Walter S. Adams Papers

The collection chiefly consists of the administrative, scientific, and personal correspondence of Walter S. Adams spanning the years 1921 to 1956, including his work during World War II. Adams and the observatory staff worked, in secret, with the United States government and helped create prisms and optics for various types of binoculars and gun sights; the staff also assisted with aerial and naval defense and attack strategy. There is also material from Adams' retirement years. The collection also contains manuscripts and photographs (some of which are of the B-29 bomber), also dealing with Adams' astronomical work.

Note: In the contents list of this finding aid, handwritten correspondence is noted as "holograph" pieces.

Administrative material

Boxes 1-75 cover the active administrative period of 1921-1945 and consist of over 38,000 items. Folders contain incoming and outgoing correspondence. While nearly all files are arranged alphabetically by author, folders 762-766 in Box 45 contain twenty-five miscellaneous manuscripts by various authors. Note: there are several pieces of correspondence dated prior to 1921. Box 1 contains Adams's personal correspondence and was donated by his sons, Edmund M. Adams and John F. Adams.

Retirement period

Boxes 76-80 cover Adams's retirement period of 1946-1956 and consist of over 2,400 items including incoming and outgoing correspondence, a bibliography (1889-1945) and several manuscripts and reprints. This material was collected from the Hale Solar Observatory on Holladay Road in Pasadena, California, which had been built by Dr. George E. Hale for his personal use and where Dr. Adams continued his work after his retirement. This material was organized for archival preservation by Judith R. Goodstein, Archivist, California Institute of Technology. This organization has been maintained.

World War II correspondence

Boxes 81-87 contain the correspondence and material (more than 3,200 items) specifically relating to the classified work and research carried on by the staff of the Mount Wilson Observatory under government contracts during World War II (1940-1945). This work was performed under contracts with the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), the National Defense Research Committee of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD/NDRC) in cooperation with the Army Air Force, Army Ordnance, and Naval Research Laboratory. Astronomical research was curtailed to a very minimal basis and the shop facilities were delegated to and expanded for the production of critically needed optics--primarily the manufacture of roof and triple-mirror prisms. Critical research concerned the logistics of gunnery functions and bomber formations and pursuit curve characteristics. Classified materials were officially declassified by the authority of the General Services Administration, National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C.

Dr. Charlton Miner Lewis Files (World War II work)

Boxes 88-101 are an addendum containing supplementary files on the war work performed by the Observatory staff under the direct supervision of Charlton M. Lewis (formerly Research Associate, Biology Department, Stanford University) was recruited by Dr. Theodore Dunham, Jr. (Chief, Section 16.1, Optical Instruments, National Defense Research Committee) to directly oversee the projects to be performed under government war contracts at the Mount Wilson Observatory for the NDRC. This series covers the research and production performed by the staff of the Observatory during the period 1942-1945 and contains over 7,700 items that were maintained separately by Lewis.

Supplemental files

The four boxes (Boxes 102-105) that make up the "supplement" are made up of correspondence (arranged alphabetically by author) and manuscripts (arranged by topic). The sub-series includes the same authors that can be found in the larger Adams Collection boxes. The manuscripts (which include reports, speeches, articles, press releases, etc.) are written by several different people including Walter Adams, George Ellery Hale, Albert Michelson, F. E. Wright and many others. The majority of the manuscripts are related to astronomy and Mt. Wilson. There is one manuscript about Albert Einstein's visit to Mt. Wilson. There is also one folder of photographs and one folder of ephemera.

Special/Oversize Files

Three larger cases containing special and oversize materials, numbered in a separated series preceded by SP (Boxes SP1, SP2, SP3).