History
From NOAOWiki
Chair: Marc Rothenberg (Historian, NSF Office of Legislative and Public Affairs, 703-292-7729)
Members:
Email Chair plus ALL Members or individually through links below
Ellen Bouton (NRAO Charlottesville, Archivist) - 434-296-0203
David DeVorkin (AAS/HAD Working Group on the Preservation of Astronomical Heritage; Smithsonian Institution/NASM) - ph: 202-633-2425, fax: 202-786-2947
John Glaspey (NOAO Tucson)
Tom Kinman (NOAO Tucson)
Arlo Landolt (Louisiana State Univ.) - 225-578-6795
Bill Livingston (NSO Tucson)
Jessica Moy (NOAO Tucson, Librarian)
Bill Schoening (NSO Tucson, Archivist)
Elizabeth Alvarez (copied as chair of 50th planning)
Description: Preservation of astronomical heritage of our national observatory, both past and future
Schedule:
Tasks: Item / Deadline / Status / Responsible person / Comments
Costs:
Remarks:
Issues:
Please add your suggestions for topics this committee might consider.
- We need a list of the most prominent science accomplishments of the national observatory (not just KPNO). Here are some resources that could be used but need to be vetted and completed: Timeline, Old NL Listing, Presentation from Strom (pending)
- The AAS / HAD working group on the Preservation of Astronomical Heritage was invited to use KPNO as their test site. They are developing guidelines for observatories. David DeVorkin was identified as our liaison. Thomas R. Williams (trw@rice.edu) contacted us in Jan./Feb. '08 and said,
"Neither David nor I are on the HAD Committee at the moment, but both of us are on the Working Group on Preservation of Astronomical Heritage chaired by Steve McCluskey (Stephen.McCluskey@mail.wvu.edu). The HAD is chaired by Sara Schechner (schechn@fas.harvard.edu). I think your follow up should be directed to both of them with copies to David and I. I will help to the extent I can on this but [Steve and Sara] are the two individuals who will have to provide the leadership if help is to come from AAS. In my view, AAS should surely cooperate in this planning." - Ellen Bouton (ebouton@nrao.edu or 434-296-0203) at NRAO Charlottesville might have useful advice. She was librarian at NRAO and is now the archivist. NRAO just went through their 50th and developing an archive was one of the products. She gave a presentation at the AAS on setting up an archive on the cheap. Check www.nrao.edu/archives to see what NRAO has done in terms of preserving records. We also need to think about capturing memories. This can be done through an oral history program. Less useful, but cheaper and more wide-ranging, would be developing a list of questions which are distributed widely among long-term staff and observatory users to be answered in writing or perhaps spoken into a recorder. Capturing memories raises issues of quantity versus quality that we should consider.
- Histories
- Already obtained by PAEO
- Oral histories: Tony Abraham, Helmut Abt, Dave Crawford, Mark Hanna, Bill Livingston, Steve Strom, Sidney Wolff, and a Roundtable with Lloyd Wallace, Susie Davidson and Evelyn Russell
- One-page recollection by Steve Maran
- A bit from Vera Rubin (and a longer Q&A from another project that Isbell's willing to share)
- Should we get additional ones and if so, from whom? Names that have arisen: Aden Meinel, Mike Belton, Jack Harvey.
- Misc. written records
- Bill Livingston has been writing short blurbs about various past incidents.
- Aden Meinel is working on a book and a couple chapters include KPNO. (Contact: Helmut Abt)
- Frank Housholder has sent his archive of images from 1959-1961. (Contact: Doug Isbell.)
- Keith Pierce left a written autobiography. (Contact: Bill Livingston)
- Roger Lynds wants to write/record some background. He expects it would not be a public resource like on the web, but would be useful to someone doing research and able to use discretion. He simply wants to record the facts as he sees them, but doesn't expect to sift them for political correctness and such.
- Lloyd Wallace is writing a history of the KPNO Sounding Rocket Program. He has contacted a number of the early participants.
- Should we encourage a professional, written history of Kitt Peak beyond what exists already?
