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Tucker (Richard Hawley) papers
MS.253
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Richard Hawley Tucker papers
creator:
Tucker, R. H. (Richard Hawley)
Identifier/Call Number: MS.253
Physical Description:
2.53 Linear Feet
6 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1879-1939
Collection is open for research.
This collection is organized into five series:
- 1. Correspondence
- 2. Writings and research files
- 3. San Luis, Argentina expedition files
- 4. Memorabilia
- 5. Photographs
Materials within each series are arranged in chronological order.
Richard Hawley Tucker was an astronomer at the Lick Observatory during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tucker was
born in 1859 in Maine, and began studying civil engineering and astronomy at Lehigh University in 1875 at age 15. Upon graduation
in 1879, he started working as Assistant at the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York, where he remained for four years before
becoming Instructor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Lehigh University. A year later, Tucker began assisting in a survey of
the southern skies at the Argentine National Observatory in Cordoba with Dr. B.A. Gould and John H. Thorne. He remained there
until 1893, when he was offered a staff astronomer position at the Lick Observatory to oversee the study of precise star positions
using the Meridian Circle. In 1908, Tucker left the Lick Observatory to lead a three-year expedition in San Luis, Argentina,
where he and his team collected 87,000 observations of the positions of 15,000 stars. He returned to Lick in 1911 and remained
an astronomer there until he retired and became Professor Emeritus in 1926. Tucker married Ruth Standen in 1914, and they
had two daughters, Mary and Jane. Tucker died in 1952 in Palo Alto, California.
For more information:
Richard Hawley Tucker: Lick Observatory
Richard Hawley Tucker papers. MS 253. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa
Cruz.
Additional Tucker correspondence from 1893-1916 can be found in Series 1 of the Lick Observatory records:
The Tucker family papers are available at the Historic New England Library and Archives:
This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Richard Hawley Tucker, an astronomer who worked at the Lick
Observatory from 1893 to 1926. It includes family letters, professional correspondence, research materials, manuscripts, reprints,
memorabilia, and photograph albums showing life on Mount Hamilton around the turn of the century, as well as Tucker's travels
in South America.
Property rights for this collection reside with the University of California. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained
by the creators and their heirs. The publication or use of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use
for research or educational purposes requires written permission from the copyright owner. Responsibility for obtaining permissions,
and for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information on copyright or to order a reproduction, please visit
guides.library.ucsc.edu/speccoll/reproduction-publication.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Astronomy
Lick Observatory
Tucker, R. H. (Richard Hawley)
Tucker, R. H. (Richard Hawley)