Olin C. Wilson Papers

The collection deals primarily with the professional activities of Olin Wilson, who was most active from the mid-1930s into the 1980s. It is organized alphabetically by author, and divided into two series: Series I, consisting of correspondence, primarily with other astronomers, which comprises the bulk of the collection (Boxes 1-32), and Series II, consisting of reports, which include a total of 39 items (Boxes 33-34).

The finding aid contains a heading for "Primary Reference," which refers to the principal author of the letter or report. The heading "Secondary Reference" serves as a general category of subject headings for items referenced in the letter, such as the organization to which the author belonged, the country of origin of the letter, etc.

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.

The collection includes correspondence with such prominent astronomers as Walter Sydney Adams, Bernard William Bopp, Ira Sprague Bowen, David A. Thackery, Lawrence H. Aller, Robert Paul Kraft, and many other individuals, as well as considerable correspondence with the American Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and other organizations.