Redefining a Mission: The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory on the Move

Neither the history of the Smithsonian Institution, nor that of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, nor that of the Harvard College Observatory between 1945 and the present has received adequate attention from historians. Two exceptions are Peggy Kidwell's “Harvard astronomers in World War II”, in Science at Harvard University: Historical perspectives , ed. by Elliott Clark A. Rossiter Margaret W. (Bethlehem, Penn., in press), and Karl Hufbauer , “Solar physics as beneficiary of war, 1939–1957”, a chapter in his forthcoming book Exploring the Sun: Solar science since Galileo; I am grateful to Dr Hufbauer for providing a pre-publication draft. Bessie Zaban Jones's Lighthouse of the skies: The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Washington, D.C., 1965) offers a general, authorized history of the SAO from the time of its founding to 1955. In Trackers of the skies (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), Hayes Nelson E. discusses the origins of the International Geophysical Year satellite tracking program without analysing underlying political and institutional factors that shaped its development. While Hayes provides helpful technical information, his study must be used with caution, for it contains occasional errors of fact. The present study draws largely on the papers of Leonard Carmichael, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution from 1953 to 1964, Record Unit 50, Smithsonian Institution archives (hereafter abbreviated LCar), those of Fred. L. Whipple, Director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory from 1955 until 1973, Smithsonian Institution archives (hereafter FLW), and those of the Director's Office, Harvard College Observatory ( Menzel Donald H. ) from 1952 to 1966, Harvard University archives (hereafter DHCO). Records also cited are the papers of Adams Walter S. Wilson Mt Observatory archives (hereafter WSA), the papers of Greenstein Jesse L. , Millikan archives, California Institute of Technology (hereafter JLG), and the papers of Kuiper Gerard P. , University of Arizona archives (hereafter GPK). For an overview of the activities of the SAO during this period see Whipple's Annual reports to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1955 to 1960; see also Menzel to McGeorge Bundy , 24 Jan. 1955, FLW; Keddy John L. Carmichael Dr , memorandum, “Astrophysical Observatory information”, 14 Feb. 1955, Box 12, LCar; Keddy to Carmichael, 18 Oct. 1956, LCar; Leo Goldberg to members of the Harvard College Observatory advisory committee, 19 Jan. 1971, p. 4, JLG.

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory also operated a Division of Radiation and Organisms, established by Charles Abbot in 1929. This Division remained in Washington following the transfer of astrophysical research programs to Cambridge and became largely autonomous.

On the SAO's history in the first part of the twentieth century see DeVorkin David H. , “Defending a dream: Charles Greeley Abbot's years at the Smithsonian”, this volume.

For biographical details on Carmichael see “Leonard Carmichael — an autobiography”, in Boring E. G. Gardner Lindzey (eds), A history of psychology in autobiography , v (New York, 1967); Carl Pfaffman , “Leonard Carmichael, November 9, 1898 — September 16, 1973”, Biographical memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences , li (1980), 25–48. Carmichael's involvement in the Office of Scientific Research and Development is discussed in Capshew James H. , Psychology on the march: American psychologists and World War II (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1986).

Ballard to Carmichael, 3 Nov. 1953, Box 15, LCar; Memorandum [of conversation with Harlow Shapley], 7 Dec. 1953, Box 15, LCar.

Abbot Charles G. , The Sun and the welfare of man (Smithsonian Science Series, ii; Washington, D.C., 1938). Abbot made his claims about the solar control of terrestrial weather in numerous reports, many published by the Smithsonian; for example see Abbot C. G. , “Sixty year weather forecasts”, Smithsonian miscellaneous collections , cxxviii, no. 3 (1955), and “Periods related to 273 months, or 22¾ years”, Smithsonian miscellaneous collections , cxxxiv, no. 3 (1956). A thorough historical account of Abbot's accomplishments is Deborah Jean Warner's “Charles Greeley Abbot (1872–1973)”, Year Book of the American Philosophical Society, 1975, 111–16. In 1937 Aldrich stated flatly that “The solar constant is not constant but varies irregularly through a range of nearly 3 per cent”; see Aldrich L. B. , “Measurement of the solar constant”, in Forsythe W. E. (ed.), Measurement of radiant energy (New York, 1937). See also DeVorkin , op. cit. (ref. 3).

