The Development of Astronomy in the Southern United States,1840–1914

Abbreviations used:

(a) Archival Sources.

AL The Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.

ALMD Manuscript Division, Special Collections.

ALRB Rare Books Collection.

ALSC Special Collections Department, which holds.

MBV The Minutes of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors.

MFC The Minutes of the University of Virginia Faculty Committee.

CHS Chicago Historical Society Archives, Chicago, Illinois.

CHMP The Cyrus Hall McCormick Papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society Library, Madison, Wisconsin.

SNP Simon Newcomb Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

(b) Individuals and publications.

AC Alvan Clark.

BJB B. Johnson Barbour.

CHM Cyrus H. McCormick.

LJM Leander J. McCormick.

SN Simon Newcomb.

FHS Francis H. Smith.

CSV Charles S. Venable.

ADO Annals of the Dearborn Observatory of Northwestern University .

JSH The journal of southern history .

PMO Publications of the Leander J. McCormick Observatory .

Musto David F. , “The development of American astronomy during the early 19th century”, in Proceedings of the 10th International Congress on the History of Sciences, Ithaca, 1962 (Paris, 1964), 733–6, pp. 733–4; DeVorkin David H. , “Community and spectral classification in astrophysics: The acceptance of E. C. Pickering's system in 1910”, Isis , lxxii (1981), 29–49, pp. 46–48. For purposes of this article, the South and southern states mean those states that seceded from the Union as the Confederate States of America.

Rhys Isaac , The transformation of Virginia, 1740–1790 (New York, 1982), 76 (quotation); on Bishop Madison as a natural philosopher who installed an astronomical observatory during his tenure as president of William and Mary, see Charles Crowe , “Bishop Madison and the republic of virtue”, JSH , xxx (1964), 58–70; Milham William I. , Early American observatories — Which was the first astronomical observatory in America? (Williamstown, Mass., 1938), 28–30 discusses the William and Mary observatory; Madison's astronomical communications included letters to David Rittenhouse, published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society , ii (1786), 141–58, and “Observations of a lunar eclipse”, ibid. , iii (1793), 150–4. On the astronomical correspondence of Jefferson and Dunbar, see Dunbar Mary Rowland , Life, letters, and papers of William Dunbar of Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland, and Natchez, Mississippi, pioneer scientist of the southern United States (Jackson, Miss., 1930), 155–6, 186–9. The backgrounds and scientific activities of other planters are detailed in Scarborough William K. , “Science on the plantation”, in Numbers Ronald L. Savitt Todd L. (eds), Science and medicine in the Old South (Baton Rouge and London, 1989), 79–106.

The term “the world's largest telescope” will be used extensively in this paper. The literal meaning of the term as it was frequently applied in the nineteenth century was nearly always incorrect because of the rapid evolution of telescope-making technology. There was, seemingly, always another larger telescope in the wings each time one of “the world's largest telescopes” was first placed in service. Thus, status claimed as “the world's largest telescope” was at best ephemeral. Also, the telescopes referred to in this paper are all refracting telescopes. Earlier, and again during the last third of the century, larger reflecting telescopes were built and used by amateur astronomers in Britain. However, the reputation of reflecting telescopes was still sufficiently cloudy that those instruments were thought not to count in the race to achieve “the world's largest telescope”.

A good recapitulation of the efforts of historians of science to come to grips with this problem is contained in Numbers Ronald L. Numbers Janet S. , “Science in the Old South: A reappraisal”, JSH , xlviii (1982), 163–84.

Woodward C. V. , “Look away, look away”, JSH , lix (1993), 487–504, pp. 488–9.

Howard Rabinowitz , “The origins of a Poststructural New South: A review of Edward L. Ayer's ‘The promise of the New South: Life after Reconstruction’”, JSH , lix (1993), 505–15, p. 506; Paul Nagel , “Reconstruction, Adams style”, JSH , lii (1986), 3–18, p. 16.

Bruce Robert V. , The launching of modern American science 1846–1876 (New York, 1987), 162–4; Kimball Bruce A. , The “true professional ideal” in America: A history (Cambridge, Mass., 1992), 240.

Dyer Thomas G. , “Science in the ante-bellum college: The University of Georgia, 1801–1860”, in Numbers Savitt (eds), Science and medicine (ref. 2), 36–54, pp. 39–42.

Lindberg David C. , The beginnings of western science (Chicago and London, 1992), 138; Pearl Kibre Siraisi Nancy G. , “The institutional setting: The universities”, in Lindberg David C. (ed.), Science in the middle ages (Chicago and London), 120–44, pp. 129–31; Milham , Early American observatories (ref. 2), 31–36; Archibald Henderson , The campus of the first state university (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1949), 97–108; Snider William D. , Light on the hill: A history of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill and London, 1992), 47–48; Battle Kemp P. , History of the University of North Carolina… (Raleigh, North Carolina, 1907), 335.

Battle , History (ref. 9), 335–6; Snider , Light on the hill (ref. 9), 50, 63.

Davenport Charles B. , “Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, 1809–1889”, National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, biographical memoirs , xx, no. 10 (1939), 259–72, pp. 260–1; Fulton J. , Memoirs of Frederick A. P. Barnard, … Tenth president of Columbia College in the city of New York (New York and London, 1896), 103–5; Clark Willis G. , The history of education in Alabama 1702–1889 (Washington, D.C., 1889), 58–59; Elias Loomis , “Astronomical observatories in the United States”, Harpers new monthly magazine , xiii (1856), 25–52, pp. 42–43.

Sansing David G. , Making haste slowly: The troubled history of higher education in Mississippi (Jackson and London, 1990), 39–45.

Fulton , Memoirs (ref. 11), 220–46, p. 220.

Allen Cabaniss , The University of Mississippi: Its first hundred years , 2nd edn (Hattiesburg, Miss., 1971), 35–43; Sansing , Making haste (ref. 12), 45–53.

Van Albert Helden , “Telescope building, 1850–1900” in Owen Gingerich (ed.), The general history of astronomy, iv: Astrophysics and twentieth-century astronomy to 1950, Part A (Cambridge, 1987), 40–58, pp. 45–46; Jean Deborah Warner , Alvan Clark & Sons, artists in optics, United States National Museum bulletin , no. 274 (Washington, D.C., 1968), 17–19.

Fulton , Memoirs (ref. 11), 231; Warner , Alvan Clark (ref. 15), 54–55, 81; Wendell Oliver C. , “Alvan Graham Clark”, Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , xxxiii (1898), 520–4, p. 523.

Cabaniss , The University (ref. 14), 45–54; Sansing , Making haste (ref. 12), 46–57; Davenport , Biographical memoir (ref. 11), 261.

Gene Byrd Robert Mellown , “An ante-bellum observatory in Alabama”, Sky and telescope , lxv (1983), 113–15; Stephanie Stubbs , “Rebuilding a dream at Ole Miss”, The American Institute of Architects memo , September 1992, 6–7.

Howard Plotkin , “Henry Tappan, Franz Brünnow, and the founding of the Ann Arbor school of astronomers, 1852–1863”, Annals of science , xxxvii (1980), 287–302; Steneck Margaret L. , “Henry Tappan and the Detroit Observatory” (Paper presented to the Historical Astronomy Division, American Astronomical Society, at Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 11, 1989, see Abstract 1.02, Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society , xxi (1989), 741); idem, letter to author, 28 July 1992; Rufus Carl W. , “The Department of Astronomy”, in The University of Michigan: An encyclopedic survey (4 vols, Ann Arbor, 1951), ii, 442–89.

Bruce , Launching (ref. 7), 102; Johnson Thomas C. Jr , Scientific interests in the Old South (New York and London, 1936), 199; Loomis , “Astronomical observatories …” (ref. 11), 46–47. Loomis also reports that Shelby College loaned this telescope to Joseph Winlock at the Cloverden Observatory at Cambridge, Mass., where he and Benjamin Apthorp Gould used it to observe comets and planets. When Winlock, a Shelby College alumnus, became the third director of Harvard College Observatory, he returned this telescope to Shelby College.

Ranney Henry C. , Compilation of facts relative to the Chicago Astronomical Society (two-volume manuscript), “Volume I”, CHS. Ranney was the long-time secretary of the Chicago Astronomical Society (CAS). The minutes of the early meetings of the society were destroyed in the fire of 7–8 October 1871, so Ranney compiled new “minutes” by transcribing newspaper clippings and the recollections of key individuals who were involved in the formative process. These are collected in a 356-page, bound volume labelled “Volume I”, which also includes Ranney's transcriptions of the Dearborn Observatory Director's reports. Hereafter, references to this volume will be cited as Ranney, Compilation, “Newspaper, date”, with the page number, although it is a near certainty that most if not all of the transcribed newspaper articles were written by Elias Colbert. A second volume was initiated as the actual new minutes of the CAS at their first meeting after the fire, held on 16 April 1874. At this meeting, Thomas Hoyne recounted to the society the story of his trip to Alvan Clark & Sons in Cambridge, Mass., to purchase the 18-inch Clark lens. Hoyne also recorded a brief version of this story in his own handwriting entitled “To the Subscribers and members of the Astronomical Society, and contributors to the Endowment Funds of the Fort Dearborn Observatory” in pp. 8–22. That section of the second volume is referred to hereafter as Hoyne, Report, with the appropriate page numbers. The remainder of the second volume consists primarily of minutes of the quarterly meetings of the CAS Board of Directors. See also “The Chicago Astronomical Society” in Andreas A. T. (ed.), History of Chicago from the earliest period to the present time (3 vols, Chicago, 1885), ii, 515–17; Phillip Fox , “General account of the Dearborn Observatory”, ADO , i (1915), 1–20; Elias Colbert , “The early years of the Dearborn Observatory”, in Popular astronomy , xxiv (1916), 476–9. In his ADO paper, Fox states that the Ranney “minutes” were not prepared until 1902, but that seems inconsistent with the contents of at least the second volume, which includes the above mentioned essay in the handwriting of Thomas Hoyne, who died in 1883. What Fox may have meant was that Ranney completed his transcription of newspaper articles and published minutes in the first volume during that year.

The city was, however, named in 1848 for the Ogden River on which it is located, and which was, in turn, named for Peter Skene Ogden, a British fur trader who trapped in the nearby Wasatch Mountains in 1825.

Goodspeed Thomas W. , “Jonathan Young Scammon”, The university record , ix (1923), 327–50; “Hon. Thomas Hoyne, LL.D.”, The bench and bar of Chicago (Chicago, 1883), 16–23; “William B. Ogden”, Biographical sketches of the leading men of Chicago (Chicago, 1868), 5–7; “John C. Burroughs”, ibid. , 583–9; “Ezra B. M'Cagg dead”, Chicago Record-Herald, 6 August 1908, library clipping file, CHS; “William Harvey Wells”, in Dictionary of American biography (10 vols, New York, 1936), x, 645–6; McCagg E. B. Samuel Fallows William Vocke , “Thomas Barbour Bryan”, Memorials of deceased companions of the commandery of the state of Illinois Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States , ii (Chicago, 1912), 322–8; “Albert Harrison Mixer” in The new companion volume to Who's Who in America , i (Chicago, 1950), 851; “Prof. Elias Colbert”, undated anonymous seven-page typescript biography which includes numerous newspaper obituary articles published at the time of Colbert's death, library clipping file, CHS; Reverend Smith J. A. , Memoir of Reverend Nathaniel Colver, DD (Boston, 1873), 453.

Ranney , Compilation (ref. 21), “The Times, December 9, 1862”; Colbert , “The early years…” (ref. 21), 477. Wells gained his knowledge of telescopes, at least in part, through contact with Alvan Clark & Sons, as their first customer (see Warner , Alvan Clark (ref. 15), 19 and 107).

Ranney , Compilation (ref. 21), “The Times, December 12, 1862”.

Ranney , Compilation (ref. 21), “The Times, December 20, 1862”. This same article elaborated on the “new and unproved” design of the Fitz telescope. The flint component would have a diameter of only seven inches compared to the sixteen-inch crown component of the primary lens. This design was, in fact, not new but had been the subject of considerable experimentation in England as early as 1787. Known as a dialytic telescope, the design never achieved popular success. See King Henry C. , The history of the telescope (New York, 1979), 189–91. Norman Sperling, who has researched the career of Henry Fitz, reports that the 16-inch Fitz was later sold to William S. Van Der Zee of Buffalo, New York. Little is known about the success of the design or of the fate of this telescope, the largest that Fitz undertook (Norman Sperling, telephone conversation with author, July 1992).

Ranney , Compilation (ref. 21), “The Times, December 29, 1862”, 26–27; Hoyne , Report (ref. 21), 10–11; Clerke Agnes M. , A popular history of astronomy during the nineteenth century , 4th edn (London, 1908), 42. C. H. F. Peters had been actively involved in studies of the anomalous motions of Sirius, and confirmed through his measurements that the variations of Sirius's position could be completely accounted for by a companion with an orbital period of 50 years.

Fox , “General account…” (ref. 21), 2.

Hoyne , Report (ref. 21), 11–13. It should be noted here that the version of these events recorded by Thomas Hoyne is not completely congruent with that recorded for public consumption by Elias Colbert in his newspaper articles and reflected by Henry Ranney in the first volume. There, the announcement was simply that Hoyne had secured “first refusal” rights from Clark, and that the transaction was later consummated by mail. The actual announcement that the purchase of the telescope was completed was not made publicly until 10 June 1863. At that time, it was announced that Scammon finalized negotiations for the telescope mounting during a trip to Boston.

