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Olin C. Wilson Papers: Finding Aid
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Title: Olin C. Wilson Papers
Dates (inclusive): 1930-1990
Collection Number: mssWilson papers
Creator:
Wilson, Olin C., 1909-1994.
Extent: 4,372 pieces in 34 boxes.
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
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.
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.
[Identification of item]. Olin C. Wilson Papers, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Placed on permanent deposit in the Huntington Library by the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1988.
Related Materials in the Huntington Library
Forms part of: The Mount Wilson Papers of the Observatories of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington. Approximately fifty additional separate collections
form the Mount Wilson Papers of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of
Washington.
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.
Bibliography
Oral history
Oral history interview with Olin C. Wilson, 11 July 1978. David Devorkin,
interviewer. Interview conducted as part of the Sources for History of Modern
Astrophysics (SHMA) Project, undertaken by the American Institute of Physics'
Center for History of Physics.
Historical References
Griffin, R.F., "O.C. Wilson and His K-line
Intensities,"
Observatory 118, 145-53
(1998).
Hearnshaw, J. B.,
The Analysis of
Starlight
(Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK,
1986)
Noyes, Robert W., "Olin C. Wilson and the Solar-Stellar
Connection," in
Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun,
Proceedings of the 9th Cambridge Workshop, Held 3-6 October 1995 in
Florence, Italy,
Robert Pallavicini & Andrea K. Dupree, eds. (ASP
Conference Series, San Francisco, 1996), p. 3-10.
Schrijver,
Karel, "The Solar-Stellar Connection"
http://canopy.lmsal.com/schryver/Public/homepage/solarstellar.html
Scientific Publications
Wilson, Olin C., Jr., "Three New Be Stars,"
PASP
44, 124-25 (1932).
Smith, Sinclair & Olin C. Wilson,
Jr., "An Application of the Radiometer: a Registering Microphotometer,"
Ap.J 76, 117-23 (1932).
Merrill,
Paul W. & Olin C. Wilson, Jr., "Comparison of the Paschen and the Balmer
Series of Hydrogen Lines in Stellar Spectra,"
Ap.J
80, 19-50 (1934) [Wilson' doctoral dissertation].
Wilson, O.C., "The Analysis of Nova Emission Bands,"
Ap.J
80, 259-68 (1934).
Christie, William H., & O.C.
Wilson, "Aurigae: the Structure of a Stellar Atmosphere,"
Ap.J 81, 426 (1935).
Wilson, O.C., "Absorption
Lines due to an Expanding Star,"
Ap.J 82, 233-45
(1935).
Wilson, O.C., "Variations in the Spectrum of P Cygni,"
Ap.J 84, 296-302 (1936).
Merrill, Paul W., Roscoe F. Sanford, O.C. Wilson, & Cora G. Burwell,
"Intensities and Displacements of Interstellar Lines,"
Ap.J
86, 274-310 (1937).
Sanford, Roscoe F., & O.C.
Wilson, "On the Doublet Ratio of Interstellar H and K and the Absolute
Magnitudes of Wolf-Rayet Stars,"
Ap.J 90, 235-43
(1939).
Wilson, O.C., "Possible Applications of Supernovae to
the Study of the Nebular Red .Shifts,"
Ap.J 90,
634-36 (1939).
Wilson, O.C., "Physical Characteristics of the
Wolf-Rayet Stars,"
Ap.J 91, 394-407
(1940).
Wilson, O.C., "On the Determination of Mass Ratios of
Spectroscopic Binaries,"
Ap.J 93, 29-32
(1941).
Wilson, O.C., "Absolute Dimensions of a Wolf-Rayet Star
and the Expanding-Envelope Hypothesis,"
Ap.J 95,
402-20 (1942).
Merrill, Paul W. & O.C. Wilson, "Components
of Interstellar Sodium Lines,"
PASP 59, 132-33
(1947).
Wilson, O.C., "A Preliminary Lower Limit to the Ratio
C12/C 13 in Interstellar Matter,"
PASP 60, 198-200
(1948).
Wilson, O.C., "A Survey of Internal Motions in the
Planetary Nebulae,"
Ap.J 111, 279- 305
(1950).
Wilson, O.C. & Mary F. Coffeen, "The Mass of the
Globular Cluster M92,"
Ap.J 119, 197-99
(1954).
Minkowski, R. & O.C. Wilson, "Proportionality of
Nebular Red Shifts to Wave Length,"
Ap.J 123,
373-76 (1956).
Wilson, O.C., "The New Cassegrain Spectrograph
for the Mount Wilson 60-Inch Telescope,"
PASP 68,
346-50 (1956).
