Reading Nature, Observing Science: Examining Material Practices in the Lick Observatory Archives and Kenneth S. Norris Papers

Introduction to the Lick Observatory Archives

The Lick Observatory, located on Mount Hamilton 19 miles outside of San Jose, California, was founded in 1887. It was home to the largest refracting telescope at the time, the 36" Great Lick refractor, as well as the one of the first large reflecting telescopes, the 36" Crossley reflector. These telescopes were developed for photographic use. While astronomers at the Lick were particularly concerned with using the camera to discover, record, and measure the light of distant celestial objects. Their work eventually helped astronomers to distinguish between galaxies and nebulae, to support new theories of cosmology in which the universe is not static but expanding, and to confirm the theories of relativity argued by Georges Le Maître and Albert Einstein. Lick astronomers also traveled around the world on seventeen expeditions between 1889 and 1932 in order to view solar eclipses, transporting with them the 40-foot-long Schaeberle camera; this camera allowed Lick astronomers to study the structure of the sun's corona, the existence of which had been to that point uncertain.

Astronomers at the Lick were excited about the capacities of the camera for capturing more reliable images of the sky unmediated by human intervention and subjective perception. The Lick's first director, Edward Holden, wrote, "[The camera] does not tire, as the eye does, and refuse to pay attention for more than a small fraction of a second, but it will faithfully record every ray of light that falls upon it even for hours." Holden believed that photographs were inherently objective pieces of data. Holden also argued that the archival quality, the "permanence of the records," was superior to other methods of record keeping. 

The paths in this portion of our project open the "book of nature" at the point where images of the cosmos transitioned from illustration to photographic representation, as scientists embraced the objectivity of the camera over the subjectivity of the eye. The history of the Lick could be told through a series of technologically and visually impressive photographs. But as these documents and images tell us the story of this technology, we see that it's difficult to tell a straightforward narrative in which astronomical science progresses smoothly as the telescopic camera unequivocally replaces the eye as an improved method for seeing and representing the cosmos.

Accounts like Holden's do not account for a number of factors that impact the objectivity of these images: material conditions, aesthetic considerations, and a vast network of labor intervened in and affected the production of these images. This exhibit provides insight into these dimensions of astrophotographic work at the Lick.

It's important to note that many of the astronomers working at the Lick did not become scientists through education but rather through trade; they often did not have formal education in astronomy or optics. For instance, staff astronomer Edward Barnard, who created many of the Lick's most iconic images and wrote several books on astronomy, did not have a university education in astronomy; his background in photography led him to work in observatories. Like Barnard, many of the staff astronomers at the Lick and abroad were trying to master astronomical knowledge while also trying to keep up with and improve optic and photographic technologies. 

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