Theodore Dunham Papers

The majority of the collection (364 items) is made up of correspondence between Theodore Dunham and various astronomers throughout the United States and England (and a couple other countries). Dunham and the other astronomers' research and work are the main topics of the letters. These subjects include: Dunham's work on stars (including our sun) and planets (Jupiter, Venus); biophysics; telescopes and lenses; and the Fund for Astrophysical Research. There is a folder with correspondence between Dunham, Harry Plaskett (Dunham's closest friend and astronomer at Oxford), and others regarding Dunham's attempt at doing his part during World War II. He contacts several people and institutions in England and Canada including the National Research Council in Ottawa looking for a position somewhere. This folder includes a copy of a letter by Dunham to Winston Churchill offering any assistance he can give to the war effort as well as copies of Dunham's "Summary of Scientific Work" (resume).

The majority of the letters by Dunham are copies that he kept for his own records.

There are nine photographs mostly astronomical machinery, probably for illustrations for an article by Dunham, including a transparency of the telescope at the Mount Stromlo Observatory. The publications include a copy of Engineering and Science Monthly which is published by California Institute of Technology Alumni Association. The issue contains an article about George Ellery Hale and an article by Edwin Hubble; as well as several reprints of articles by Theodore Dunham alone and articles he co-wrote with Walter S. Adams.

Prominent participants include: Walter S. Adams, Ralph Howard Fowler, Albert G. Ingalls, H. Spencer Jones, Edward Kurth, John La Gorce, C. O. Lampland, Robert E. Marshak, James H. Means, Donald H. Menzel, Jay P. Moffat, George Spencer Monk, G. W. Morey, Linus Pauling, Harry H. Plaskett, John Stanley Plaskett, Roderick Oliver Redman, Cornelius P. Rhoads, F. E. Roach, Bruce Rule, Henry Norris Russell, Donald Sadler, Charles D. Shane, Harlow Shapley, S. E. Sheppard, V. M. Slipher, James H. C. Smith, Spencer Lens Company, Lyman Spitzer, H. A. Spoehr, Joel Stebbins, John Q. Stewart, F. J. M. Stratton, Otto Struve, P. Swings, Thermal Syndicate, Albrecht Unsöld, Adriaan Van Maanen, Warren Weaver, Evan Gwyn Williams, Albert George Wilson, Robert Williams Wood, Richard van der riet Woolley, F. E. Wright, and C. C. Wylie.

Further subjects: Eastman Kodak Company, Mt. Wilson and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Lowell Observatory, Lick Observatory, California Institute of Technology, Yerkes Observatory, the Royal Astronomical Society, and the observatories at Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, and Princeton as well as the National Research Council (U.S. and Canada). George Ellery Hale and Edwin Powell Hubble are mentioned often throughout the collection.