William H. Pickering in Jamaica: The Founding of Woodlawn and Studies of Mars

For accounts of William Pickering's Woodlawn observatory and/or his studies of Mars, see Bailey Solon I. , The history and work of Harvard Observatory, 1839 to 1927 (New York and London, 1931); Martz E. P. Jr , “Pilgrimage to a tropical observatory”, Popular astronomy, xlv (1937), 364–74 and 419–29; Jones Zaban Bessie and Boyd Gifford Lyle , The Harvard College Observatory: The first four directorships, 1839–1919 (Cambridge, Mass., 1971); Hoyt Graves William , Lowell and Mars (Tucson, Arizona, 1976); Webb Ernest George , Tree rings and telescopes: The scientific career of A. E. Douglass (Tucson, Arizona, 1983); Crowe Michael J. , The extraterrestrial life debate, 1750–1900: The idea of a plurality of worlds from Kant to Lowell (Cambridge, 1988); and Sadler Philip M. , “William Pickering's search for a planet beyond Neptune”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxi (1990), 59–64.

Pickering E. C. , Thirty-eighth annual report of the Director of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College (Cambridge, Mass., 1884), 11.

Pickering E. C. , Fortieth annual report (Cambridge, Mass., 1886), 9.

Harland Pickering Esther , interview with the author, 23–27 September 1981, Waterton Park, Alberta, Canada.

For more on Edward Pickering's career, see the author's “Edward Charles Pickering”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxi (1990), 47–58.

Pickering W. H. to Pickering E. C. , 26 August 1877, Harvard College Observatory, Director's correspondence, Harvard University Archives, Cambridge, Mass. (hereafter: Director's correspondence).

Pickering W. H. , “Mars”, Astronomy and astro-physics, xi (1892), 668–75, p. 672.

Ibid., 669, 670.

Crowe , The extraterrestrial life debate (ref. 1), 632, note 123.

For more on W. H. Pickering's Arequipa work and his difficulties with his brother, see the author's “Harvard College Observatory's Boyden Station in Peru: Origin and formative years, 1879–1898”, Acts of the Science, Discovery, and Colonial World Congress (in press).

More on the ill-fated Harvard-Lowell proposal is contained in Strauss David , “W. H. Pickering, Percival Lowell and the founding of the Lowell Observatory”, Annals of science (forthcoming).

Pickering W. H. , “The seas of Mars”, Astronomy and astro-physics, xiii (1894), 553–6, p. 554.

Pickering E. C. to Pickering W. H. , 17 November 1894, Director's correspondence.

Pickering W. H. to Pickering E. C. , 10 November 1894, Director's correspondence.

Esther Pickering Harland, interview with the author, 23–27 September 1981.

Pickering W. H. , Researches of the Boyden Department (Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College (hereafter: Annals), lxi/1 (1908)), 11–12.

Pickering E. C. to Thayer William R. , 10 October 1899, Director's correspondence.

Pickering W. H. , “Artificial disks”, Visual observations of the Moon and planets (Annals, xxxii/2 (1900)), 117–57, p. 120.

Pickering W. H. , Researches of the Boyden Department (ref. 16), 28.

Pickering W. H. , “Visual and photographic observations of the lunar surface”, Investigations in astronomical photography (Annals, xxxii/1 (1895)), 81–115, p. 110.

Pickering W. H. , Researches of the Boyden Department (ref. 16), 33.

Ibid., 35.

Pickering E. C. to Pickering W. H. , 3 December 1900, Director's correspondence.

Pickering W. H. to Pickering E. C. , 8 March 1901, Director's correspondence.

Pickering E. C. to Pickering W. H. , 11 March 1901, Director's correspondence.

Kortlander Pickering Charlotte , personal communication with the author, 16 June 1981.

Pickering E. C. to Pickering W. H. , 14 April 1901, Director's correspondence.

Pickering E. C. to Pickering Anne , 30 April 1901, Director's correspondence.

Pickering E. C. to Pickering Anne , 17 and 28 May 1901, Director's correspondence.

Pickering E. C. to Pickering W. H. , 12 August 1901, Director's correspondence.

Pickering W. H. , “Linné. Plato. Messier”, A photographic atlas of the Moon (Annals, li (1903)), 23–33, p. 23.

Eliot Charles W. to Pickering E. C. , 17 January 1903, Director's correspondence.

Pickering E. C. to Eliot Charles W. , 19 January 1903, Director's correspondence.

Pickering Thurston William , “William Henry Pickering”, unpublished manuscript; Jones and Boyd , The Harvard College Observatory (ref. 1), 372.

