Description
Personal and
professional correspondence, manuscripts, research notes including astronomical observations
and geological measurements, articles, lectures, personal diaries, family genealogy, and a
collection of family photographs including glass plate negatives and a glass plate negative
format camera.
Background
Astronomer. Studied at Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, California, and at the
Universities of Berlin and Munich. Before becoming a Professor of Applied Mathematics at
Stanford Unviersiy in 1907, Townley taught at U.C. Berkeley and was Astronomer at the
International Latitude Observatory in Ukiah, California. He became Professor Emeritus of
Astronomy and Geodesy at Stanford in 1932. In addition to practical astronomy, his research
interests included asteroids, comets and variable stars, latitude measurements, and
seismology.
Availability
This material is open for research.