The Industrialization of American Astronomy, 1880–1940
DOI: 10.1063/1.881484
The rise of big science is often linked to World War II and the cold war. However, such an interpretation ignores the historical roots of big science in the six decades preceding the war. Here we discuss one aspect of the development of big science in America: the industrialization of astronomy and astronomy’s emergence as the biggest of the sciences in an age of little science.
References
1. J. H. Capshew, K. A. Rader, “Big Science: Price to the Present,” in Science After ’40, A. Thackray, ed., Osiris (second series) 7, 3 (1992).
2. D. H. DeVorkin, “Community and Spectral Classification in Astrophysics: The Acceptance of E. C. Pickering’s System in 1910,” Isis 72, 29 (1981).https://doi.org/ISISA4
3. L. Galambos, “Technology, Political Economy, and Professionalization: Central Themes of the Organizational Synthesis,” Business History Review 57, 471 (1983).
4. P. Galison, B. Hevly, eds., Big Science: The Growth of Large‐Scale Research, Stanford U.P., Stanford, Calif. (1992).
5. R. L. Geiger, To Advance Knowledge: The Growth of American Research Universities, 1900–1940, Oxford U.P., New York (1986).
6. R. E. Kohler, Partners in Science: Foundations and Natural Scientists, 1900–1945, U. Chicago P., Chicago (1991).
7. J. Lankford, “The Impact of Photography on Astronomy,” in The General History of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Twentieth‐Century Astronomy to 1950, O. Gingerich, ed., Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, UK (1984), vol. 4A, p. 16.
8. J. Lankford, R. L. Slavings, “Gender and Science: Women in American Astronomy, 1859–1940,” PHYSICS TODAY, March 1990, p. 58.
9. H. Wright, Explorer of the Universe: A Biography of George Ellery Hale, Button, New York (1966).
More about the Authors
John Lankford. Kansas University, Manhattan, Kansas.
Ricky L. Slavings. University of Chicago, Press.