Wilson, O.C. & M.K. Vainu Bappu, "H and K
Emission in Late-Type Stars: Dependence of Line Width on Luminosity and Related
Topics,"
Ap.J 125, 661-83 (1957). [reprinted in the
centennial edition
Ap.J 525C, 753 (1999) with a
modern commentary by Jeffrey L. Linsky]
Wilson, O.C.,
"Limitations on Physical Theories of H and K Emission Lines,"
Ap.J 126, 525-28 (1957).
Hoyle, F.
& O.C. Wilson, "Some Theoretical Aspects of H and K Emission in Late-Type
Stars," Ap.J. 128, 604-15 (1958).
Wilson,O.C., "Internal
Kinematics of the Planetary Nebulae,"
Revs. Mod. Phys.
30, 1025- 29 (1958).
Wilson, O.C., "A Color-Magnitude
Diagram for Late-Type Stars Near the Sun,"
Ap.J
130, 496-98 (1959).
Wilson, O.C., "Accuracy of Absolute
Magnitudes Derived from Widths of H and K Emission Components,"
Ap.J 130, 499-506 (1959).
Wilson,
O.C., "A Suggested Mechanism for the Ejection of Matter from M-Type Stars,"
Ap.J 131, 75-82 (1960).
Wilson, O.C., "Lithium in a Main Sequence Star,"
PASP
75, 62-63 (1963).
Wilson, O.C., "A Probable Correlation
Between Chromospheric Activity and Age in Main-Sequence Stars,"
Ap.J 138, 832-48 (1963).
Wilson,
O.C., "Stellar Convection Zones, Chromospheres, and Rotation,"
Ap.J 144, 695- 708 (1966).
Wilson,
O.C., "Absolute Magnitudes of Stars from Widths of Chromospheric Ca II Emission
Lines,"
Ap.J 205, 823-40 (1976).
Keenan, Philip C. & Olin C. Wilson, "Effects of Heavy-Element Abundance on
Spectroscopic Luminosities of GS-KO Giants,"
Ap.J.
214, 399-407 (1977).
Wilson, O.C., "Stellar
Chromospheres for Fun and Profit,"
BAAS 9, 585
(1977) [abstract of Henry Norris Russell Lecture].
Wilson,
O.C., "Chromospheric Variations in Main-Sequence Stars,"
Ap.J. 226, 379-96 (1978).
Vaughan, Arthur H.,
George W. Preston, & Olin C. Wilson, "Flux Measurements of CA II H and K
Emission,"
PASP 90, 267-74 (1978).
Wilson, O.C., "Photoelectric Measures of Chromospheric H and K and Hε in Giant
Stars,"
Ap.J. 257, 179-92 (1982).
Duncan, Douglas K., et al, "CA II H and K measurements made at Mount Wilson
Observatory, 1966-1983,"
Ap.J. Supp. 76, 383-430
(1991).
Baliunas, S.L., et al, "Chromospheric Variations in
Main-Sequence Stars. II,"
Ap.J. 438, 269-87
(1995).
Popular Publications
Wilson, O.C., A.H. Vaughan, & D. Mihalas, "The Activity Cycles of
Stars,"
Scientific American 244, 104
(1981).
Wilson, 0., A. Vaughan, R. Kraft, & G. Preston,
"Activity Cycles in Other Stars,"
Sky &
Telescope
62, 312 (1981).
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.
Boxes 1-32 (Folders 1-11): Correspondence
Box 32 (Folders 8-17): Manuscripts, Documents, Ephemera, and Photographs
Boxes 33-34: Reports
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Wilson, Olin C.,
1909-1994.
American Astronomical
Society -- History -- Sources.
Astronomical Society of
the Pacific -- History -- Sources.
California Institute of
Technology -- History -- Sources.
Carnegie Institution of
Washington -- History -- Sources.
Mount Wilson
Observatory -- History -- Sources.
Astronomers -- California, Southern --
Archives.
Astronomers --
Correspondence.
Astronomical spectroscopy.
Astronomy -- Research.
Interstellar matter.
Planetary nebulae.
Stars -- Atmospheres.
Stars -- Luminosity function.
Stars -- Rotation.
Stars -- Spectra.
Starspots.
Stellar activity.
Stellar chromospheres.
Wolf-Rayet stars.
Letters (correspondence) -- 20th
century.
Technical reports -- 20th century.
Adams, Walter S. (Walter Sydney),
1876-1956.
Aller, Lawrence H. (Lawrence Hugh),
1913-2003.
Bopp, Bernard William, 1947-
Bowen, Ira Sprague, 1898-1973.
Kraft, Robert Paul, 1927-
Thackeray, A. D. (Andrew David)
Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Mount Wilson Observatory.