Olin C. Wilson Papers, 1930-1990

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Summary

Creators:
Wilson, Olin C., 1909-1994.
Abstract:
This collection deals primarily with the professional activities of Olin C. Wilson (1909-1994), an astronomer at the Mount Wilson Observatory, who was most active from the mid-1930s into the 1980s.
Extent:
4,372 pieces in 34 boxes.
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection deals primarily with the professional activities of Olin Wilson, who was most active from the mid-1930s into the 1980s. It is organized alphabetically by author, and divided into two series: Series I, consisting of correspondence, primarily with other astronomers, which comprises the bulk of the collection (Boxes 1-32), and Series II, consisting of reports, which include a total of 39 items (Boxes 33-34).

The finding aid contains a heading for "Primary Reference," which refers to the principal author of the letter or report. The heading "Secondary Reference" serves as a general category of subject headings for items referenced in the letter, such as the organization to which the author belonged, the country of origin of the letter, etc.

Wilson corresponded frequently with astronomers from a variety of universities in the United States and abroad, and the collection is representative of the deeply international and collaborative nature of astronomical and astrophysical research in the second half of the twentieth century. It also contains valuable and insightful material related to the schism between Mount Wilson and CalTech in the 1970s and 1980s, and the near-demise of Mount Wilson during that decade.

The collection includes correspondence with such prominent astronomers as Walter Sydney Adams, Bernard William Bopp, Ira Sprague Bowen, David A. Thackery, Lawrence H. Aller, Robert Paul Kraft, and many other individuals, as well as considerable correspondence with the American Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and other organizations.

Biographical / historical:

Olin Chaddock Wilson, Jr. was born in 1909, and joined the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1931 as a research assistant, and in 1936 became a staff member. He spent his entire professional career at Mt. Wilson. Wilson was educated as an undergraduate at the University of California and in 1934, received the first Ph.D. in Astronomy awarded by the California Institute of Technology, studying under Paul Merrill (whose papers are also held by the Huntington Library). Wilson's professional work was devoted to various phases of spectroscopy, including the stellar radial velocity program, various investigations of stellar atmospheres and interstellar material, Wolf-Rayet stars, planetary nebulae, and stellar chromospheres. By intensive analysis of the H and K lines of ionized calcium he showed that other stars besides the sun have cycles of activity. With M. K. Vainu Bappu, he found a means of determining luminosity, and thus distance, of stars from the widths of these two lines. Wilson started the HK Project, which continues to use Mt. Wilson telescopes to monitor a number of nearby stars in search of starspot cycles. He also investigated spectra of nebulae and eclipsing stars. In 1960, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He was also elected a member of the Division of Physical Sciences of the National Research Council, and a member of the U.S.A. National Committee of the International Astronomical Union. After his retirement in 1974, he continued his professional work as a Staff Member Emeritus of the Mount Wilson and Las Campanas Observatories. In 1984 he was awarded the Bruce Medal, an award for lifetime achievement in astronomy given by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

Dr. Wilson passed away on July 14, 1994. His remains are buried outside the dome of the 100" telescope on Mt. Wilson. Congenial, fiercely independent, and firmly grounded in the virtues of experimental science, Olin Wilson was a canny practitioner of the art of the possible in observational astrophysics as it flourished in the middle of the 20th century. By the time of his death, stellar astrophysics had matured and had acquired new dimensions due to Wilson's diligence and curiosity.

Acquisition information:
Placed on permanent deposit in the Huntington Library by the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1988.
Arrangement:

Boxes 1-32 (Folders 1-11): Correspondence

Box 32 (Folders 8-17): Manuscripts, Documents, Ephemera, and Photographs

Boxes 33-34: Reports

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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