Sky & Telescope - April 2025 - 29

STEPHEN WHITE: AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY / PUBLIC DOMAIN; MARIA
MITCHELL: NANTUCKET MARIA MITCHELL ASSOCIATION; SARAH WHITING:
WELLESLEY COLLEGE ARCHIVES/ PUBLIC DOMAIN
cal Department of the Brooklyn Institute of
Arts and Sciences, which eventually morphed
into today's Brooklyn Museum.
After finding the overstuffed scrapbook,
I wondered whether a second scrapbook
documenting the Brooklyn group's later history
might exist somewhere, because the first
volume seemed to end simply because it ran
out of pages.
In early 1979, Massachusetts-based
astronomy antiquarian bookseller Paul W.
Luther called me privately, saying: " I think
I've found the second scrapbook " from an
estate sale. It covered the first six decades
of the Brooklyn Institute's Astronomical
Department from June 1888 through 1948, overlapping
two years in the first scrapbook. It also included eight loose
inserts, the most significant of which was the unpublished,
10-page, single-spaced typed personal recollection of the
Brooklyn group from its earliest days in 1883 to 1940 by
founding member Breading G. Way. After several years of private
discussion and a personal visit, in July 1982 I purchased
the second scrapbook from Luther for $200.
The two unpublished scrapbooks - plus a wealth of
additional primary documents more recently made available
online - reveal that as the Brooklyn Institute's Astronomical
Department, the fledgling society grew rapidly and became
highly successful, lasting well into the 20th century. It also
left at least some early fingerprints on today's AAS.
Crucial Pre-1883 Context
From the 1840s through the 1890s, public interest in
astronomy across the U.S. had reached an all-time high.
Much of the nation then was forest, farmland, or dotted with
MAN OF INFLUENCE Although born in North
Carolina, White migrated with his family to the
Midwest and eventually practiced law in Iowa. He
moved to New York in 1865 and gained success on
Wall Street before serving a term in Congress representing
Brooklyn.
small villages, and the rural night sky was
dark - the heavens were thick with stars so
numerous that the constellations themselves
were lost. Outside of major cities, streetlights
didn't flood the sky nor did smog dim
the glory of celestial wonders, and observers
regularly saw down to 6th magnitude.
The 19th century also was astronomically
spectacular, with several dramatic meteor
showers, two total solar eclipses whose paths of totality
crossed the U.S. (1869 and 1878), two transits of Venus (1874
and 1882), and more than a dozen comets so brilliant they
could easily be seen just by eye - including two in 1882. Stories
of astronomical expeditions and discoveries were popular
topics in newspapers, magazines, books, and public lectures.
And reporting on it all was The Sidereal Messenger, begun
March 1882 and published 10 times per year at Carleton
College Observatory. Although directed toward teachers and
amateurs, at that time it was the only U.S. periodical dedicated
exclusively to astronomy.
By 1882, the public imagination thrilled to accounts of the
ongoing construction of what would be the largest refracting
telescope in the world: the 36-inch at Lick Observatory
atop Mount Hamilton, California. This great refractor was
the handiwork of the internationally renowned American
telescope opticians Alvan Clark & Sons and mechanical
No Men's Club
From its beginning in 1883, the Brooklyn AAS encouraged the participation
of women. Several of the group's early male members were principals or
professors of mathematics and physics at female academies and colleges,
or at co-ed institutions. Others staunchly advocated university education and
professional careers for women.
By 1885, two of the AAS's early corresponding members were renowned
Vassar College professor and observatory director Maria Mitchell and astronomy
professor Sarah F. Whiting at Wellesley College. In 1896-1900, Whiting helped secure
White's 12-inch Fitz/Clark refractor for Wellesley's Whitin Observatory, where
it continues operation today.
At the Brooklyn Institute, by 1892 women accounted for nearly a third of the AsTwo
of the Brooklyn AAS's early corresponding
members were Maria Mitchell
of Vassar College (left) and Sarah Whiting
of Wellesley College.
tronomical Department membership and began appearing as occasional speakers two years later. By the early 20th century,
these had included Antonia C. Maury (who worked with Pickering at Harvard on a catalog of stellar spectra), Mary
Proctor (popular speaker and writer on astronomy; daughter of British astronomy popularizer Richard Proctor), and Mary
W. Whitney (student and successor to Maria Mitchell as Vassar College professor of astronomy). In the early 20th century,
women also began to serve on the Astronomical Department's executive committee and to be elected as officers.
sk yand tele scope .o r g * APRIL 2025 29

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