Van de Kamp, Peter, 1901-1995
Oral history interview with Peter Van de Kamp, 1977 April 9 and 1979 March 18.
Family background and early schooling in Holland; interest in science and influence of Camille Flammarion's writings; university training at Utrecht; contact with Willem Henri Julius and brief interlude on Albert Einstein; astronomy at Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht and practical work with Jan van der Bilt; move to Rijksuniversiteit te Grǹ²ingen and work with Pieter J. van Rhijn; contact with Ejnar Hertzsprung; move to Virginia and association with Samuel A. Mitchell and Harold L. Alden; decision to remain in America; contact with Alexander Vyssotsky; Ph.D. exam at Lick Observatory; life at Lick; organization of science in the Netherlands, Jacobus C. Kapteyn's legacy; research on interstellar absorption, circa 1930, and contact with Robert Trumpler; peer review in professional journals; collaboration with Vyssotsky and work on galactic structure and interstellar medium; double star work, 1934, origin of interest in Edward Barnard's star; religion and philosophy. Dutch-American relationships in astronomy; contacts with Albert Einstein; Sproul Observatory prior to and during WW II; Alsos Mission; future of positional astronomy; years as National Science Foundation (NSF) Program Director; NSF Astrometric Conference, 1956; Associated Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA); general recollections. Also prominently mentioned are: Walter Sydney Adams, Robert Grant Aitken, Joe Ashbrook, Bart Jan Bok, William W. Campbell, Roy Welty Delaplaine, Frank Kelley Edmondson, G. Gatewood, Al Hirschfeld, Louise F. Jenkins, Michael S. Kovalenko, Sarah Lee Lippincott, Willem Luyten, W. J. H. Moll, Jerry O'Neill, Jan Hendrik Oort, Henry Norris Russell, Jan Schildt, Raymond Seeger, Harlow Shapley, Willem de Sitter, Robert Gordon Sproul, Gustav Stromberg, Robert Julius Trumpler, Olga van de Kamp, Jan van der Bilt, Adriaan van Maanen, Pieter J. van Rhijn, Emma Williams; Allegheny Observatory, Astronomical Journal, Bulletin of Astronomical Institutes of Netherlands, and University of Virginia McCormick Observatory.
Peter Van de Kamp, 1901-1995.
Adams, Walter S. (Walter Sydney), 1876-1956.
Aitken, Robert Grant, 1864-1951.
Alden, H. L.
Ashbrook, Joseph
Barnard, Edward Emerson, 1857-1923
Bok, Bart J. (Bart Jan), 1906-1983
Campbell, William Wallace, 1862-1938.
Delaplaine, Roy Welty.
Edmondson, Frank K. (Frank Kelley), 1912-
Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955
Flammarion, Camille, 1842-1925.
Gatewood, G.
Hirschfeld, Al
Jenkins, Louise F.
Julius, W. H.
Hertzsprung, Ejnar, 1873-1967.
Kapteyn, J. C. (Jacobus Cornelius), 1851-1922.
Kovalenko, Michael S.
Lippincott, Sarah Lee
Luyten, Willem Jacob, 1899-1994
Mitchell, Samuel Alfred
Moll, W. J. H.
O'Neill, Jerry
Oort, Jan Hendrik.
Rhijn, P. J. van (Pieter Johannes), 1886-
Russell, Henry Norris, 1877-1957
Schildt, Jan
Seeger, Raymond John, 1906-
Shapley, Harlow, 1885-1972.
Sitter, Willem de
Sproul, Robert Gordon, 1891-1975.
Stromberg, Gustav
Trumpler, Robert J. (Robert Julius), 1886-1956
Van de Kamp, Olga
Van de Kamp, Peter, 1901-1995
van der Bilt, Jan
Van Maanen, Adrian
Vyssotsky, A. N.
Williams, Emma
Allegheny Observatory.
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
Lick Observatory.
Rijksuniversiteit te Groningen
Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht.
National Science Foundation (U.S.)
Sproul Observatory
United States. War Dept. Alsos Mission.
University of Virginia. Leander McCormick Observatory.
Astronomical Journal.
Bulletin of Astronomical Institutes of Netherlands.
Astronomical observatories.
Astronomy.
Astronomy -- Netherlands.
Astrophysics
Astrophysics -- History
Double stars.
Galaxies.
Interstellar matter.
Science -- Netherlands.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Science.
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