“The Appointment of a Physicist as Director of the Astronomical Center of the World”

Wright H. , Explorer of the universe: A biography of George Ellery Hale (New York, 1966); WSA, “George Ellery Hale 1868–1938”, Biographical memoirs, National Academy of Sciences, xxi (1939), 181–249.

Bailey S. I. , “Edward Charles Pickering 1846–1919”, Biographical memoirs, National Academy of Sciences, xv (1932), 169–89.

WSA to W. H. Wright, 5 July 1942, SLO.

Birge R. T. to Sproul R. G. , 25 Feb. 1941, BL.

Mayall N. U. , “Edwin Powell Hubble”, Biographical memoirs, National Academy of Sciences, xli (1970), 175–214.

Wiesner J. B. , “Vannevar Bush”, Biographical memoirs, National Academy of Sciences, 1 (1979), 89–117; Bush V. , Pieces of the action (New York, 1970).

Baxter J. B. 3rd , Scientists against time (Boston, 1946); Stewart I. , Organizing scientific research for war (Boston, 1948).

VB to WSA, 26 May 1943, WSA to VB, 2 June 1943, HHL; WSA to VB, 22 Sept. 1944, CIW.

VB to WSA, 23 Oct. 1944, HHL.

WSA to I[SB], [∼5 Dec. 1947], CIT.

WSA to VB, 28 Oct. 1944, HHL.

Babcock H. W. , “Ira Sprague Bowen”, Biographical memoirs, National Academy of Sciences, liii (1982), 83–119; Wright W. H. to Russell H. N. , 27 Apr. 1936, Russell H. N. to Wright W. H. , 5 May 1936, SLO.

Birge R. T. , “Lick Observatory Committee Selection of Director for 1942”, Notes [∼ 1 Jan. 1941], BL.

VB to ISB, 9 June 1941, 9 Dec. 1942, McMath R. R. to ISB, 20 Dec. 1944, CIT; Mayall N. U. to Moore J. H. , 23 July 1943, 5 Jan. 1944, SLO; ISB to Dunham T. , 6 May, 14 Dec. 1944, ISB to McMath R. R. , 14 Dec. 1944, Andre L. E. to Dunham T. , 10 Mar. 1945, HHL.

WSA to VB, 28 Oct. 1944, VB to WSA, 9 Nov. 1944, HHL.

VB to WSA, 29 Dec. 1944, HHL.

VB to WSA, 30 Jan. 1945, HHL.

Harrison G. R. to WSA, 6 Feb., 26 Feb. 1945, HHL; VB to Harrison G. R. , 20 Feb., 1 Mar. 1945, CIW.

WSA to VB, 9 Jan. 1945, HHL.

VB to WSA, 20 Feb. 1945, WSA to VB, 3 Mar. 1945, HHL.

Mason M. to Millikan R. A. , 4 July 1937, CIT; Mason M. to VB, 13 Mar., 17 Sep. 1945, VB to Mason M. , 29 Mar. 1945, VB to WSA, 13 Apr. 1945, HHL.

WSA to VB, 24 Apr., 2 May 1945, VB to WSA, 2 May, 12 May 1945, WMG to WSA, 16 Mar., 2 Apr., 3 May 1945, HHL; WSA to VB, 10 May 1945, CIW.

VB to WSA, 27 Apr., 22 May, 30 May 1945, WSA to VB, 5 June 1945, HHL.

This is the strong consensus of the author's conversations with, interviews with, or letters from Babcock H. W. Irwin J. B. Mayall N. U. and Wilson O. C. , who were at Caltech; Bidelman W. P. Chandrasekhar S. Hoffleit D. Sachs R. G. Schwarzschild M. , and Thomas R. N. , who were at Aberdeen; and Keenan P. C. , who, as a representative of the Navy Bureau of Ordnance, stationed in Washington, visited Aberdeen several times. See also Irwin J. B. , “The case of the clouded crystal ball”, Griffith observer, liii (1989), no. 9, 3–17.

WSA to VB, 24 May, 5 June 1945, VB to WSA, 28 May, 12 June 1945, WMG to WSA, 14 June 1945, HHL.

VB to Hoover H. , 14 June 1945, HHL.

VB to WSA, 5 July 1945, VB to ISB, 18 July 1945, VB to Forbes W. C. , 19 July 1945, WSA to WMG, 20 July 1945, ISB to VB, 23 July 1945, HHL.

Millikan R. A. to [J.] Oppenheimer R. , 31 Aug. 194[5], Papers Oppenheimer J. R. , Library of Congress.

WSA to VB, 28 June 1945, CIW; WMG to WSA, 5 July, 1 Aug. 1945, HHL.

EH to VB, 10 Sept. 1945, EH to WSA, 12 Sept. 1945, WSA to VB, 12 Sept. 1945, WMG to WSA, 14 Sept. 1945, VB to WSA, 19 Sept. 1945, ISB to VB, 22 Sept. 1945, HHL; EH to VB, 12 Sept. 1945, CIW.

VB to Gifford W. S. , 26 Sept. 1945, VB to ISB, 27 Sept., 2 Oct. (telegram) 1945, WSA to VB, 1 Oct. 1945, ISB to WSA, 1 Oct. 1945, VB to EH, 3 Oct. 1945, ISB to EH, 4 Oct. 1945, HHL; CIW Executive Committee minutes, 19 Oct. 1945, CIW.

EH to VB, 16 Oct. 1945, EH to ISB, 16 Oct. 1945, HHL.

VB to ISB, 20 Oct., 6 Nov. 1945, ISB to VB, 26 Oct. 1945, WSA to VB, 2 Nov. 1945, HHL.

ISB to Russell H. N. , 26 Oct. 1945, ISB to VB, 13 Nov., 17 Nov. 1945, HHL; ISB to VB, 7 Dec. 1945, CIW.

WSA to Harrison G. R. , 4 Aug. 1945, Russell H. N. to ISB, 18 Oct., 3 Nov. 1945, VB to ISB, 18 Dec., 22 Dec. 1945 (telegram), Harrison G. R. to ISB, 31 Dec. 1945, HHL; Millikan R. A. to Oppenheimer J. R. , 20 Feb. 1946, Library of Congress.

“Mount Wilson Observatory Budget for 1945” [∼1 Sept. 1944], WSA to VB, 1 Sept. 1945, VB to WSA, 15 Dec. 1945, HHL; Biesecker E. B. to EH, 11 Dec. 1945, CIW.

Babcock , op. cit. (ref. 12).