Bok, Bart J. (Bart Jan), 1906-1983
Oral history interview with Bart Jan Bok, 1978 May 15, 17, 19 and 1978 June 14.
Interview discusses, not in chronological order: early home life and schooling; undergraduate at Leiden, influence of Paul Ehrenfest, Jan H. Oort, Jacobus C. Kapteyn, Gerard Kuiper, Antonie Pannekoek, Ejnar Hertzsprung. Recollections of work of Georg Uhlenbeck and Samuel Goudsmit. Assistant to Peter van Rhijn at Groningen ca. 1928, work on various stellar and galactic topics. Move to Harvard, 1929, and atmosphere there under Harlow Shapley. Marriage to Priscilla Fairfield Bok; her contacts with William W. Campbell. Search for and interpretation of spiral auras of our galaxy; studies of stellar density distribution. Activities during World War II. Harvard astronomy group's difficult postwar transition; McCarthyism. Work on nebulae and globules. Comments on astronomy at Mt. Wilson, Tonantziutla, and South Africa. Origins of Harvard radio astronomy and National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and their funding. Move to Australia, 1956, and conditions there. Move to Steward Observatory of University of Arizona, 1964, and conditions there. Location of national observatory at Kitt Peak; management of Kitt Peak. Discussions of astronomy, education, popularization, employment, and organization. Also prominently mentioned are: Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade, McGeorge Bundy, Edwin F. Carpenter, Tom Cherry, James Bryant Conant, Arthur Stanley Eddington, Sergei Gaposchkin, Jesse Leonard Greenstein, Haro, David Heeschen, Ejnar Hertzsprung, James Jeans, Ivan Robert King, Bertil Lindblad, Antonia Maury, Nicholas Ulrich Mayall, Joseph McCarthy, Sidney McCuskey, Aden Meinel, Donald Howard Menzel, Robert Menzies, James E. Miller, Edward Arthur Milne, William Wilson Morgan, Edward Charles Pickering, Harry Hemley Plaskett, Nathan Pusey, Martin Schwarzschild, Willem de Sitter, Otto Struve; American Astronomical Society, Associated Universities for Research in Astronomy, Associated Universities, Inc., Boyden Observatory, Case Institute of Technology, Harvard College Observatory, Harvard Series on Astronomy, Indiana University, Mount Stromlo Observatory, National Science Foundation (U.S.), Ohio State University, Princeton University, Rijksuniversiteit te Groningen, Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden, University of Arizona, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, and University of Texas.
(1906-1983), Astronomer, educator and administrator. Ph.D., University of Groningen (1932). Harvard University, R.W. Willson Fellow in Astronomy (1927-1929), Professor of Astronomy (1933-1957), Associate Director of the Harvard Observatory (1946-1952); Director, Mount Stromlo Observatory, Professor of Astronomy, Australian National University (1957-1966); University of Arizona, Head of the Department of Astronomy, professor and professor emeritus (1966-1983). Research in galactic structure and dynamics, stellar and interstellar matter.
Baade, Walter, 1893-1960.
Bok, Bart J. (Bart Jan), 1906-1983
Bok, Priscilla Fairfield
Bundy, McGeorge.
Campbell, William Wallace, 1862-1938.
Carpenter, Edwin F.
Cherry, Tom
Conant, James Bryant, 1893-1978.
Eddington, Arthur Stanley, Sir, 1882-1944.
Ehrenfest, Paul, 1880-1933.
Gaposchkin, Sergei, 1898-
Goudsmit, Samuel A. (Samuel Abraham), 1902-1978
Greenstein, Jesse L. (Jesse Leonard), 1909-2002-
Heeschen, David S.
Hertzsprung, Ejnar, 1873-1967
Jeans, James Hopwood, Sir, 1877-1946.
Kapteyn, J. C. (Jacobus Cornelius), 1851-1922.
King, Ivan R.
Kuiper, Gerard P. (Gerard Peter), 1905-1973
Lindblad, Bertil
Maury, Antonia Caetana De Paiva Pereira, 1866-1952
Mayall, N. U. (Nicholas Ulrich), 1906-1993-
McCarthy, Joseph, 1908-1957.
McCuskey, Sidney Wilcox
Meinel, Aden B.
Menzel, Donald H. (Donald Howard), 1901-1976
Menzies, Robert
Miller, James E.
Milne, Edward Arthur, 1896-1950.
Morgan, W. W. (William Wilson), 1906-1994
Oort, Jan Hendrik.
Pannekoek, Anton, 1873-1960
Pickering, Edward C. (Edward Charles), 1846-1919.
Plaskett, Harry Hemley, 1893-
Putnam, Michael Lowell
Rhijn, P. J. van (Pieter Johannes), 1886-
Schwarzschild, Martin.
Shapley, Harlow, 1885-1972.
Sitter, Willem de
Struve, Otto, 1897-1963.
Uhlenbeck, George Eugn̈e, 1900-1988-
American Astronomical Society.
Associated Universities, Inc.
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy.
Boyden Observatory.
Case Institute of Technology.
Harvard College Observatory
Harvard University.
Indiana University.
Kitt Peak National Observatory.
Mount Stromlo Observatory.
Palomar Observatory.
National Radio Astronomy Observatory (U.S.)
National Science Foundation (U.S.)
Observatorio Tonantzintla
Ohio State University.
Princeton University.
Rijksuniversiteit te Groningen
Steward Observatory.
University of Arizona.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
University of Michigan.
University of Texas at Austin.
Astronomical observatories -- Administration.
Astronomy -- Study and teaching.
Cosmology.
Galaxies.
McCarthyism.
Nebulae.
Radio astronomy.
Science -- Popularization.
Stars.
World War, 1939-1945.
Oral histories. aat
Interviews. aat
Sound recordings lcgft
Transcripts. aat
DeVorkin, David H., 1944- interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA