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Title: Edison Pettit Papers
Dates (inclusive): 1920-1969
Collection Number: mssPettit papers
Creator:
Pettit, Edison, 1889-1962.
Extent:
6 boxes (3,100 pieces)
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract:
This collection contains the papers of astronomer Edison Pettit (1889-1962), who was on the staff of the Mount Wilson and
Palomar Observatories. The correspondence
is chiefly with other astronomers in the United States and deals with astronomy in general including Pettit's work at Mount
Wilson,
telescopes, and ultraviolet light research. The rest of the collection is made up of manuscripts, notes, notebooks and printed
items.
Language: English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities.
The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the
researcher.
According to a note in the papers, all personal correspondence of Edison Pettit
(indicated in the contents list as "PETTIT PERSONAL") remains the property of the family
and heirs of Edison Pettit. Before the personal property of Edison Pettit may be made
available for public research, permission must be obtained from a family member. The
Carnegie Observatories, as part of the 1987 letter of agreement, have given the
Huntington Library the right to provide permission to publish from the remaining portion
of the papers.
Identification of item]. Edison Pettit Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Deposit, Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Collection, 1988.
Processing/Project Information
Cataloging of the papers
was completed prior to their transfer to the Huntington.
Edison Pettit (1890-1962) was an astronomer on the staff of the Mount Wilson [and Palomar]
Observatories for thirty-five years. An observer and instrumentalist, he was a pioneer in
the early fields of infrared and ultraviolet research. His main interest was in the sun
but later expanded to include the moon and planets. His collaboration with Seth B.
Nicholson on the heat radiation from the planets and moon was the most significant
research on these bodies during the first half of the twentieth century.
Edison Pettit was born in Peru, Nebraska on September 22, 1890 (note: for a while, Pettit gave his birth date as
September 22, 1889; this error propagated long after Pettit corrected his mistake and consequently
obituaries will thus incorrectly give his birth date as 1889). His interest in
science grew after he entered the Peru State Normal School where he became the student
assistant in the physical laboratory in 1904. One year later he began working in the
small observatory at the school. From 1906 to 1907, Pettit was out of school, working at
the electric light plant which his father helped organize. Although not in school, Pettit
gained a great deal of practical experience. He returned to Normal School and graduated
in 1910, but stayed on an extra year and graduated with the first college class at Peru
in 1911. After graduation, Pettit obtained a job as a science teacher at Minden,
Nebraska, High School until 1914. In 1914, he became instructor in physics and astronomy
at Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas. The college had an observatory with an 11-inch
refracting telescope and Pettit would use this instrument to observe double stars,
comets, and Jupiter. While at Washburn, Pettit would occasionally spend summers at the
Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago. His growing connection with the staff at
Yerkes prompted Pettit to leave Washburn College in 1918 and become a graduate student at
the University of Chicago. As a graduate student in astronomy, Pettit was assigned as a
student assistant at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. His chief work at
Yerkes centered on the study of solar prominences. During the solar eclipse of June 8,
1918, Pettit was stationed at Matheson, Colorado, and used the 11-inch objective from
Washburn College Observatory to photograph the corona. That same year, Pettit met and
married another astronomy graduate student at Chicago, Hannah Steele. On May 29, 1919,
Pettit observed an incredibly large prominence and was able to follow it through its
course. He was able to develop a formula describing the development of the prominence and
used this as the basis of his Ph.D. thesis, "The Forms and Motions of Solar Prominences,"
which was completed in 1920.
During his stay at Yerkes, Pettit came to the attention of the director of the Mount
Wilson Observatory, George Ellery Hale. Hale, the former director of Yerkes, offered
Pettit a position at Mount Wilson. Hannah Pettit, who obtained her Ph.D. in 1919, was
given a job as a computer at Mount Wilson. Shortly after his arrival, Pettit was assigned
the task of constructing vacuum thermocouples in order to measure radiation from stars
and planets. This work, done in collaboration with Seth Nicholson, was in response to the
effort mounted at Lowell Observatory by William W. Coblentz and Carl O. Lampland. After
six months, Pettit became adept at constructing the tiny thermocouples and the Mount
Wilson astronomers soon caught up with the Lowell workers. Together, Pettit and Nicholson
measured the radiation from all types of stars, obtaining their temperatures, diameters,
and established the concept of radiometric magnitudes. Using the same instruments, they
also calculated the surface temperatures of the planets and the moon. Pettit measured the
temperature of the moon during a lunar eclipse, obtaining the rate of cooling and heating
by the sun. These data were then used to determine the lunar heat capacity and
conductivity. The results of this work were generally confirmed by the Lowell researchers
and were quickly accepted by astronomers. The work remained as the basis for all stellar
and planetary temperature measurements until the 1960s, when new methods, including
planetary fly-bys, replaced the older results.
