Blazing Stars,Open Minds,and Loosened Purse Strings: Astronomical Research and its Early Cambridge Audience

Ideas in this paper are excerpted from a more wide-ranging work, which interested readers might wish to consult. See Schechner Sara Genuth , “From heaven's alarm to public appeal: Comets and the rise of astronomy at Harvard”, in Science at Harvard University: Historical perspectives , ed. by Elliott Clark A. Rossiter Margaret W. (Bethlehem, Penn., in press).

Hudson Winthrop S. , “The Morison Myth concerning the founding of Harvard College”, Church history , viii (1939), 148–59. Cf. Eliot Samuel Morison , The intellectual life of Colonial New England , 2nd edn (New York, 1956), 31–33, 42–43.

Theodore Hornberger , Scientific thought in the American colleges, 1638–1800 (Austin, 1945), 22–24, 37; Josiah Quincy , The history of Harvard University (2 vols, Cambridge, Mass., 1840), i, 517; Eliot Samuel Morison , The founding of Harvard College (Cambridge, Mass., 1935), 438–40; idem, Harvard College in the seventeenth century (Cambridge, Mass., 1936), 580–638.

For more on this press, see Morison , Intellectual life (ref. 2), chap. 5.

Morison Samuel E. , “The Harvard School of Astronomy in the seventeenth century”, New England quarterly , vii (1934), 3–24; Perry Miller Johnson Thomas H. (eds), The Puritans: A sourcebook of their writings , rev. edn (2 vols, New York, 1963), ii, 802–3; Donald Fleming , “The judgment upon Copernicus in Puritan New England”, Mélanges Alexandre Koyré (2 vols, Paris, 1964), ii, 160–75.

This has been overlooked by Morison , “Harvard School of Astronomy” (ref. 5); Fleming , “Judgment upon Copernicus” (ref. 5); Hall Michael G. , “Renaissance science in Puritan New England”, in Aspects of the Renaissance , ed. by Lewis Archibald R. (Austin, 1967), 123–36; Rose Lockwood , “The scientific revolution in seventeenth-century New England”, New England quarterly , liii (1980), 76–95.

Alexander Nowell , “The Suns prerogative vindicated”, in An almanack of coelestial motions for … 1665 (Cambridge, Mass., 1665); reprinted in John Langdon Sibley with Shipton Clifford K. , Biographical sketches of graduates of Harvard University (17 vols, Cambridge, Mass., 1873–85; Boston, 1933–75), ii, 149–51 (hereafter cited as Sibley's Harvard graduates).

William Williams , Ephemeris (Cambridge, 1685); reprinted in Miller Johnson (eds), Puritans (ref. 5), ii, 744–7.

Henry Newman , Harvard's ephemeris (Cambridge, 1690), postscript.

Miller Johnson , Puritans (ref. 5), ii, 732, 778.

For example, the Rev. Samuel Danforth (A.B. 1643) used his church records to record astronomical observations and delivered sermons on comets. See S[amuel] D[anforth], An astronomical description of the late comet or blazing star, as it appeared in New-England in … 1664. Together with a brief theological application thereof (Cambridge, Mass., 1665); Sibley's Harvard graduates (ref. 7), i, 88–92; Joseph Lovering , “Boston and science”, The memorial history of Boston , ed. by Justin Winsor (4 vols, Boston, 1881), iv, 489–526, pp. 490–1.

Oldenburg to Winthrop, 26 March 1664, The correspondence of Henry Oldenburg , ed. by Hall A. R. Hall M. B. (11 vols, Madison, 1965–73; London, 1975–77), ii, 149–50; Phineas Raymond Stearns , Science in the British colonies of America (Urbana, 1970), 130–1, 134, 691–4.

John Winthrop to Waitstill Winthrop , April 1672; Morison , “Harvard School of Astronomy” (ref. 5), 17–19.

On Harvard's apparatus, see Cohen Bernard I. , Some early tools of American science (New York, 1967); Wheatland David P. , The apparatus of science at Harvard, 1765–1800 (Cambridge, Mass., 1968); Schechner Sara J. , “John Prince and early American scientific instrument making”, in Sibley's heir (Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Collections, no. 59; Boston, 1982), 431–503.

