Origins of the American Astronomical Society
DOI: 10.1063/1.3129033
During 1974 the American Astronomical Society is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its founding. To be precise historically, however, there are at least two problems with such a commemoration. First, when the association was founded in 1899, its name was not “The American Astronomical Society,” and second, another association with precisely that name had nominally been founded at least fifteen years earlier!
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References
1. See for example, R. C. Archibald, “Simon Newcomb,” Science 44, 871 (22 Dec. 1916).https://doi.org/SCIEAS
2. Reviews of the developments of astrophotography are given by David Norman, “The Developments of Astronomical Photography,” Osiris 5, 560 (1938)
and by Dorrit Hoffleit, “Some Firsts in Astronomical Photography”, Harvard College Observatory publ. (1950).3. W. H. Wright, “The Founding of Lick Observatory,” Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacific 50, 143 (1938);
F. J. Neubauer, “A Short History of Lick Observatory,” Pop. Astron. 48, 201, 318 (1950);
A. E. Whitford, “Astronomy and Astronomers at the Mountain Observatories,” Annals N.Y. Acad. Sci. 198, 202 (1972);
M. Chriss, “The Stars Move West—The Founding of the Lick Observatory,” Mercury 2, 10 (1973).4. See, for example, Helen Wright, Explorer of the Universe, E. P. Dutton, New York, (1966),
and The Legacy of George Ellery Hale, (H. Wright, J. Warnow, and C. Weiner, eds.,) MIT Press, Cambridge, (1972).5. G. E. Hale, “Beginnings of the Yerkes Observatory”, typescript of paper delivered in absentia at the Yerkes meeting of the AAS in 1922. (Now in the Hale Collection, Cal Tech Archives.)
6. “Papers Read Before the American Astronomical Society”, part. 1, August 1885;
part. 2, March 1887;
part. 3, January 1888;
Brooklyn, N.Y. A copy survives in the Wolbach Library at Harvard University.7. Letter, 4 Feb. 1884, W. S. Stevens to Simon Newcomb, in the Newcomb Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
8. Letter, 11 Sept. 1897, G. E. Hale to J. E. Keeler, Hale Papers, Yerkes Observatory.
9. A brief description of that Conference and details about the Society from 1897 to 1909 are contained in Publications of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America Vol. I, published by the Society in 1910. Only a few copies are extant; one is in the library of the US Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C.
10. Letter, 7 March 1898, G. E. Hale to G. C. Comstock, Hale Papers, Yerkes Observatory.
11. Letter, 26 March 1898, G. E. Hale to E. C. Pickering, Hale Papers, Yerkes Observatory.
12. Letter, 18 April 1898, G. E. Hale to E. C. Pickering, Hale Papers, Yerkes Observatory.
13. Letter, 3 May 1898, G. E. Hale to E. C. Pickering, Hale Papers, Yerkes Observatory.
14. Letter, 5 May 1898, G. E. Hale to S. Newcomb, Hale Papers, Yerkes Observatory.
15. Letter, 29 August 1898, G. E. Hale to J. E. Keeler, Lick Observatory Archives, Santa Cruz, Cal.
16. Letter, 1 November 1898, J. E. Keeler to G. E. Hale, Lick Observatory Archives, Santa Cruz, Cal.
17. Letter, 24 Dec. 1898, S. Newcomb to G. E. Hale, Newcomb Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
18. Letter, 28 December 1898, G. E. Hale to S. P. Langley, Hale Papers, Yerkes Observatory.
19. Letter, 5 Jan. 1899, G. E. Hale to S. Newcomb, Hale Papers, Yerkes Observatory.
20. Letter, 10 Jan. 1899, J. E. Keeler to G. E. Hale, Lick Observatory Archives, Santa Cruz, Cal.
21. Letter, 12 Jan. 1899, S. P. Langley to G. E. Hale, Content can be inferred from ref. 22.
22. Letter, 17 Jan. 1899, G. E. Hale to S. P. Langley, Hale Papers, Yerkes Observatory.
23. Newcomb Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington.
24. Science 10, 785 (11 Dec. 1899) https://doi.org/SCIEAS
and 841 (8 Dec. 1899).
See also Astrophys. J. 10, 211 (1899).https://doi.org/ASJOAB25. Letter, 12 Sept. 1899, E. B. Frost to S. Newcomb, original in Newcomb Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
26. Letter, 21 Nov. 1899, G. E. Hale to S. Newcomb, original in Newcomb Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; copy in Hale papers, Yerkes Observatory.
27. J. Stebbins, “The American Astronomical Society”, Pop. Astron. 55, 1 (Oct. 1947).
28. P. Lowell, Mars and its Canals, Macmillan, N.Y. (1907),
and Mars as the Abode of Life, Macmillan, N.Y. (1908).
More about the Authors
Richard Berendzen. The American University, Washington D.C..
