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Martin Harwit papers

 Collection
Identifier: 14-7-2402

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Office files, reports, research files, and other materials relating to Harwit's work as a professor of astrophysics at Cornell University and his involvement with numerous organizations in his field. Correspondence files (1964-1987) include Cornell Department of Astronomy correspondence, articles, reports, research proposals, and other materials concerning astronomy, rocketry, astrophysics, telescopes, Hadamard transform spectrometry, infrared spectrometry, research projects, undergraduate and graduate education, and organizations with which Harwit was affiliated, including the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, the American Physical Society, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, and others. Also, reports, correspondence, proposals, and guidelines pertaining to committees, courses, finances, and activities of the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, and other offices with which it was associated, such as the National Science Foundation, the Society for the Humanities, and the Cornell Graduate School and Development Office; correspondence, handouts, and brochures of the Common Learning Program at Cornell; agendas, minutes, and correspondence relating to meetings of the Astrophysics Management Operations Working Group; and correspondence, minutes, reports, a budget, and printed materials concerning the Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee and an agreement between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. regarding outer space exploration. There is also a large quantity of grant proposals, regulations, reports, student notebooks from M.I.T., diaries, papers by Harwit's students, and printed materials dealing with Harwit's research proposals, including files on the National Science Foundation, NASA, Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Kuiper Airborne Observatory Users' Group, the Shuttle Infrared Telescope Facility, and the Kitt Peak National Observatory. In addition, there are photographs, technical drawings, and oversized blueprints of rockets, telescopes, and other scientific instruments. Includes files on the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Program, 1984-1986.

Also, folders dealing with individual research projects and other topics; files relating to early nuclear cosmology, to talks given at Cornell and elsewhere (with 35 mm slides and overhead transparencies), including talks on subjects including infrared astronomical observations (Jim Houck's 60th birthday), rocket flights, airborne observations and astronomy, Hadamard Transform Optics, "The Universe as Seen by ISO," Paris (1998), Japan (1999), Hayden Planetarium (1999), the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF 1998), laboratory astrophysics, "Time in an Inhomogeneous Universe (early 1990s), lunar observations, cosmic discovery, understanding, the military and astronomy; correspondence; and files relating to a multi-disciplinary course, The Course of Science," taught at Cornell in 1985, which led to his book, "In Search of the True University - The Tools, Shaping and Cost of Cosmological Thought," 2014.

Dates

  • 1957-1987.

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Astrophysicist. Martin Harwit served as professor of astronomy at Cornell University and as co-director of the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Program. In 1987 he was appointed director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. He received a Ph.D. in physics in 1960 from M.I.T. and taught at Cornell since 1962. Harwit's research interests have included observational astronomy, theoretical astrophysics, infrared astronomy, galaxy formation, and the history of astronomy and astrophysics. In the 1960s, he established research groups at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and at Cornell that built the first rocket-borne telescopes cooled to liquid helium temperatures. In the mid 1970s, he began studying the history of astronomy and space science as it relates to public policy issues.

Extent

25 cubic feet. (25 cubic feet.)

Abstract

Office files, reports, research files, and other materials relating to Harwit's work as a professor of astrophysics at Cornell University and his involvement with numerous organizations in his field.

SERIES LIST

I. Correspondence Boxes 1-8, 24

This series, which is typical of Harwit's earlier office files listed below, consists of an alphabetical subject file followed by miscellaneous files relating to his work for various committees or organizations. Like the other chronological sub-series it includes correspondence, articles, reports, research proposals, and other materials.

Records in Series I concern astronomy; advisory committees on which Harwit served; his organization of workshops and symposia; travel; student advising; and a variety of organizations, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research (CRSR), the American Physical Society, and many others.

A. 1986-1987; Advisory Committees, 1963-1987

B. 1981-1985 Files of this period include research materials on planetary spectroscopy, especially the Hadamard Transform Spectrometer; the construction of a liquid helium-cooled baloon-borne telescope with William F. Hoffmann; NASA; CRSR; and annual reports of the Cornell Department of Astronomy.