[ Thomas Brattle ], “Observations of a comet seen this last winter 1680. and how it appeared at Boston”, appended to John Foster (A.B. 1667), An almanack of coelestial motions for … 1681 (Boston, 1681); Isaac Newton , Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (London, 1687), Book III, Prop. 41, Problem 21.

Prominent spectators included Increase Mather (A.B. 1656, fellow since 1674, and future Harvard president, 1685–1701), and his sons, Cotton (A.B. 1678) and Nathaniel (A.B. 1685). Kenneth Silverman , The life and times of Cotton Mather (New York, 1985), 40; Stearns , Science in the British colonies (ref. 12), 154; Morison , “Harvard School of Astronomy” (ref. 5), 21–22.

“The autobiography of Increase Mather”, ed. by Hall Michael G. , Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society , lxxi (1961), 271–360, p. 307; Cotton Mather , Parentator (Boston, 1724), 86; Otho T. Beall Jr , “Cotton Mather's early ‘Curiosa Americana’ and the Boston Philosophical Society of 1683”, William and Mary quarterly , 3rd series, xviii (1961), 360–72; Hall Michael G. , The last American Puritan: The life of Increase Mather, 1639–1723 (Middletown, Conn., 1988), 166–7; Murdock Kenneth B. , Increase Mather: The foremost American Puritan (Cambridge, Mass., 1925), 167–76; Stearns , Science in the British colonies (ref. 12), 155–9.

See for example, John Cotton , Gods mercie mixed with His justice (London, 1641), 118, 134; and Theodore Hornberger , “Puritanism and science: The relationship revealed in the writings of John Cotton”, New England quarterly , x (1937), 503–15; Perry Miller , The New England mind: The seventeenth century (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), chap. 8; Hall , Last American Puritan (ref. 17), chap. 5; Lockwood , “Scientific revolution” (ref. 6); Fleming , “Judgment upon Copernicus” (ref. 5).

Hall (ed.), “Autobiography of Increase Mather” (ref. 17); Murdock , Increase Mather (ref. 17), 179, 342–5; Silverman , Cotton Mather (ref. 16), 40.

Kilgour Frederick C. , “The first century of scientific books in the Harvard College Library”, Harvard Library notes , iii, no. 29 (1939), 217–25.

Increase Mather , Heaven's alarm to the world (Boston, 1682); idem, The latter sign discoursed of (Boston, 1682); idem, KOMHTOΓPAΦIA. or a Discourse concerning comets (Boston, 1683), especially 1–22, 132–6.

[ Cotton Mather ], A voice from heaven: An account of a late uncommon appearance in the heavens (Boston, 1719), 13–16.

Ibid. , 11; [ Cotton Mather ], An essay on comets, their nature, the laws of their motions, the cause and magnitude of their atmosphere, and tails; with a conjecture of their use and design (Boston, 1744), 2–7; enlarged edition of text first printed in Cotton Mather , The Christian philosopher (London, 1721), 41–45.

Charles Morton , Compendium physicae (Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Collections, no. 33; Boston, 1940), pp. xxxi, 4, 27–30, 35, 101–3. Cohen Bernard I. , “The Compendium physicae of Charles Morton (1627–1698)”, Isis , xxxiii (1942), 657–71.

Morton , Compendium physicae (ref. 24), 88–93.

John Winthrop , “Cogitata de cometis”, Philosophical transactions , lvii (1767), 132–54. For its reception, see [ John Davis (ed.)], Two lectures on comets, by Professor Winthrop, also, An essay on comets, by A. Oliver, Jun. With sketches of the lives of Professor Winthrop and Mr. Oliver. Likewise, a supplement, relative to the present comet of 1811 (Boston, 1811), pp. x–xii; and Stearns , Science in the British colonies (ref. 12), 633, 651.

See for example, John Winthrop , Commonplace Book (1728–), 84–85; and Diaries and Notes (1730–79), 22 January 1744, both in the Harvard University Archives, HUC 8728.394 and HUG 1879.205; Sibley's Harvard graduates (ref. 7), ix, 252.

John Winthrop , Two lectures on comets (Boston, 1759).

College Book 6 (Hollis Book), 6–8; and Corporation Records, iii, 326–7, Harvard University Archives.

Winthrop is Newtonian. See Schechner Sara Genuth , “Comets, teleology, and the relationship of chemistry to cosmology in Newton's thought”, Annali dell'Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze , x, no. 2 (1985), 31–65.