In 1954, for example, Abbot wrote to the astronomer Walter Adams that “the Weather Bureau and practically all meteorologists say the sun's variation is too small to be of any [appreciable] weather influence” (Abbot to Adams, 20 Nov. 1954, WSA); I am grateful to DeVorkin David for calling the Abbot-Adams correspondence to my attention. Other methods for examining possible solar variations were initiated during the early twentieth century, including Douglass's A. E. attempts to measure the growth rings of trees to determine climatic variations. Few of these data sets correlated with each other, however. See Webb George E. , Tree rings and telescopes: The scientific career of A. E. Douglass (Tucson, Ariz., 1983).

In 1950, for example, he declared the SAO's studies would “also aid in hastening the development of means to use solar energy for power”, Aldrich L. B. , “Statement concerning the work of the Astrophysical Observatory”, accompanying Aldrich to Graf, 7 April 1950, p. 5, Box 15, LCar.

Aldrich to Carmichael, memorandum, 7 Oct. 1953, Box 15, LCar; Aldrich to Carmichael, memorandum, 21 Sept. 1953, Box 15, LCar.

Aldrich Graf , memorandum, 23 July 1954, Box 12, LCar. Abbot agreed in still stronger terms, arguing that the planets are “quite too poor mirrors for following solar variation”, Abbot to Aldrich, 23 July 1954, Box 12, LCar (emphasis in original). On the Lowell Observatory program see Slipher E. C. , “The study of planetary atmospheres [final report]”, USAF Contract 19(122)-162 (30 Sept. 1952).

Thomas for example noted “the solar constant is so constant over the long time-base of the measures that any fluctuation is comparable with the accuracy of the measures” (Thomas to Keddy, 14 Dec. 1956, Box 14, LCar).

Edison Pettit , a solar astronomer at the Mt Wilson Observatory, also concluded that reported solar variations were an artifact of atmospheric absorptions, on the basis of his own attempts to measure the intensity of solar radiation at ultraviolet wavelengths; see Ira S. Bowen to Vannevar Bush, 7 Oct. 1954, Box 15, LCar.

Graf and Keddy to Carmichael, 29 July 1954, Box 15, LCar.

Carmichael to Bush, 10 Sept. 1954, Box 15, LCar; Graf to Carmichael, memorandum, 10 Aug. 1954, Box 15, LCar; Graf and Keddy to Carmichael, 29 July 1954, pp. 1 and 2, Box 15, LCar; Aldrich to Carmichael, memorandum, 25 Oct. 1954, Box 15, LCar; Abbot to Adams, 20 Nov. 1954, WSA; Abbot to Adams, 4 Jan. 1955, WSA.

Memorandum [of meeting with Harlow Shapley], 7 Dec. 1953, Box 15, LCar; [Graf] to Carmichael, memorandum, “Conference with Walter Orr Roberts Dr. of the Climax Observatory”, 6 July 1954, Box 15, LCar.

[Graf] to Carmichael, memorandum, 6 July 1954, Box 15, LCar. For an overview of Roberts's views on the influence of solar corpuscular radiation on the Earth's weather see Roberts , “Sun clouds and rain clouds”, Scientific American , cxcvi, no. 4 (April 1957), 138–48.

[Carmichael], “Report on trip to Boulder, Colorado and the High Altitude Observatory at Climax, Colorado, August 11–13, 1954”, p. 3, Box 15, LCar; Carmichael to Vannevar Bush, 10 Sept. 1954, p. 2, Box 15, LCar.

Roberts W. O. Shapley , 25 May 1947; Menzel Roberts John Evans , 14 May 1947; Roberts , “High Altitude Observatory of Harvard University and University of Colorado: Annual budget report for 1952” [confidential], all DHCO (see ref. 1).

In his memorandum on the Colorado visit, Carmichael noted that a letter from the Harvard University administrator McGeorge Bundy announcing the withdrawal of Harvard administrative support for Climax had arrived during his stay with Roberts. See Carmichael , “Report on trip to Colorado” (ref. 17).