C. 1977-1981 Included are records pertaining to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy; annual reports and other items from the Department of Astronomy; and a number of folders dealing with education, particularly in the Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences.

D. 1972-1977 Primarily alphabetical office files.

E. 1969-1972 Included are files on graduate and undergraduate education, including admissions, enrollment, and other academic affairs at Cornell; materials regarding CRSR; and grant information and regulations.

F. 1964-1968 Alphabetical files.

G. 1995-2002 Correspondence by year.

II. Program in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Boxes 8-9

Primarily correspondence, reports, proposals, and guidelines pertaining to the HPST Advisory Committee, Search Committee, courses, colloquia, finance, student fellowships, library collections, and offices with which the program worked closely, including the Graduate School, the Development Office, the National Science Foundation, and the Society for the Humanities.

III. Common Learning Program Box 9

Correspondence, handouts, and brochures concerning meetings, workshops, and other activites of Cornell's Common Learning Program, which offers undergraduate courses concentrating on social and ethical issues in contemporary society.

IV. Astrophysics Management Operations Working Group Boxes 9-10

Agendas, minutes, and correspondence relating to meetings of the AMOWG Council, which serves in an advisory capacity to NASA.

V. Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee Boxes 10-11

Correspondence, minutes, reports, a budget, and printed materials; subjects include SESAC meetings, NASA, an agreement between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. concerning outer space exploration, "Collected Letters and Testimony: Task Force on Scientific Uses of Space Station," and other topics.

VI. Research Projects Boxes 11-21, 23-24

Grant proposals, regulations, reports, articles, patents, notebooks, diaries, calendars, and other materials concerning Harwit's research projects on the following topics: time delay studies, Solar Polar Mission, Lear jet aircraft, infrared astronomy, micron spectroscopy, the Hadamard Transform Spectrometer, submillimeter astronomical spectrometry, gravitational studies, telescopes, rockets, cryogenics, and related topics. Organizations represented in this series include the National Science Foundation, NASA, Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Kuiper Airborne Observatory Users' Group, Shuttle Infrared Telescope Facility, and the Kitt Peak National Observatory.

VII. Photographs, Drawings, and Blueprints Box 21 and mapcases

Included are photographs, technical drawings, and oversized blueprints of rockets, telescopes, and other scientific instruments.

VIII. Publications Box 21

IX. Unpublished Research Box 22

X. The Course of Science Box 25

Physical Description

Correspondence, photographs, pamphlets, notes, clippings, drawings, and manuscripts.

General

Contact Information:
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 2B Carl A. Kroch Library Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3530 Fax: (607) 255-9524 rareref@cornell.edu http://rmc.library.cornell.edu
Compiled by:
A. Lipsky
Date completed:
October 1988
EAD encoding:
Peter Martinez, March 2002Julia McDowell, July 2014Evan Earle, August 2014
Date modified:
Marcie Farwell, July 2018

ABBREVIATIONS USED

AAS
American Astronomical Society
AFCRL
Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories
AIAA
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
AMOWG
Astrophysics Management Operations Working Group
APS
American Physical Society
AURA
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
CIRAS
Cryogenic Infrared Astronomy Satellite
COBE
Cosmic Background Explorer
COSPAR
Committee on Space Research
CRSR
Center for Radiophysics and Space Research
CSA
Committee on Space Astronomy
CSUAC
Cornell-Sydney University Astronomy Center
HPST
History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
IAWG
Infrared Astronomy Working Group
IRAS
Infrared Astronomical Satellite
KAO
Kuiper Airborne Observatory
KPNO
Kitt Peak National Observatory
LDR
Large Deployable Reflector
NASA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NSF
National Science Foundation
SAS
Small Astronomy Satellite
SESAC
Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee
SIRTF
Shuttle Infrared Telescope Facility
Status
Completed
Author
Compiled by A. Lipsky
Date
October 1988
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
ENG

Repository Details

Part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Repository

Contact:
2B Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
607-255-3530
607-255-9524 (Fax)