Another field in which Pettit specialized at Mount Wilson was the study of ultraviolet
solar radiation. Using thermopiles, Pettit attempted, beginning in 1924, to study the
variability of the solar ultraviolet and at first believed he had found evidence of large
variability. After more research, however, it was concluded that the variability was
caused by changes in the amount of ozone in the earth's atmosphere and not by changes in
solar energy output. The Mount Wilson work was supplemented by occasional trips,
beginning in 1930, by Pettit to the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Desert
Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona. Pettit's ultraviolet work was of great interest to the
medical community as ultraviolet light was being considered as a treatment for
tuberculosis and other diseases. There is a great deal of correspondence in the papers
relating to such interest in his ultraviolet research.
Pettit's interest in solar prominences continued at Mount Wilson Observatory. Combining
his research there with summer trips to Yerkes or the McMath-Hulbert Observatory in
Michigan, Pettit eventually published a catalog of all well-observed eruptive
prominences. He also started using 16-millimeter motion picture cameras attached to
telescopes to photograph solar prominences. These movies were an excellent tool for the
study of prominences and were popular items at astronomical gatherings. Among other work
that Pettit indulged in was providing consultation to the researchers at the Desert
Sanatorium of Southern Arizona and providing materials for the North American Almanac.
Pettit retired from the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories in 1955. He stayed at his
Pasadena home, working in his private machine shop and observing with the 6-inch Clark
refracting telescope that he purchased in Michigan. Much of his time was spent in
visiting his wife in the hospital, after she had suffered a severe stroke. In 1961,
Hannah Steele Pettit passed away and shortly thereafter, in January 1962, Pettit
suffered a stroke. He was forced to move to Tucson to stay with one of his two daughters,
Marjorie Pettit Meinel. Not too long after that, however, he suffered a second stroke and
passed away on May 5, 1962.
This collection contains the papers of astronomer Edison Pettit (1889-1962), who was on the staff of the Mount Wilson and
Palomar Observatories.
The correspondence, containing both incoming and carbons of outgoing letters, is chiefly with other astronomers in the United
States and deals with astronomy in general including Pettit's work at Mount Wilson,
telescopes and ultraviolet light research. The rest of the collection is made up of manuscripts, notes, notebooks and printed
items. The majority of the manuscripts are by Edison Pettit
(two are co-written with Seth Barnes Nicholson and there is one abstract by Harold D. Babcock). The manuscripts deal with
astronomy including thermocouples, Pettit's ultraviolet research, the
Sun, the Moon and telescope lenses. One notable manuscript is a rather lengthy typed manuscript with handwritten edits (facsimile
copy) regarding the moon and which is probably written by Edison Pettit
(but never published?). There are also Miscellaneous notes related to astronomy in general and more specifically the moon
and nebulae including galley proofs for the book Physics and astronomy of
the Moon, edited by Zdenĕk Kopal. The twelve Nebular Photometry notebooks in boxes 8 and 9 were kept by Pettit while at work
observing the sky. There are also three reprints of articles (one by Pettit).
The albums in box 10 include one with photographs (nebulae) but the other three contain handwritten notes and lists kept by
Pettit. The collection has several photographs scattered throughout the collection.
Pettit's papers have been arranged, with only minor changes, according to the manner in
which they had been found in the attic of Mt. Wilson.
The Pettit Papers consists of the following series:
- Correspondence, 1920-1946
- 1920-1924 (Box 1)
- 1925-1929 (Boxes 2-3)
- 1930-1932 (Box 4)
- 1933-1937 (Box 5)
- 1938-1946 (Box 6)
- Manuscripts and graphs (Box 6)
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Pettit, Edison, 1889-1962.
Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories -- History -- Sources.
Mount Wilson Observatory -- History -- Sources.
Yerkes Observatory.
Astronomers -- United States -- Archives.
Astronomical observatories -- California -- Wilson, Mount (Mountain)
Astronomy -- Photographs.
Astronomy -- Research.
Astronomy -- United States -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Galaxies.
Moon.
Nebulae.
Sun.
Telescopes -- Design and construction -- History -- Sources.
Ultraviolet radiation.
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 20th century.
Notebooks -- United States -- 20th century.
Photographs -- United States -- 20th century.
Research (document genres) -- United States -- 20th century.
Abbot, C. G. (Charles Greeley), 1872-1973.
Aitken, Robert Grant, 1864-1951.
Babcock, Harold D. (Harold Delos), 1882-1968.
Bateson, Frank M.
Brooks, Frederick A. (Frederick Augustus), 1895-1967.
Coblentz, William W. (William Weber), 1873-1962.
Frost, Edwin Brant, 1866-1935.
Hale, George Ellery, 1868-1938.
Joy, Alfred H. (Alfred Harrison), 1882-1973.
McMath, Robert Raynolds.
Kopal, Zdeněk, 1914-1993.
Menzel, Donald H. (Donald Howard), 1901-1976.
Nicholson, Seth B. (Seth Barnes), 1891-1963.
Shapley, Harlow, 1885-1972.
Stetson, Harlan True, 1885-1964.
Wright, F. E. (Frederic Eugene), 1877-1953.
American Astronomical Society.
Carnegie Institution of Washington.
International Astronomical Union.
Popular astronomy.