Hoyne , Report (ref. 21), 14.

Fox , “General account…” (ref. 21), 3; Menges Joan C. (ed.), The Dearborn Observatory: Past and present (Evanston, Ill., 1962), 6; Barret Michael R. , letter to author, 11 December 1991 enclosing an anonymous “A short history of the Chicago Astronomical Society”; Robert Schaeffer, untitled manuscript dated 1971, enclosed with a letter to author, 24 June 1992.

Ellen Quails , “Still gazing after all these years: McCormick Observatory at the age of 107”, albemarle , xxxi (1993), 32–37; Hutchinson William T. , Cyrus Hall McCormick: Seed-time, 1809–1856 (New York and London, 1930), 103–4. Hutchinson identifies 1870 and early 1871 as a period of renewed friendship between the brothers; LJM to CHM, 4, 25, 26 April, 2, 9, 30 May, 22 June, and 29 July 1870, CHMP. In these letters, LJM discusses such details as how much he expected to spend, his trip to Europe for discussions with telescope makers, the final negotiations with Alvan Clark, etc., and in several places invites CHM to travel with him. The tone of these letters supports Hutchinson's identification of this particular period as one of renewed friendship.

Hutchinson , Seed-time (ref. 32), 259–66. William B. Ogden was a partner with McCormick in the reaper company from 1847 to 1849, see “Social progress: The Y.M.C.A. and Farwell Hall”, 511, and “Banking history: Merchant's Loan and Trust Company”, 626, in Andreas (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 21), ii. CHM was a trustee of the Y.M.C.A. when it was incorporated in 1861, along with Ezra B. McCagg, and was also a trustee in the formation of the Merchants Loan and Trust Company, along with Walter L. Newberry, William B. Ogden, John Wentworth and William E. Doggett, all of whom were trustees of the Dearborn Observatory when it was founded.

Neal Gillespie , “The spiritual odyssey of George Frederick Holmes: A study of religious conservatism in the Old South”, JSH , xxxii (1966), 291–307, p. 307; Suzanne Lebsock , The free women of Petersburg: Status and culture in a southern town (New York and London, 1984), 239–4.

Hutchinson William T. , Cyrus Hall McCormick: Harvest, 1856–1884 (New York and London, 1935), 43–45; Howard Perkins , “The defense of slavery in the northern press on the eve of the Civil War”, JSH , ix (1943), 501–31, pp. 521–3. William Storey may have been carefully selected by CHM for his pro-slavery views. Storey was also the arch conservative leader of the attack that eventually drove Henry P. Tappan and F. F. E. Brünnow out of the University of Michigan.

“Second Presbyterian Church”, in Andreas, op. cit. (ref. 21), i, 310–12; Hutchinson , Harvest (ref. 35), 8–16.

Robert E. Lee Joseph Henry , 11 March 1870, accession number 2776, ALMD; Ollinger Crenshaw, “General Lee's college: Rise and growth of Washington and Lee”, typescript dated Fall 1973, ii, 5, Cyrus Hall McCormick Library, Washington and Lee University. This typescript was apparently Crenshaw's draft of his book General Lee's college: The rise and growth of Washington and Lee University (New York, 1969). The published book does not contain the useful footnotes cited in the typescript version, and references herein are therefore to the typescript version.

Reagan Charles Wilson , “The religion of the lost cause: Ritual and organization of the southern civil religion, 1865–1920”, JSH , xlvi (1980), 219–38, p. 237.

CSV to BJB, 17 May 1870, file 1869–75, Box 2, accession number 1486, letters to B. Johnson Barbour, ALMD, hereafter “Letters to BJB”; LJM to CSV, 1 July 1870, in which LJM expresses “exceeding regret” for having to decline two invitations from CSV, one to the university commencement exercises, and the other for a personal visit in the Venable home, Letters to BJB; Mitchell Alfred Samuel , Leander McCormick Observatory of the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1947), ALRB. There is a special irony involved in this particular set of transactions. Colonel Charles S. Venable served as General Lee's aide during the Civil War, and one must wonder whether CSV was tempted to hold back for a period of time to allow his old friend to get Washington College organized to support this gift from McCormick, see “An interview with General Jubal A. Early in 1889”, JSH , xi (1945), 547–63, p. 562.

