Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institution
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Rare Books
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Rare Books
751850
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Manuscripts
The collection comprises papers, mostly correspondence, documenting routine activities of the Smithsonian Institution; materials relating to the first Smithsonian secretaries -- Joseph Henry (1797-1878) and Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887), and miscellaneous items relating to the National Museum, Library, and encouragement of research.
mssRH Boxes 36-55
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Manuscripts
Acknowledgements of receipt of Smithsonian Institution annual reports, bulletins, and other publications, some with accompanying letters. Items are filed alphabetically by sender and are still in their original envelopes.
mssSI
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Manuscripts
The collection chiefly consists of the administrative, scientific, and personal correspondence of Walter S. Adams spanning the years 1921 to 1956, including his work during World War II. Adams and the observatory staff worked, in secret, with the U.S. government and helped create prisms and optics for various types of binoculars and gun sights; the staff also assisted with aerial and naval defense and attack strategy. There is also material from Adams' retirement years. The collection also contains manuscripts and photographs (some of which are of the B-29 bomber), also dealing with Adams' astronomical work.
mssAdamsw
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Manuscripts
The collection deals primarily with the professional activities of Olin C. Wilson, who was most active from the mid-1930s into the 1980s. 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.
mssWilson papers