- On July 2nd, Tom Kinman recommended "If there is any serious consideration for writing a history of NOAO, I suggest that Steven J.Dick would be an appropriate person to consult as to what would be possible with our available archival resources. He was formerly historian at the US Naval Observatory and wrote their history "Sky & Ocean Joined" (Cambridge, 2003). In 2003 he became head historian at NASA and was lead author of "America in Space: NASA's first 50 years" which came out last year. Neither of these books are in the Kitt Peak library. Steven Dick was awarded the LeRoy Doggett Prize in 2006 by HAD (AAS History Division) and has been President of the IAU History Commission. So I think that he is eminently well qualified to make a judgement about any historical activities that this institution might be interested in."
- Another potential contact: Prof. Andre HECK (Observatoire Astronomique; heck@astro.u-strasbg.fr; phone/fax: (+33)(0)388 50 87 72, cell: (+33)(0)680 72 26 64; Skype: duttlengeist; http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/~heck
We should aim at both general and scholarly audiences. One obvious place for dissemination is the Kitt Peak website. Others might include a session at the Historical Astronomy Division of the AAS, a colloquium at Kitt Peak, and articles in Sky and Telescope and Physics Today.
- On July 2nd, Tom Kinman recommended "If there is any serious consideration for writing a history of NOAO, I suggest that Steven J.Dick would be an appropriate person to consult as to what would be possible with our available archival resources. He was formerly historian at the US Naval Observatory and wrote their history "Sky & Ocean Joined" (Cambridge, 2003). In 2003 he became head historian at NASA and was lead author of "America in Space: NASA's first 50 years" which came out last year. Neither of these books are in the Kitt Peak library. Steven Dick was awarded the LeRoy Doggett Prize in 2006 by HAD (AAS History Division) and has been President of the IAU History Commission. So I think that he is eminently well qualified to make a judgement about any historical activities that this institution might be interested in."
- Already obtained by PAEO
- 3/6/09 from Mark Rothenberg
Members of the History Subcommittee,
Let me begin by apologizing for my neglect in not contacting you and otherwise not meeting my obligations as chair. I do hope that my negligence--brought about by my time being dominated by a variety of family and work issues I now believe are resolved--hasn't in any way resulted in dampening your enthusiasm for this most important venture--commemorating the 50th anniversary of Kitt Peak. I also want to thank Elizabeth for pushing us forward and Aletha for setting up the teleconference.
The establishment of Kitt Peak was a milestone in the history of American astronomy. As part of this commemoration I believe the history sub-committee has a number of challenges: to ensure the preservation of the "stuff" of history from the last 50 years--documentation, memories, instrumentation; to establish a system which will preserve that stuff as it is created in the future; and to disseminate the history of Kitt Peak in a variety of media and to a variety of audiences. I plan to add to the NOAOWiki over the weekend (when my daughter is home from college and can make sure I know what I am doing), but let me share my ideas with you now.
Capturing memories: this can be done through an oral history program. Less useful, but cheaper and more wide-ranging, would be developing a list of questions which are distributed widely among long-term staff and observatory users to be answered in writing or perhaps spoken into a recorder. Capturing memories raises issues of quantity versus quality that we should consider.
Archives and Records Management: This is vitally important. One caveat: the NHPRC would want to know what level of resources would Kitt Peak be willing to commit long-term to an archive. Establishing an archival program is but the first step. Maintaining it and ensuring that documents can be found and retrieved once in the collections are equally important. It would be very helpful if someone at our meeting could discuss the current records management program at Kitt Peak.
Dissemination: We should aim at both general and scholarly audiences. One obvious place for dissemination is the Kitt Peak website. Others might include a session at the Historical Astronomy Division of the AAS, a colloquium at Kitt Peak, and articles in Sky and Telescope and Physics Today.
Drawing ideas from other commemorations: Steven Dick's name has been raised by Tom in regard to writing a history. Steven also organized the sesquicentennial commemoration for the Naval Observatory, co-organized the sesquicentennial for the Nautical Almanac, and oversaw the NASA 50th anniversary. His insights could be very useful, although he has worked exclusively within a government structure. We might also want to look at NRAO's 50th and the Carnegie Institution of Washington's centennial celebration. Another place to look is the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is also going to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2010.