Carmichael , “Conference with Professor Donald H. Menzel, Harvard University”, Box 15, LCar; Carmichael , memorandum, “Conference with Dr. Robert N. White”, 6 Oct. 1954, Box 15, LCar; Carmichael , “Conference with Dr. Ralph Shapiro, Long Range Weather Forecasting Scientist, Cambridge Research Center”, 6 Oct. 1954, Box 15, LCar; Carmichael , “Informal conference with Dr. Harlow Shapley in reference to Astrophysical Observatory”, 6 Oct. 1954, Box 15, LCar. Shapiro and White were both associated with the Geophysics Research Directorate of the Air Force Cambridge Research Center, sponsor of the Giclas-Johnson solar constant studies at Lowell Observatory; Willett was a professor of meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bowen to Bush, 7 Oct. 1954, Box 15, LCar. This letter was sent to Carmichael with an accompanying letter from Vannevar Bush on 11 Oct. 1954, Box 15, LCar.

Walter Orr Roberts , memorandum, “Review of my activities, associations, affiliations, etc”, 24 Oct. 1950, Box 15, LCar.

Bowen Bush , 7 Oct. 1954, p. 2, Box 15, LCar. For background on this period see for example Philip Stern, The Oppenheimer case (New York, 1969).

Frank Roberts (Smithsonian Security Office) to Graf J. E. , memorandum, “Subversive organizations”, 14 Oct. 1954, Box 15, LCar; Graf to Carmichael, memorandum, “Dr. Walter Orr Roberts”, 13 Oct. 1954, Box 15, LCar.

Carmichael , “Conference with Spitzer Lyman Dr. Jr. Princeton, New Jersey, November 6, 1954”, Box 15, LCar; Menzel to McGeorge Bundy, 24 Jan. 1955, p. 2, Box 6, FLW.

McMath Carmichael , 12 Nov. 1954, Box 15, LCar; “Memorandum of conversation between Carmichael Leonard Drs. McMath Robert R. , Washington, October 25, 1954, in re staff appointments and research program of the Astrophysical Division of the Smithsonian Institution”, Box 15, LCar. Members attending this meeting included McMath, Bowen, and Otto Struve, then chairman of the Department of Astronomy at Berkeley. Struve stressed that the main activities of the SAO should nevertheless remain in Washington, as its proximity to government “is important for astronomy as a whole” (National Science Foundation, Advisory Panel for National Astronomical Observatory, 4–5 Nov. 1954, p. 10, NSF History Files). Edmondson Frank K. kindly called my attention to this and to a related citation quoted in ref. 27.

Members of the National Observatory Panel had also concluded that the “[s]hortage of astronomers in this field is very bad”; see National Science Foundation, Advisory Panel for National Astronomical Observatory, 4–5 Nov. 1954, p. 10, NSF History Files. Harlow Shapley declared in 1946 that approximately 25 openings existed for young astronomers although “scarcely any candidates” existed to fill them; similarly, the astronomer Gerard Kuiper of the University of Chicago observed in 1953 that staff increases in astronomy departments “has been less marked than in other physical sciences as is true from the number of positions available”. Shapley, “10th informal memorandum from Harlow Shapley”, Aug. 1946, p. 6, Box 5, FLW; Kuiper to Kelly [NSF], 10 Feb. 1953, GPK.

Carmichael , “Conference with Bowen I. S. Dr. ”, 7 Dec. 1954, Box 15, LCar.

Carmichael , “Conference with Spitzer Lyman Dr. Jr. , Princeton, New Jersey, November 6, 1954”, Box 15, LCar; Carmichael , “Conference withBowen of Mount Wilson I. S. Dr. Palomar Observatories, Dec. 7, 1954”, Box 15, LCar.

Bowen I. S. Carmichael Leonard , 16 Dec. 1954, Box 15, LCar. In this letter Bowen typed “joint operation with a certain institution”, meaning Harvard, then crossed this out in favour of “an Eastern institution”. See also Carmichael to Bowen, 21 Dec. 1954, Box 15, LCar.

Carmichael , “Conference with Thomas Richard Nelson Dr. , December 15, 1954”, Box 15, LCar; memorandum, Thomas Whipple , 29 Dec. 1954, Box 15, FLW; Thomas Menzel , 7 June 1955, Box 15, FLW.

