Ebook: No One May Ever Have The Same Knowledge Again: Letters to Mount Wilson Observatory 1915-1935

"The material for this Leaflet is derived from an exhibit bearing the name 'No One May Ever Have the Same Knowledge Again - Letters to Mount Wilson Observatory, 1915-1935' housed at The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, California. The exhibit places in public view some twenty two of the letters contained in this catalogue.

The Museum wishes to thank Mount Wilson Observatory and the Carnegie Institution for making the letters available for this exhibition. In addition we would like to thank Tony Misch and Larry Webster for bringing the letters to our attention nearly a decade ago and providing many hours of support on our repeated trips to the observatory. Finally, we wish to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of Sarah Simons whose uncanny ability for deciphering often impenetrable handwriting and whose tireless work made the exhibition and this catalogue possible."

"The extraordinary mechanical methods used with the large instruments as well as the concrete results obtained by the astronomers began to be of general interest. Through the teens and especially after the completion of the extraordinary 100 inch telescope in 1918, the trickle of information approached a stream. And through the 1920's and into the 30's, fueled by the astonishing discoveries made by Hale, Hubble, Michelson, and their contemporaries, the flow of public interest became a torrent. By the beginning of the third decade of this century some 20,000 people annually visited the observatory and tens of thousands of others followed the astronomers' progress from afar.

As early as 1911, the astronomers at Mount Wilson began receiving letters from people all around the world, people from all walks of life, educated as well as uneducated. Many of the letters were simple expressions of appreciation and awe for the work that the astronomers were accomplishing. There was, however, another class of letter. These letters were communications to the astronomers by individuals who felt, often with a great degree of earnestness, that they were in possession of understandings or information that should be shared with the astronomers.

The information contained in this class of letter was typically of astronomical or cosmological concern. These individuals had gleaned the information they wished to communicate either by experimentation, observation or intuition and invariably felt a strong sense of urgency in their need to communicate their observations to the observers at Mount Wilson.

Letters of this kind began arriving at the observatory as early as 1911 and continue to arrive even today. There was, however, a swell in the letters received between the two World Wars, the years when the Observatory received, perhaps, its greatest public attention. During these years the letters were most often written to Milton Humason, Seth B. Nicholson, and Edison Pettit, all prominent astronomers of the time as well as Walter Adams who had assumed the role of Director of the Observatory from George Ellery Hale in 1921. In the 1940s the letters were collected and organized by Joe Hickox, chief solar observer. Since that time the letters have been passed from solar observer to solar observer, finally falling into the hands of Larry Webster, who most generously arranged for this exhibition."