I look forward to meeting all of your via the teleconference and exchanging ideas. Until then, please either post your thoughts on the NOAOWiki or distribute them via email to all of as John did earlier today.
- ARCHIVAL: National Historical Publications and Records Commission has grants to support the cataloguing and archiving of records of national importance: http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/ One caveat: the NHPRC would want to know what level of resources would Kitt Peak be willing to commit long-term to an archive. Establishing an archival program is but the first step. Maintaining it and ensuring that documents can be found and retrieved once in the collections are equally important. It would be very helpful if someone at our meeting could discuss the current records management program at Kitt Peak.
- Is an archivist (beyond what Schoening does for us already) needed and if so for how long? Should we leave stores of old records alone or should they be reviewed to see if they have historical value? What interest do groups like CTIO, for which so much was done here in the early years, have?
- Items (excluding astronomical data) that need to be copied to new media to be preserved
- Old movie: "Journey into Light" (Schoening has the footage.)
- DRAWING IDEAS FROM OTHER COMMEMORATIONS. Steven Dick's name has been raised by Tom in regard to writing a history. Steven also organized the sesquicentennial commemoration for the Naval Observatory, co-organized the sesquicentennial for the Nautical Almanac, and oversaw the NASA 50th anniversary. His insights could be very useful, although he has worked exclusively within a government structure. We might also want to look at NRAO's 50th and the Carnegie Institution of Washington's centennial celebration. Another place to look is the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is also going to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2010.
- DAVID DEVORKIN'S THOUGHTS: People like me think of anniversaries as a chance to collect and preserve historical materials. The discussion thus far includes archival records and oral history which are at the top of my list too. But I've not seen anything about the preservation of objects ranging from historic sites, whole telescopes to things like iris photometers, photometers, spectrographs, image tubes, original Kitt Peak designs for same, examples of varying stages of automation and digital designs. Objects that are distinctly KPNO in origin or nature. Of greatest interest to me would be instruments that became standard designs, reproduced at universities and other observatories. Although I now know it was not a formal program at Kitt Peak, it seems that KPNO shops freely provided working plans for focal plane devices. Another thought: the degree to which national observatories stimulated the standardization of instrumentation, and of data (formatting, methods of analysis, policies on who owns what data), all needs to be better understood and preserved. A third: A tribute to the Mayall 4-meter as the first world-class optical telescope available by competitive application. The Mayall has a social history - McCray's book tells the story but further exploration is warranted into sociological and philosophical issues that characterize the conflicts we face today in culture writ large.
- 3/18/09 - from Tom Kinman (via Liz):
Following substantial emails from Marc Rothenberg (NSF) and Dave DeVorkin (Smithsonian), here are some specific suggestions.- Scholarly Historical Record: This is an appropriate time but not a trivial matter. Frank Edmondson's book "Aura & its US National Observatories" CUP (1997) took 10 years research (85 oral histories) plus 5 years actual writing. It was accepted 1994, Published 1997. A Kitt Peak History might be expedited by splitting it into several volumes (different topics) - each with a separate author. Some overlap might occur but would this necessarily be bad? One topic, for instance, might be the hardware (telescopes, instruments, etc.). Another might have to do with origins and administration. What other topics are appropriate?
- We need to have some policy for retaining historical material. Currently, such materials are probably spread through the institution. Do they need to be centralized? Do we have any criteria for deciding what material has historical interest? If a Kitt Peak History is to be written, then input from those doing this research would be useful.
- We need something that celebrates this 50th anniversary besides ephemeral events that can only involve relatively few people. We need something that can be put together with minimal effort; something that that can have a wide distribution. I propose that we publish a Brochure. In hardcopy, this could be about the size of a current Newsletter. It could have the same (or somewhat wider) distribution and also be on the Web. I suggest that it be largely pictorial and be organized by decade - two to three pages per decade. The idea would be to commemorate 50 years and not just something that happened 50 years ago. It should include pictures of of as wide a range as possible of those who have contributed to the activities of the Observatory.
Main 50th Planning Page