Hunsaker to Leonard [Carmichael], 16 Dec. 1954, handwritten letter, p. 2, Box 15, LCar.

Carmichael , “Conference withBowen of Mount Wilson I. S. Dr. Palomar Observatories, December 7, 1954”, Box 15, LCar.

Goldberg to Carmichael, 20 Dec. 1954, Box 15, LCar.

Aldrich to Carmichael, memorandum, “My tenure as temporary director of the Astrophysical Observatory”, 14. Jan. 1955, LCar; Abbot to Adams, 4 Feb. 1955, WSA.

Details of the 13 Jan. meeting are recorded in Carmichael's appointment calendar, available at the Smithsonian Institution archives; see also Menzel Bundy McGeorge , 24 Jan. 1955, FLW. In a letter to Adams, Abbot noted that Carmichael believed Air Force and National Advisory Council for Aeronautics (NACA) funding would become available for SAO solar research; see Abbot Adams , 11 May 1955, WSA; Whipple Abbot , 11 July 1955, Box 1, FLW.

Draft letter, Carmichael to Whipple, undated [Feb. 1955], p. 6, Box 16, LCar. This letter was not sent, perhaps because of continuing direct discussions between these men in Cambridge and Washington.

While the international Special Committee of the IGY (CSAGI) had recommended launching Earth satellites on 4 Oct. 1954, it was not until March of 1955 — two months after the Harvard-Smithsonian agreement was ratified in principle — that serious discussions about providing logistical support for IGY programs were held at the Pentagon. Moreover, the critical meeting of the National Security Council which approved plans for a U.S. satellite launching during IGY was not held until 26 May 1955. The decision to initiate the SAO program in satellite tracking, it is important to emphasize, followed the decision to relocate the SAO, and therefore was not a factor in the move. Historians have yet to treat the origins and operation of the International Geophysical Year in detail. For helpful historical introductions see Pyne Stephen J. , The ice: A journey to Antarctica (New York, 1986), chap. 6, and Walter McDougall , The Heavens and the Earth: A political history of the space age (New York, 1985). For the SAO satellite tracking program, see Whipple to Carmichael, 26 Nov. 1955, Box 13, LCar.

Whipple to Carmichael, 25 May 1956, Box 4, FLW; memorandum, Whipple to Carmichael, 24 July 1956, Box 4, FLW; memorandum, Keddy to Carmichael, 18 Oct. 1956, Box 12, LCar.

Carmichael to Sterne, through Whipple, 16 July 1957, and Carmichael to Whipple, 10 Oct. 1957, both Box 4, FLW. See also Whipple to Sterne, 21 Nov. 1956, Box 11, FLW; and Memorandum, Sterne to Carmichael through Whipple, 10 Sept. 1957; Whipple to Carmichael, 27 Sept. 1957; Carmichael to Whipple, 8 Oct. 1957; Carmichael to Whipple, 11 Oct. 1957; and Carmichael to Whipple, 14 Oct. 1957, all Box 4, FLW. Carmichael also recognized a continuing Smithsonian mission to calibrate existing pyrheliometers still in operation; see Menzel to Bundy, 24 Jan. 1955, Box 6; Whipple to Sterne, 21 Nov. 1956, Box 11; and Carmichael to Whipple, 18 June 1957, Box 4, FLW.

