Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Mount Wilson Observatory.
- Abstract:
- The Mount Wilson Observatory Legal Papers comprise one box of material relating to the founding, construction, and operation of the institution dating from 1903 to 1939.
- Extent:
- 84 items in 1 box
- Language:
- English.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Mount Wilson Observatory Legal Papers comprise one box of material relating to the founding, construction, and operation of the institution dating from 1903 to 1939. The bulk of the papers are legal documents: deeds, leases, utility contracts, and permits. Two folders contain documents relating to legal actions taken against Mount Wilson and the Carnegie Institution. Also included are three letters from John D. Hooker, a Los Angeles industrialist, philanthropist, and founder of the California Academy of Science, announcing his donation to fund the 100” telescope that would bear his name. Other participants include George Ellery Hale, Walter S. Adams and Francis G. Pease.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Founded in December 1904 by George Ellery Hale and funded by the Carnegie Institution, the Mount Wilson Observatory quickly became one of the 20th century’s major astronomical research centers. Located just north of Los Angeles high atop the San Gabriel Mountains, the observatory took full advantage of Southern California’s clear nights and uniquely steady air. The observatory’s 60” telescope completed in 1908 was the largest then in existence. In 1917, another Mount Wilson telescope, 100” in diameter, claimed that title.
Hale was joined at Mount Wilson by a gifted group of earlier astrophysicists. Walter Adams, George Willis Ritchey, Francis Pease, Ferdinand Ellerman, and Edwin Hubble studied at the observatory, making important discoveries concerning sunspots, the composition of stars, and the architecture of the universe.
- Acquisition information:
- Deposit, Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Collection, 1988. Approximately fifty additional separate collections form the Mount Wilson Papers of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and are available for research in the Manuscripts Department of the Huntington Library.
- Arrangement:
-
The papers are arranged alphabetically according to the person, company, or institution that created them.
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
- Subjects:
- Astronomical observatories -- California
-- Wilson, Mount (Mountain)
Astronomy -- United States -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Telescopes -- Design and construction -- History -- Sources.
Legal documents -- United States -- 20th century.
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 20th century.
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 RoadSan Marino, CA 91108, US
- Contact:
- (626) 405-2191