Harland Pickering Esther , interview with the author, 23–27 September 1981.

Pickering Thurston William , “William Henry Pickering” (ref. 34).

Pickering W. H. , “The Harvard Station in Jamaica”, Annals, lxxxii/1 (1919), 1–37, p. 1.

Pickering Thurston William , “Jamaica aftermath”, unpublished manuscript; Esther Pickering Harland, interview with the author, 23–27 September 1981.

Pickering W. H. to Pickering E. C. , 25 June 1912, Director's correspondence.

Ibid.

Pickering E. C. to Pickering W. H. , 12 December 1912, Director's correspondence.

Pickering W. H. to Pickering E. C. , 27 April 1913, Director's correspondence.

Pickering W. H. to Pickering E. C. , 2 March 1913, Director's correspondence.

Pickering E. C. to Pickering W. H. , 16 April 1913, Director's correspondence.

Pickering W. H. to Pickering E. C. , 7 December 1913, Director's correspondence.

Kortlander Pickering Charlotte , personal communication with the author, 31 May 1981.

Pickering Thurston William , “Jamaica aftermath” (ref. 38).

Pickering E. C. , Sixty-ninth annual report (Cambridge, Mass., 1915), 9.

Pickering E. C. , Seventieth annual report (Cambridge, Mass., 1916), 5.

Pickering W. H. , “Report on Mars—no. 11”, Popular astronomy, xxiii (1915), 569–88, p. 570.

Pickering E. C. to Pickering W. H. , 14 August 1914, Director's correspondence.

Pickering W. H. to Pickering E. C. , 20 October 1914, Director's correspondence.

Pickering W. H. to Pickering E. C. , 13 July and 29 September 1913, Director's correspondence.

Pickering W. H. , “Report on Mars, no. 35”, Popular astronomy, xxxiv (1926), 289–306, p. 306.

For more on William Pickering's preference for small telescopes over larger ones for planetary research, see his “Report on Mars, no. 35”, 16–18. For more on how this debate separated amateurs from professional astronomers, see Lankford John , “Amateurs versus professionals: The controversy over telescope size in late Victorian England”, Isis, lxxii (1981), 11–28.

Pickering W. H. , “Report on Mars, no. 36”, Popular astronomy, xxxiv (1926), 357–75, p. 363.

Pickering W. H. , “Monthly Report on Mars—no. 6”, Popular astronomy, xxii (1914), 407–22, p. 421.

Pickering W. H. , “Mars”, Astronomy and astro-physics, xi (1892), 668–75, p. 670.

Pickering W. H. , “Report on Mars, no. 19”, Popular astronomy, xxvi (1918), 33–47, p. 45.

Pickering W. H. , “What we know about Mars”, in his Mars (Boston, 1921), 120–46, p. 146.

Pickering W. H. , “Different explanations of the canals of Mars”, in his Mars, 147–57, pp. 149–50.

Ibid., p. 156.

Pickering W. H. , “Report on Mars, no. 19” (ref. 59), 36.

Hoyt , Lowell and Mars (ref. 1), 76.

Pickering W. H. , “Report on Mars, no. 19” (ref. 59), 47.

Pickering W. H. , “Report on Mars, no. 37”, Popular astronomy, xxxiv (1926), 441–7 and 482–92, p. 484.

Ibid., 491.

See further Crowe , The extraterrestrial life debate (ref. 1), 524–46.

Bailey Solon I. to Pickering W. H. 22 March 1921, Director's correspondence.

Shapley Harlow , Seventy-seventh annual report (Cambridge, Mass., 1923), 4.

Shapley Harlow , Eightieth annual report (Cambridge, 1926), 4.

Sadler , “William Pickering's search for a planet beyond Neptune” (ref. 1), 64.

Pickering W. H. , “Report on Mars, no. 41”, Popular astronomy, xxxvi (1928), 449–58, p. 451.

Ibid.

Sadler , “William Pickering's search for a planet beyond Neptune” (ref. 1), 60.

Pickering W. H. , “Monthly report on Mars—no. 6” (ref. 57), 412.

Pickering W. H. , “Monthly report on Mars—no. 4”, Popular astronomy, xxii (1914), 295–305, p. 296.

Quoted in Crowe , The extraterrestrial life debate (ref. 1), 512.

Quoted in Gittelson Ellen Nancy , “The War of the Worlds: Percival Lowell and his critics”, unpublished senior thesis, Harvard University, 1980, 52.

Pickering W. H. , “Report on Mars, no. 37”, Popular astronomy, xxxiv (1926), 441–7, p. 443.

Crowe , The extraterrestrial life debate (ref. 1), 542.