Oral history interview with Olin C. Wilson, 1978 July 11.

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Oral history interview with Olin C. Wilson, 1978 July 11.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/78557683

Early life in San Francisco and first contacts with astronomy in 1920; Public Lectures under auspices of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific; college years at University of California at Berkeley, 1926-1930; interests in physics and astronomy; contact with Donald Menzel; move to Caltech and graduate studies; work with Paul Merrill; Mount Wilson in the 1930s; limitations of spectroscopic equipment; recollections of Edwin Hubble; job offers and decision to remain at Mt. Wilson; origins of research interests and early work leading to Wilson-Bappu Effect; stellar chromospheres and first use of 100-inch telescope in 1938; work on rocket project during World War II; recollections of Walter Baade and Walter S. Adams; postwar years at Mount Wilson; Ira Bowen; Office of Naval Research (ONR) funding; research on planetary nebulae; instrumentation for the 200-inch telescope; internal peer review system; Halton C. Arp's work; continued work on Wilson-Bappu Effect and need for theoretical understanding; study of the solar cycle; teaching and graduate students; work with Rudolph Minkowski; recalibration of Cepheid period/luminosity; Paul W. Hodge's and George Wallerstein's paper of 1967; Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky; the operation of Hale Observatories; kinematics of the Orion Nebula; origin of southern station at Las Campanas; Hale Observatories and Caltech; Bowen's retirement. Also prominently mentioned are: Helmut Abt. Lawrence H. Aller, Horace W. Babcock, Raymond Thayer Birge, William W. Campbell, Theodore Dunham, Jr., Hyades, Donald Howard Menzel, Dimitri Mihalis, Joseph H. Moore, Guido Münch, F. Pease, George Preston, Rayet, Allan Sandage, Garritt P. Serviss, Charles Donald Shane, Stanislaus Vasilevskis, Wolf; Carnegie Institution of Washington, Hale Observatories, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Lick Observatory, University of California at Berkeley, and Yerkes Observatory.

Transcript, 119 p.

American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8216803

Related Entities

There are 26 Entities related to this resource.

California Institute of Technology

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h23v30 (corporateBody)

Carnegie Institution of Washington.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6q85754 (corporateBody)

Bowen, Ira Sprague, 1898-1973

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60g3mww (person)

Ira Sprague Bowen (1898-1973), a physicist by training, was the third Director of the Mount Wilson Observatory from 1946-1964. From the description of Papers of Ira Sprague Bowen, 1940-1973. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 122369281 Astrophysicist. California Institute of Technology. From the description of Papers, 1917-1961. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 77663307 Biography ...

Münch, Guido, 1921-.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nd3whg (person)

Arp, Halton C.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67s7v9z (person)

Born 1927. From the description of Oral history interview with Halton Christian Arp, 1975 July 29. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 78326516 ...

Hale Observatories

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gx86qd (corporateBody)

Baade, Walter, 1893-1960

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dz0bnv (person)

Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade (1893-1960) was a German-born astronomer who joined the staff of the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1931. From the description of Papers of Walter Baade, 1915-1960. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 122540492 ...

University of California (1868-1952)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m940p0 (corporateBody)

Administrative History During the mid-twentieth century, the American Labor Movement reached a pinnacle of power and influence within society. The Second World War required that labor be managed as a strategic resource; the high productivity of workers during the war carried over in the peace time economy, which experienced a sustained economic "boom." Unlike European labor relations, where unions play an "official" role in government, the Am...

Menzel, Donald H. (Donald Howard,), 1901-1976.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jq12dm (person)

Menzel died in 1976. From the description of Autobiography, 1974. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 80630339 Donald Howard Menzel was an astrophysicist. From the description of Papers concerning UFOs, 1952-1976. (American Philosophical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 122523365 From the description of Autobiography, September 1974. (American Philosophical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 122624215 From the guide to the Papers concerning U...

Shane, Charles Donald, 1895-1983

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tb37rm (person)

Hubble, Edwin Powell, 1889-1953

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6891877 (person)

Edwin Powell Hubble, American observational astronomer, Chairman of the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories Research Committee. In 1938, Hubble was elected Trustee of the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. From the description of Papers of Edwin Powell Hubble, 1900-1989. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 122551882 Astronomer (extragalactic astronomy and cosmology). Researcher, Yerkes Observatory, 1914-1917; on the...

