter, Charlotte Moore Sitterly, Otto Struve, Henrietta Hill Swope, and Julie Vinter Hansen. Letters with these astronomers discuss scientific information, as well as international politics. For instance, Shapley was very involved in efforts to aid European scientists by sending supplies and helping those displaced by the war to relocate to North America. Such correspondence can be found with the "Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars," of which Shapley was a member of the Executive Committee. This folder contains correspondence coordinating the relocation of European refugee scientists to the United States, including Harvard University, as well as discussions of where to deposit the records of the Committee. Shapley also writes to many Russian astronomers, including Nicholas Bobrovnikoff, Nikolay N. Donitch, Boris V. Kukarkin, among others, and even traveled to the country; in June 1945, he attended the 220th anniversary of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences in Moscow and Leningrad. These perceived “close ties” with Russia led to the House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaing Shapley in 1946 to address accusations of communism. A few letters in this series relate to Shapley’s problems with the House Unamerican Activities Committee, such as a copy of a letter from William Bennet to Joseph McCarthy, discussing Shapley’s alleged communist ties.

Many of the letters are with other Harvard University professors and administrators, such as Kenneth Bainbridge, Garrett B. Birkhoff, Robert P. Blake, Edwin G. Boring, Heinrich Brüning, Paul H. Buck, Charles I. Bernard Cohen, Julian L. Coolidge, William John Crozier, William Yandell Elliott, William Ernest Hocking, L. Don Leet, David Little, Keyes Metcalf, Arthur D. Nock, Arthur Schlesinger, Langdon Warner, and S.B. Wolbach. Topics of discussion include college politics, the sharing of scientific information and equipment, and various administrative considerations.

Shapley also wrote extensively to various professional organizations, such as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Psychological Society, the Bond Astronomical Club, the International Astronomical Union, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Research Council, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the World Federation of Scientific Workers. Shapley was directly involved with many of these groups; he served as the president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1939 to 1944 and was a member of the Committee on Organization of the American Philosophical Society. These letters mostly discuss the groups’ administrative functions.

Shapley’s correspondence with people of note from outside of the field of astronomy, such as politician Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., journalist Edward R. Murrow, politician Nelson A. Rockefeller, civil rights activist and historian W.E.B. Du Bois, politician Leverett Saltonstall, and Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, demonstrates the magnitude of his influence within society and the depth and variety of his personal, political, and professional interests. In a letter to President Harry S. Truman, Shapley expresses his support for anti-lynching legislation, a reflection of his interest in politics and civil rights.

The subseries also contains telescope equipment blueprints, including a 114" Spherical Mirror Camera for Radcliffe Telescope.