Astronomy as Public Utility: The Bond Years at the Harvard College Observatory

The Bonds' astronomy and their administrative contributions to the observatory are described in Zaban Bessie Jones Gifford Lyle Boyd , The Harvard College Observatory: The first four directorships, 1839–1919 (Cambridge, Mass., 1971) and in Bailey Solon I. , The history and work of Harvard Observatory, 1839 to 1927 (New York, 1931), 217–36. Excerpts from Bond papers are in Holden Edward S. , Memorials of William Cranch Bond and his son George Phillips Bond (New York, 1897).

For a description of the Boston-Cambridge scientific milieu, see Bruce Robert V. , The launching of modern American science, 1846–1876 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1988), 31–35, 39–41.

“Statutes of the Observatory”, in Cranch William Bond , History and description of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College (Cambridge, Mass., 1856; reprint, New York, 1980), pp. lix–lxi, p. lx; Miller Howard S. , Dollars for research: Science and its patrons in nineteenth-century America (Seattle, 1970), 38–39; Eliot's speech is quoted in Eliot Samuel Morison , Three centuries of Harvard, 1636–1936 (Cambridge, Mass., 1936), 330.

For background on exploring expeditions see Dupree Hunter A. , Science in the Federal Government (Cambridge, Mass., 1957), 51–65, 91–114; and Goetzmann William H. , Exploration and empire: The explorer and the scientist in the winning of the American West (New York, 1966).

Bailey , Harvard Observatory (ref. 1), 15–16; Memorandum, Charles Wilkes to Commodore Isaac Chauncey, 1838, quoted in Nathan Reingold (ed.), Science in nineteenth-century America: A documentary history (New York, 1964), 119–20; Joye Leonhart , “Charles Wilkes: A biography”, in Magnificent voyagers: The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838–1842 , ed. by Viola Herman J. Carolyn Margolis (Washington, D.C., 1985), 189–203, p. 196; and Bartlett Irving H. , The American mind in the mid-nineteenth century , 2nd edn (Arlington Heights, Ill., 1982), 33.

Thomson Malcolm M. , The beginning of the long dash: A history of timekeeping in Canada (Toronto, 1978), 5, 12–16.

Bond William C. , draft of annual report for 1858, Bond Papers, Harvard University Archives (hereafter: BP, HUA), used by permission.

Dupree , Science in the Federal Government (ref. 4), 39–43; Miller Howard S. , “The political economy of science”, in Nineteenth-century American science: A reappraisal , ed. by Daniels George H. (Evanston, Ill., 1972), 95–112, pp. 98, 112.

Draft Bond William C. Bancroft George , Secretary of the Navy, 14 May 1845, BP, HUA. For details on the early years of the Naval Observatory, see Marc Rothenberg , “Observers and theoreticians: Astronomy at the Naval Observatory, 1845–1861”, in Sky with ocean joined , ed. by Steven Dick Leroy Doggett (Washington, D.C., 1983), 29–43; and Dick Steven J. , “How the U.S. Naval Observatory began, 1830–1865”, ibid. , 167–81.

The unique relationship between the firm and the observatory is the subject of Stephens C. , “Partners in time: William Bond, Son of Boston and the Harvard College Observatory”, Harvard Library bulletin , xxxv (1987), 351–84.

In Dictionary of scientific biography, s.v. “Airy, George Biddell”, Eggin Olin J. writes: “Airy was not a great scientist, but he made great science possible.” Also on Airy, see Cannon Susan F. , Science in culture: The early Victorian period (New York, 1978), 38–39; and Bennett J. A. , “George Biddell Airy and horology”, Annals of science , xxxvii (1980), 269–85.

Airy G. B. to Mitchel O. M. , 14 Nov. 1843, RGO 6/140, Royal Greenwich Observatory Archives.

The royal warrant for establishing the observatory at Greenwich is quoted in Bennett , “Airy and horology” (ref. 11), 270. Draft of Annual Report for 1857, Bond W. C. Walker James , 19 Dec. 1857, BP, HUA; Bond W. C. Quincy Josiah , 11 Oct. 49, BP, HUA.

Bond William C. , draft of Annual Report, 1857, BP, HUA; Marc Rothenberg , “The educational and intellectual background of American astronomers, 1825–1875” (Ph.D. diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1974), 113–24.

Bond W. C. to Pres. of Assoc. (?), draft, n.d., BP, HUA.

London, International Exhibition, 1851: Reports by the juries, Class X, Philosophical instruments and processes depending upon their use (London, 1851), 519, 527; Airy G. B. , “Description of the galvanic chronographic apparatus of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich”, Appendix, Astronomical and meteorological observations made at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in the year 1856 (London, 1858), pp. iii–xxi.

Memorandum, Bond G. P. Everett Edward , 9 March 1859, BP, HUA.

Dictionary of scientific biography, s.v. “Bache, Alexander Dallas”; Nathan Reingold , “Alexander Dallas Bache: Science and technology in the American idiom”, Technology and culture , xi (1970), 163–77; Gregory Sally Kohlstedt , The formation of the American scientific community: The American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1848–1860 (Urbana, Ill., 1976), 162; Ann Mary James , Elites in conflict: The antebellum clash over the Dudley Observatory (New Brunswick, N.J., 1987).

Mitchel O. M. , Popular astronomy (New York, 1860), 235; John Locke , Report on the invention and construction of his electro-chronograph for the National Observatory (Cincinnati, 1850), p. xi. In a letter to Cranch Joseph of 10 Oct. 1852 (BP, HUA), Bond George described Bache's dissatisfaction: “Should you see any of the scientific men, Airy, Sabine, &c Dr. B—wants to have one or two points properly explained to them. He is a little sore … & wants the share of the Coast Survey in the history of the application of the Electric Telegraph to Astronomical Observation to be recognized across the water …. You know at first in England all the credit was given in the wrong direction. Latterly we have had more than our share & both ways the C.S. is left out of sight.”.

Bond W. C. Bache Alexander D. , 13 Dec. 1850, BP, HUA.

Holden , Memorials (ref. 1), 37–39; Bruce , Launching of modern American science (ref. 2), 180–1.

The literature describing the intrigues and influence of the Lazzaroni is extensive. For a summary, see Bruce , Launching of modern American science (ref. 2), 217–26, 261–3, and 301–5.

Bond , History and description (ref. 3), p. clxv. See also Stephens C. , “‘The most reliable time’: William Bond, the New England railroads, and time awareness in 19th-century America”, Technology and culture , xxx (1989), 1–24.

Bennett , “Airy and horology” (ref. 11), 280–2; Derek Howse , Greenwich time and the discovery of the longitude (Oxford, 1980), 89–97.

Airy, 1853 Report, quoted in Bennett , “Airy and horology” (ref. 11), 282; DeBow's review , viii (1850), 447, quoted in Allen Pred , Urban growth and city systems in the United States, 1840–1860 (Cambridge, Mass., 1980), 151.

Howse , Greenwich time , 118–27.

Harris Seymour E. , Economics of Harvard (New York, 1970), p. xxiii.

Bond George P. Mitchell William , 21 Jan. 1860, BP, HUA.