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Wright (William H.) papers
MS.266
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: William H. Wright papers
Creator:
Wright, William Hammond,
1871-1959
Identifier/Call Number: MS.266
Physical Description:
1.6 Linear Feet
4 document boxes
Date (inclusive): 1894-1959
Abstract: This collection includes lecture notes
and manuscripts.
Language of Material:
English
Collection open for research.
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs.
Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair
use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to
determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more
information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.
William H. Wright papers. MS 266. Special Collections and Archives, University Library,
University of California, Santa Cruz.
Gift of the Wright Family
William Hammond Wright (November 4, 1871 - May 16, 1959) was an American astronomer. He was
director of the Lick Observatory from 1935 until 1942.
After graduating in 1893 from the University of California, he became Assistant Astronomer
at Lick Observatory. From 1903 to 1906 he worked on establishing the "Southern Station" of
the Observatory at Cerro San Cristobal near Santiago de Chile. It only took him 6 months to
start with observations from this new site, and he recorded a large series of radial
velocity measurements of stars in the southern sky. In 1908 he was promoted to Astronomer.
From 1918 to 1919 he was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground working for the ordinance
section of the United States Army. He then returned to the Lick Observatory and worked there
until his retirement.
He is most famous for his work on radial velocity of stars in our galaxy, and his work
with a spectrograph he designed himself. He obtained spectra of novas and nebulae. In 1924
he made photographic observations of Mars in multiple wave lengths. From these pictures he
concluded that its atmosphere was about 60 miles (100 km) deep.
In 1928 he received the Henry Draper Medal, and in 1938 the Gold Medal of the Royal
Astronomical Society. A crater on Mars is named in his honor.
Wikipedia
A more extensive biography can be found at University of California: In Memoriam, Index
"W" 1960
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection contains some biographical material, private diaries, correspondence, notes
and manuscripts of articles, lectures and books by Wright.
Processed by M. Carey March 2014. EAD encoded finding aid by M. Carey.
UA 36 Ser.6 Lick Observatory Records: Glass Plates
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Nebulae
Stars, New
Astrophysics -- United States -- History
Lick Observatory