OPEN TODAY: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.

Tickets

Manuscripts

Correspondence

Description

It appears that Hubble was hardly obsessed with saving his correspondence. Only a few letters from the 1920s and 30s survive, but many of these are scientifically important. Included in this group are letters to and from Harlow Shapley, Vesto Melvin Slipher, Willem de Sitter, Henry Norris Russell, Arthur Stanley Eddington, Joel Stebbins, and Otto Struve. There is also an important run of correspondence with Nicholas Ulrich Mayall dating from the early 1930s, regarding the surveys of galaxies made by the two men. Many of Hubble's later letters are carbon copies made from the files of the Mount Wilson Observatory; these letters date from the mid-1940s and are mainly routine. Hubble's only extant personal correspondence was addressed to his wife during 1942 and 1943 when Hubble worked at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland and Mrs. Hubble was still in California. The spotty nature of Hubble's own correspondence was explained by Mrs. Hubble: "He had a reticence that demanded privacy from the public."

Most of the personal correspondence in the collection is addressed to Grace Hubble, although a few letters are addressed to her husband. The Hubbles' social circle included a number of persons with whom Edwin Hubble was not professionally associated. Many of these individuals were English --some Edwin Hubble met at Oxford and some the Hubbles met in Hollywood in the 1930s. Friends and acquaintances with whom there is significant correspondence include the Robert Gore-Brownes, Sir Charles Richard Fairey, Henry Herbert Gordon Clark, Philip Henry Kerr (Lord Lothian), Sir Hugh Walpole, Aldous and Maria (Nys) Huxley, Harold Marsh and Fryniwyd Tennyson Jesse Harwood, Frieda (von Richtofen) Lawrence, George Arliss, and Anita Loos.

The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by author and addressee. Letters from one individual to another are ordered chronologically. Within the correspondence are scientific, routine business, and some personal letters written by and addressed to Edwin Hubble, letters to Grace Hubble primarily from literary and show business personalities the Hubbles knew socially, and letters of condolence upon the death of Hubble.

Persons represented by five or more pieces or significant items listed.

Type
Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date
1900-1989.
Call number
mssHUB 1-1098
Creator
Hubble, Edwin (1889-1953)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance
Gift of the estate of Grace Burke Hubble, 1980.
Associated people
Hubble, Grace Burke, (1889-1980.)
Find out more
View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)

You might also be interested in

  • Image not available

    Manuscripts

    Manuscripts

    Arranged alphabetically by author, the manuscripts consist primarily of Edwin Hubble's writings. The majority of Hubble's own manuscripts deal with scientific subjects. They include some unpublished articles about Adriaan van Maanen's work and papers discussing the history, philosophy, and nature of science. Also among the Hubble manuscripts are many of his public lectures on such topics as astronomy, smog, war preparedness, and fly-fishing. Grace Hubble was a faithful chronicler of Hubble's life during their marriage and after his death. In diaries and journals, she described daily happenings at home in San Marino, Calif., and vacations in Colorado, Arizona, the East Coast, Great Britain, and Europe. These diaries discuss the Hubbles' activities, friends, acquaintances, and people they met on their travels. After Hubble's death, Mrs. Hubble prepared rough biographical memoirs of her husband. Divided into topical chapters, the notes and short essays include transcripts of some early Hubble correspondence which is not available elsewhere in the collection. These journals and memoirs supplement the more public record of Hubble's life provided by his own papers. Also included with the manuscripts are several articles and poems about Hubble, written by family, friends, and colleagues: Helen Hubble Lane, Susan Ertz, Aldous Leonard Huxley, Anita Loos, Milton Humason, Nicholas Ulrich Mayall, and Edward John Moreton Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany.

    mssHUB 1-1098

  • Image not available

    Ephemera

    Manuscripts

    Included in the ephemera are reprints which consist primarily of Hubble's scientific articles, a scrapbook compiled by Grace Hubble which contains newspaper clippings and some other memorabilia chronicling Hubble's life from his high school years to his death, miscellaneous biographical material, magazine articles about Hubble, a scientific biography (in Russian) of Hubble, and Hubble's medals and awards

    mssHUB 1-1098

  • Image not available

    Photographs

    Manuscripts

    HUB 1032-1050 and 1089-1096 are portraits and candid shots of Hubble, taken from his childhood to his last years at various places where he lived and worked. Photographs of Grace (Burke) Hubble are also included in this set. HUB 1051-1082 are photographs of other individuals associated with the Hubbles. Included are Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, Aldous and Maria (Nys) Huxley, Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, etc. Edwin and Grace Hubble appear in several of these photographs. A blue binder containing photocopies of the prints of the photographs is also included in the collection. When an asterisk appears on the list, at least one of the photographs described is in the folder of oversize photographs.

    mssHUB 1-1098

  • Image not available

    Astronomical Working Papers

    Manuscripts

    This section contains almost complete documentation for Hubble's three papers on cepheids (Messier 31, Messier 33, and N.G.C. 6822) published from 1925 to 1929, for his 1930 paper, "The Distribution of Luminosity in Elliptical Nebulae," and for his 1934 paper on the distribution of galaxies in space. Much of the data Hubble compiled in checking Adriaan van Maanen's conclusions concerning the angular rotations of spiral nebulae is also here. There are a few finding charts for clusters of galaxies which were utilized in Hubble's calculation of the velocity-distance relation among extragalactic nebulae. In addition, several star charts and other telescopic photographs have been preserved. The astronomical working papers were organized with the assistance of Dr. Allan Sandage, a former colleague of Hubble's and astronomer at the Carnegie Observatories. The papers have been arranged chronologically according to the particular scientific paper produced from them. The data for each paper is randomly ordered, but the verso of each piece has been numbered in pencil.

    mssHUB 1-1098

  • Image not available

    Correspondence: A - Be (HUB 91-170)

    Manuscripts

    The papers of Edwin P. Hubble include manuscripts and reprints of his articles, papers, public lectures, addresses, etc., scientific documentation for his papers, logbooks of photographic plates taken by Hubble at Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories, diaries and biographical memoirs of his wife Grace Burke Hubble, professional, personal, and social correspondence, photographs, medals and awards, a scrapbook assembled by Grace Hubble, newspaper clippings, etc.

    mssHUB 1-1098

  • Image not available

    Correspondence: Q - S (HUB 893-965)

    Manuscripts

    The papers of Edwin P. Hubble include manuscripts and reprints of his articles, papers, public lectures, addresses, etc., scientific documentation for his papers, logbooks of photographic plates taken by Hubble at Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories, diaries and biographical memoirs of his wife Grace Burke Hubble, professional, personal, and social correspondence, photographs, medals and awards, a scrapbook assembled by Grace Hubble, newspaper clippings, etc.

    mssHUB 1-1098