LJM to CHM, 4, 25 and 26 April, 2, 9 and 30 May, all 1870, CHMP.

LJM to CHM, 22 June and 29 July 1870, CHMP.

Simon Newcomb , The reminiscences of an astronomer (Boston and New York, 1903), 123–33; Warner, Alvan Clark (ref. 15), 106. The record is somewhat confused on the point of which telescope was actually ordered first. Congress authorized the purchase of the USNO telescope in the Budget Authorization for the USNO dated 18 July 1870. The contract between the Clarks and the USNO was dated 13 August 1870 (Stephen Dick, private communication to author, July 1992). But in a letter dated 17 August 1872, Clark seeks clarification from Newcomb on the pricing of the USNO telescope, pointing out that the USNO contact price included a spectroscope that was apparently not to be included in the agreed price for McCormick. Clark clearly had not spelled out that difference to McCormick. See also AC to SN, 12 September 1870, where Clark finally makes the unambiguous statement: “Mr. McCormick has given us instructions to make him a telescope of 26 inches clear aperture.” Alvan Clark folder, Box 19, General Correspondence, SNP.

Crenshaw , “General Lee's College” (ref. 37), 5–6 and fn. 8.

Patton John S. , Jefferson, Cabell and the University of Virginia (New York, 1906), 196; Alexander Philip Bruce , History of the University of Virginia 1819–1919: The lengthened shadow of one man , i (New York, 1920), 270–1; Nathan Reingold (ed.), Science in nineteenth-century America: A documentary history (London, 1966), 20–23. Reingold includes the text of Jefferson's offer as well as Bowditch's reply. For Jefferson's original drawing of his proposed observatory, see O'Neal William B. , Pictorial history of the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1969), 36.

MBV, 10 September 1866; FHS to BJB, 12 April 1869, Letters to BJB.

Elias Colbert Chamberlin E. , Chicago and the great conflagration (Cincinnati and New York, 1872), 341.

Crenshaw , “General Lee's college” (ref. 37), 7–8; “McCormick's gift to Washington and Lee University”, Lexington Gazette, Lexington, Virginia, 30 August 1872, which contains a direct quote from the New York Tribune; “The Washington and Lee University”, New York Times, 18 December 1877.

LJM to CSV, 9 November 1877, in The McCormick telescope: Memorial report to the alumni and friends of the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1878; hereafter The McCormick telescope), 4–5.

FHS and CSV to Stuart, 31 December 1877, The McCormick telescope (ref. 48), 7–15.

Crenshaw , “General Lee's college” (ref. 37), 11–12 (pencilled page numbers 59–62).

The McCormick telescope (ref. 48), 1–16.

Lundin Priscilla DeProspo , “Patterns of charitable giving to the University of Virginia 1818–1915” (master's thesis, University of Virginia, 1973), 27; MFC, 25 January 1883, 134.

MBV, 16 August 1881, 1265; Warner , Alvan Clark (ref. 15), 106.

MBV, 29 September 1881, 1276–7.

MBV, 16 August 1881, 1265; SN to CSV, 15 March and 20 May 1882, Letterbook, 257–258, and 329–330, Box 5, SNP. The Board of Visitors authorized the committee to open negotiations with Stone at their meeting on 4 May 1882. However, the resolution of the Board accepting the nomination of Ormond Stone by Leander J. McCormick was not actually adopted until 27 June 1882. Stone had already accepted the position in a letter dated 1 June 1882, which is included in the minutes. MBV, 27 June 1882, 1285–6.

Bond Beverly W. (ed.), The centenary of the Cincinnati Observatory (Cincinnati, 1944); “Ormond Stone, astronomer”, in Who was who in America , i: 1897–1942 (Chicago, 1940–41), 1193; Barbara Welther , “The world's largest telescopes”, in Gingerich (ed.), Astrophysics (ref. 15), Appendix; Clerke , A popular history (ref. 27), 358, 497; Mitchell Samuel A. , “Parallaxes of 260 stars derived from photographs made at the Leander McCormick Observatory”, PMO , iii (1920), 1–665, pp. 2–3. By 1885, there were a half-dozen telescopes ranging in size from twenty-nine inches up to thirty-six inches in aperture, either in operation or under construction.

John Lankford , “The impact of photography on astronomy”, in Gingerich (ed.), Astrophysics (ref. 15), 16–39: Ormond Stone , “Photographers versus old fashioned astronomers”, The sidereal messenger , vi (1887), 1–4.

Evans David S. Mulholland Derral J. , Big and bright: A history of the McDonald Observatory (Austin, 1986), 5–60.