Yerkes Observatory

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64786cx (corporateBody)

Yerkes Observatory, located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, is a facility of the University of Chicago's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. The observatory opened in 1897 as the joint creation of three founders: William Rainey Harper, the first president of the University of Chicago; Professor George E. Hale, the observatory's first director; and Charles T. Yerkes, a wealthy Chicago businessman who provided funds for the erection of the observatory building. Known as the home of the last of t...

DeVorkin, David H., 1944-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65x2b2g (person)

Adams, Walter S. (Walter Sydney), 1876-1956

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63n23sm (person)

Adams was the astronomer of stellar spectroscopy at Mount Wilson Observatory, 1904-1923, and Director, 1923-1946. From the description of Correspondence, 1881-1939. (American Philosophical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 86165432 Astronomer. From the description of Papers, 1923-1956. [microform]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79843223 Walter Sydney Adams (1876-1956, APS 1915), astronomer, explored the uses of spectroscopy, investigate...

United States. Office of Naval Research

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nk74nd (corporateBody)

The original "Survey of large-scale computers and computer projects" was published by the Office of Naval Research in 1947 and 1948. It was revised and updated in 1950 under the title, HIGH-SPEED COMPUTING DEVICES (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1950). This work was contracted out to the Minneapolis, Minn., firm of Engineering Research Associates and was an attempt to survey the state of computer technology at a time when the Navy was weighing the possibility of supporting the development of the electro...

Wilson, Olin, C., 1909-1994

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6184xq0 (person)

Olin Chaddock Wilson, Jr. (1909-1994) joined the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1931 as a research assistant and in 1936 became a staff member. Wilson was educated as an undergraduate at the University of California and in 1934 received the first Ph. D. in Astronomy awarded by the California Institute of Technology. Wilson's professional work was devoted to various phases of spectroscopy, including the stellar radial velocity program, various investigations of stellar atmospheres and interstellar m...

Astronomical society of the pacific

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65f2mrx (corporateBody)

Birge, Raymond T. (Raymond Thayer), b. 1887.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61c1z54 (person)

Physicist (spectroscopy, statistics). On the physics faculty at Syracuse University, 1913-1918; University of California at Berkeley from 1918, department chair, 1933-1955; chairman of committee on physical constants, National Research Council, 1930-1937. From the description of Lectures by Niels Bohr and by R. T. Birge, 1922-1969. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79125366 From the description of Comments on A. A. Michelson, 1962. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 82481619 ...

Babcock, Horace W.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cj8g5t (person)

Born 1912. From the description of Oral history interview with Horace W. Babcock, 1977, July 25. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 154302815 ...

Mount Wilson Solar Observatory

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fv2hk2 (corporateBody)

Lick Observatory

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cc4xb6 (corporateBody)

Campbell, William Wallace, 1862-1938

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k077b4 (person)

Zwicky, F. (Fritz), 1898-1974

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rr20pz (person)

Internationally reknowned astronomer and physicist at CalTech; then director of research, Aerojet Engineering Corporation. From the description of Report on certain phases of war research in Germany, 1947 Jan. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122448303 Astrophysicist (supernovas, galaxies, and intergalactic matter, patents for jet propulsion). Ph.D. 1922 from Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland. Assistant and Associate Professor of Theoretical Physics, 1927-19...

Moore, J. H. (Joseph Haines), 1878-1949

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gj07fd (person)

Astronomer, astrophysicist, and administrator. From the description of Correspondence, 1942-1949. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 82530355 ...

Kitt Peak National Observatory

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gr0tn6 (corporateBody)

Aller, Lawrence H. (Lawrence Hugh), 1913-2003

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6154k63 (person)

Lawrence H. Aller was born Sept. 24, 1913 in Tacoma, WA; BA, astronomy, UC Berkeley; MA and PhD Harvard University; became professor of astronomy at UCLA Dept. of Astronomy, 1962. From the description of Papers, 1928-2001. (University of California, Los Angeles). WorldCat record id: 320037653 ...