One problem Carmichael had with Sterne's appointment was that Sterne had published critical reviews of Abbot's solar constant studies; a difficulty he foresaw in stimulating renewed work in the field was that “the general opinion at the Cambridge headquarters … seems to be unsympathetic to the continuation of solar radiation measurements” (Carmichael to Sterne, through Whipple, 16 July 1957, Box 4, FLW). On the 1957 solar constant meeting see Thomas Richard Keddy J. L. , 14 Dec. 1956; Thomas Richard N. , “Features of the solar spectrum as imposed by the physics of the Sun”, Scientific monthly , lxxxiii, no. 3 (Sept. 1956), 135–44; Abbot to [Carmichael], 16 July 1957, Box 16; Sterne to Whipple, memorandum, “Detailed comments on Abbot's Dr. criticisms of my paper …”, 10 Sept. 1957, Box 16; Theodore Sterne Nanielou Dieter , “The constancy of the solar ‘constant’”, eight-page draft version, dated 12 March 1957, Box 16; and “Meeting, Regents room (notes on discussion)”, 23 Aug. 1957, Box 12, all LCar. On Whipple's views see Whipple , Annual report to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1956, 66–67; Thomas Keddy John , 14 Dec. 1956, Box 14, LCar. Whipple's views on this point had apparently been formed well before he accepted SAO directorship: In a letter to Hulbert E. O. of the Naval Research Laboratory in 1952, Whipple declared that he would trust only those solar constant observations “made completely above the earth's atmosphere” ( Whipple Hulbert E. O. , 24 Jan. 1952, “Misc./ Hulbert E. O. files”). DeVorkin David kindly called this letter to my attention.

Memorandum, Carmichael to Sterne through Whipple, 16 July 1957, Box 4, FLW.

Thomas Menzel , 7 June 1955, Box 13, FLW. In a 1971 review of the HCO-SAO link, Leo Goldberg concluded that “the Smithsonian Observatory contributes in a major way to the teaching program of the Department”; see memorandum, Goldberg to The Overseers' Committee to Visit the Department of Astronomy”, 8 April 1971, Box 51, file 2, JLG. The Chilean station had been shut down in 1956, principally because of smoke from nearby smelting operations. No discussion of collaborative efforts with Roberts or the High Altitude Observatory appears in either the Annual Reports of the SAO or those of the HAO from 1955 to 1960; see Roberts W. O. , “High Altitude Observatory of the University of Colorado, Boulder and Climax, Colorado”, Astronomical journal , lxiv (1959), 283–6.

On the development of NSF efforts to aid radio astronomy at this time see Needell Allan A. , “Lloyd Berkner, Merle Tuve, and the federal role in radio astronomy”, Osiris , 2nd ser., iii (1987), 261–88.

Menzel declared to Buck Paul H. , Harvard University Provost, that “no expenditure of funds, however large, can transform the [Massachusetts-based and Harvard-operated] Agassiz Station into a truly great observatory. The generally poor weather, the low sky clarity, the variable atmospheric transparency, and the overall unsteadiness of the atmosphere severely restrict the usefulness of the equipment for research purposes. All eastern locations suffer from similar limitations” (Menzel to Buck, 24 Feb. 1953, Box 6, FLW). On the participation of astronomers in rocket research see David DeVorkin , “Organizing for space research: The V-2 Rocket Panel”, Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences , xviii (1987), 1–24.

On the conflict betwen ground- and space-based astronomical studies in the 1960s see Tatarewicz Joseph N. , Space technology and planetary astronomy (Bloomington, Ind., forthcoming).

“Preliminary proposal for support of astronomy by the National Science Foundation”, Box 6, JLG.

See Marguerite Dupree (ed.), Lancashire and Whitehall: The diary of Sir Raymond Streat (Manchester, 1987), ii, 926–8, 949–50; Dudley Saward , Bernard Lovell: A biography (London, 1984), 159–95. Dupree Hunter A. included this example in his prepared comments for the session at which this paper was originally presented, and I am extremely grateful to Dupree for providing me the details of this alternative case.

Otto Struve Velta Zebergs , Astronomy of the twentieth century (New York, 1962), 31; DeVorkin , op. cit. (ref. 3).

Memorandum, Carmichael to Sterne, through Whipple, 16 July 1957, Box 4, FLW.

After the late 1950s many scientists became convinced that solar constant research could only be done above Earth's atmosphere; by 1977 the solar constant was defined as the “total solar energy of all wavelengths received per unit time and unit area at the mean Earth-Sun distance in the absence of the Earth's atmosphere” ( Froehlich C. , “Contemporary measures of the solar constant”, in White Oran R. , (ed.), The solar output and its variation (Boulder, Col., 1977), 91–109, p. 93). A helpful overview is Newkirk Gordon Jr , “Variations in solar luminosity”, Annual reviews of astronomy and astrophysics , xxi (1983), 429–67; for an historical treatment, see Hufbauer , op. cit. (ref. 1), chap. 9.