Boston gazette , 2 October 1769; Boston news-letter , 28 June and 20 September 1770. Unsigned reports, but likely to be Winthrop's work, include the Boston news-letter , 28 September and 26 October 1769; Boston evening post , 2 October 1769.

College Book 6 (Hollis Book), 6–8; Morison , Harvard College in the seventeenth century (ref. 3), 139–49; Cohen , Some early tools (ref. 14), 33, 41–44.

Thomas Crafts , “An epitome of Mr Williams's experimental lectures” (1782), Harvard University Archives, HUC 8781.370.

Samuel Williams , “Astronomical lectures” (1780–1781), Harvard University Archives, HUC 8780.305.

College Book 8, 190, 192–4, 270–2; and College Papers, ii, 76, Harvard University Archives, UAI.5.15 and UAI.5.131. The 1785 prospectus is reprinted in Cohen , Some early tools (ref. 14), 54–55. For curriculum c. 1800, see Samuel Miller , A brief retrospect of the eighteenth century (2 vols, New York, 1803), ii, 493–4.

Samuel Williams , lecture notebooks entitled “The astronomy of comets” (1785) and “Philosophical and astronomical lectures” (late 1780s), Harvard University Archives, HUC 8785.306 and HUC 8787.370. Idem , “Observations and conjectures on the state, motion, and phenomena of heat in comets” (1790), MS sent to Royal Society; Williams to Sir Joseph Banks, 16 September 1789, drafts at University of Vermont, Burlington, and British Museum, Add. MS 8097.358. I am indebted to Robert Rothschild for sharing copies of Williams's Royal Society papers.

Kilgour Frederick G. , “Thomas Robie (1689–1729), colonial scientist and physician”, Isis , xxx (1939), 473–90; Sibley's Harvard graduates (ref. 7), v, 450–5; Stearns , Science in the British colonies (ref. 12), 426, 431–5; Eliot Samuel Morison , Three centuries of Harvard, 1636–1936 (Cambridge, Mass., 1936), 58.

College Book 8, 49–50; College Papers, ii, 62, Harvard University Archives.

Cranch William Bond , “History and description of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College”, Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College , i, part 1 (1856), pp. ii–v; Jones Bessie Z. Boyd Lyle G. , The Harvard College Observatory: The first four directorships, 1839–1919 (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), 27–35; Bailey Solon I. , The history of the Harvard Observatory, 1839–1927 (New York, 1931), 11–14; Morison , Three centuries (ref. 37), 218–20.

Musto David F. , “A survey of the American observatory movement, 1800–1850”, Vistas in astronomy , ix (1967), 87–92; Rufus W. C. , “Astronomical observatories in the United States prior to 1848”, Scientific monthly , xix (1924), 120–39; Nathan Reingold (ed.), Science in nineteenth-century America (Chicago, 1985), 134–9; Miller Howard S. , Dollars for research: Science and its patrons in nineteenth-century America (Seattle, 1970), chap. 2.

Bond , “Astronomical Observatory” (ref. 39), pp. v–xiv; Jones Boyd , Harvard College Observatory (ref. 39), 40–45; Bailey , Harvard Observatory (ref. 39), 14–23.

Benjamin Peirce , “The Great Comet of 1843”, The American almanac and repository of useful knowledge for the year 1844 (Boston, 1843), 94–100; American journal of science and arts , xliv (1843), 412–17, and xlv (1843), 188–208, 229–30; Clerke Agnes M. , A popular history of astronomy during the nineteenth century , 3rd edn (London, 1893), 128–30.

Boston evening transcript , 10 March 1843.

Boston evening transcript , 11–14 and 22 March 1843; Boston semi-weekly advertiser , 22 and 25 March 1843.

E.g., Niles' national register , 1 April 1843.

A transcript and report of Peirce's lecture at the Odeon on 22 March 1843 can be found in the Boston semi-weekly advertiser and Boston evening transcript, both 25 March 1843.

Boston semi-weekly advertiser , 29 March and 1 April 1843.

American journal of science and arts , xlv (1843), 224–5, and lxii (1851), 295–300; Bond , “Astronomical Observatory” (ref. 39), pp. xiv–xvi; Jones Boyd , Harvard College Observatory (ref. 39), 48–56; Bailey , Harvard Observatory (ref. 39), 23–25; Miller , Dollars for research (ref. 40), 36–37.