Introduction to the Yerkes Observatory Blog

The Yerkes Observatory Blog

Introduction:

My great passion in astronomy is the Yerkes Observatory, located in Williams Bay, WI built between 1895 and 1897 by Charles Yerkes of Chicago and New York, the great streetcar magnate, for the University of Chicago (U of C).  The Observatory is named for  Charles Yerkes and it's the home of the 40-inch refracting telescope -- the largest lens-type telescope in the world and the world's largest operating telescope from 1897 until 1908.  I live about 35 miles from the Observatory and have been a part-time tour guide there since 1994, and I am working on the manuscript of a book about the founding and early history of the Observatory. 

What this blog is about:

This blog will share some of the research I've done, interesting facts I've uncovered -- some that have been published and many that have not, and photographs I've collected at various institutions.  My sources include. but are not limited to, the University of Chicago Special Collections (several collections including the Yerkes Observatory and William Rainey Harper papers), the Caltech Archives (the George Ellery Hale papers), the Chicago History Museum, the Chicago Art Institute (mainly articles about Henry Ives Cobb, the Observatory's architect), the Case Western Reserve University archives (Warner and Swasey papers. builders of the iron telescope tube and mounting, the elevated floor and the 90-foot dome), the Anderson Library at UW- Whitewater (Chicago Daily Tribune articles) Lake Geneva (WI) public library (Lake Geneva Herald article), personal interviews and from reading dozens of books about 19th century history, architecture, personalities associated with Yerkes observatories, astronomer's and industrialist's biographies from the period, hundreds of newspaper articles and several doctoral theses devoted to all aspects of architectural, and engineering, design, economics of the times, social conditions, craftsmanship and many other topics.

I hope you enjoy reading my periodic posts and I hope you'll comment on what I'm writing.  Thanks for looking!

This first picture is well-known and often published the U of C archives -- it appears as the imprint on T-shirts and sweatshirts that are sold in the Yerkes gift shop.  It's a "cross section" look at the 90-foot diameter dome that houses the 40-inch refractor, a schematic of sorts that was drawn by Warner and Swasey (Cleveland, OH), the builders of the dome, the 40-inch telescope (the lenses were ground and polished by Alvan Clark and Sons of Cambridge, MA) and the builders of the 75-foot diameter elevated floor.  Click on it for a larger view.