Enterprise at Harvard College Observatory

Unattributed quotes from Mayall Margaret W. Charles A. Federer Jr , are from interviews conducted by the author in late 1988 and early 1989; they have reviewed an early draft of the text.

A nice summary of these early pleas is in Dorrit Hoffleit , “Preludes to the founding of the AAVSO”, Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers , xv (1986), 107–11.

“Editorial notes”, Sidereal messenger , ii (1883), 24–32, p. 25.

Pickering Edward C. , Sixtieth annual report of the Director of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College for the year ending September 30, 1905 (Cambridge, Mass., 1905), 8.

Pickering Edward C. , “Coöperation in observing variable stars”, Harvard College Observatory circular no. 53 (1901), 8.

Pickering Edward C. , “Cooperation in observing variable stars”, Harvard College Observatory circular no. 166 (1911).

Pickering Edward C. , “Variable stars of long period”, Harvard College Observatory circular no. 112 (1906).

Wilson Herbert C. , “What an amateur can do”, Popular astronomy , xix (1911), 456–7.

In Journal of the British Astronomical Association , i (1890), 2–3.

“Cooperation in observing variable stars”, Popular astronomy , xix (1911), 520–1, p. 520.

Tyler William Olcott , “The Variable Star Association”, ibid. , 586–8.

Tyler William Olcott , “The first Monthly Report of the American Association of Variable Star Observers”, ibid. , 655–8.

Menzel Donald H. , unpublished autobiography.

Akyüz Janet Mattei , “The founding of the AAVSO and its first seventy-five years”, Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers , xv (1986), 112–22.

Pickering , Sixtieth annual report (ref. 4).

Akyüz Janet Mattei , personal communication.

Bailey Solon I. , The history and work of Harvard Observatory, 1839 to 1927 (New York, 1931), 189.

Mayall Margaret W. , interview by Owen Gingerich, August and September 1986.

Mattei , “The founding of the AAVSO” (ref. 14).

Menzel , unpublished autobiography.

Ibid. .

Menzel Donald H. , letter to Harlow Shapley, 1 December 1952, in the AAVSO archives.

Smiley Charles H. , “Report on the value of past and future activities of the American Association of Variable Star Observers”, submitted 15 January 1953 (AAVSO archives).

Menzel Donald H. , letter to Paul Buck, 9 February 1953, in the HCO papers, Harvard University Archives.

Harlow Shapley , “Statement about the A.A.V.S.O.”, 4 January 1953, in the AAVSO archives.

Menzel Donald H. , unsigned draft of letter to Paul Buck, 19 August 1953, in the HCO papers. Mayall's chronology of these events is somewhat different; see her letter to AAVSO membership, 5 August 1953, in the AAVSO archives.

Shapley , “Statement” (ref. 25).

Menzel , unpublished autobiography.

HCO Council, letter to Paul Buck, 16 February 1953, in the AAVSO archives.

Mayall interview (ref. 18).

Official register of Harvard University , xxviii, dated 3 December 1931, 47; see also the Statement of the Treasurer of Harvard College for 1930–31, ibid. , 289.

HCO Council, letter to Buck (ref. 29). Curiously, this wording does not correspond to that in Endowment funds of Harvard University, June 30, 1980. This discrepancy and the history of the Pickering Memorial are being further investigated by the author.

Menzel Donald H. , letter to Paul Buck, 13 February 1953, in the HCO papers.

Shapley , “Statement” (ref. 25).

Menzel to Buck (ref. 26).

HCO Council, letter to Buck (ref. 29); Paul Buck, letter to Donald H. Menzel, 11 March 1953, in the AAVSO archives.

Akyüz Janet Mattei , personal communication.

Shaw O. M. , letter to McGeorge Bundy, 21 September 1953, in the HCO papers.

Menzel , unpublished autobiography.

Menzel Donald H. , letter to Harlow Shapley, 1 December 1952, in the AAVSO archives.

Helen Stephansky took and transcribed shorthand notes of this meeting, in the AAVSO archives.

Mayall interview (ref. 18).

In his director's report for 1953–54 ( Official Register of Harvard University , lii, dated 31 October 1955, 361–76), Menzel wrote only this about the AAVSO's departure: “During the spring the American Association of Variable Star Observers moved its headquarters from the old building A to offices at Harvard Square” (p. 361).

“AAVSO endowment fund”, Sky & telescope , xiii (1954), 190.

“AAVSO to receive bequest”, Sky & telescope , xli (1971), 289.

Akyüz Janet Mattei , personal communication.

Marian Lockwood , “Biography”, Sky & telescope , i (1941), 7, 26.

Federer Charles A. , unpublished manuscript in the Sky & telescope archives.

Ibid. .

“The Editors note …”, The sky , iv, no. 3 (1940), 2.

Menzel , unpublished autobiography.

Ibid. .

Federer manuscript (ref. 48).

Menzel, unpublished autobiography.

Federer manuscript (ref. 48).

“Popular Astronomy ceases publication”, Sky & telescope , xi (1952), 117.

Federer manuscript (ref. 48).

Menzel letter to Buck, 13 February 1953 (ref. 33).

Menzel Donald H. , Harvard Astronomical Observatory annual report , 1958, covers the interval 1 October 1957 to 30 September 1958; Shapley H. , Ninety-sixth annual report …, 1942, 4.