Lick Observatory: aerial view from the east. Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz

Lick Observatory, located on Mount Hamilton in Santa Clara County, California, was completed in 1888 and remains an active research facility to this day. It is home to the Great Refractor, the largest refracting telescope in the world at the time of its completion in 1888. Known as the first residential mountaintop observatory, it continues to host students and astronomers from eight UC astronomy campuses and two national laboratories, as well as visitors from all over the world. Lick Observatory is part of the University of California Observatories system, administratively based at the UC Santa Cruz campus. 

Lick Observatory Records

UCSC Special Collections & Archives is the home of the Lick Observatory Records, as well as the papers of several astronomers associated with the Observatory. These collections form the Archives of Lick Observatory, which include records from about 1870 to the mid-twentieth century. The Lick Archives describe the founding, construction, and operation of the observatory, and document the early astronomical ambitions and achievements of its founders. View the collection guides for the following series of the Lick Observatory Records:

• Series 1: Correspondence
• Series 2: Business records
• Series 3: Directors' files
• Series 4: Expeditions
• Series 5: Research and publication files
• Series 6: Glass negatives
• Series 7: Photographs
• Series 8: Lick history

The Archives' extensive collection of historical photographs includes portraits of astronomers, telescope and lens makers and other prominent scientists, scenes of life at the observatory on Mount Hamilton, instruments, and documentation of expeditions. See many of these photographs in the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive.

Image: 36-inch refractor, the "Great Lick Refractor", undated. Lick Observatory Records: Photographs. UA 36: Series 7, Box 27. University Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Lick Observatory Astronomer Collections

Our collections include the papers of many Lick astronomers as part of the Archives of Lick Observatory, including:

• C.D. Shane and Mary Lea Shane, Lick Observatory director from 1945-1958, and key figure in development of the Lick Observatory Archives, respectively
• Julie Vinter Hansen (MS 267), a Danish female astronomer who earned a Martin Kellogg fellowship to work at Lick Observatory studying double stars during World War II
• Hamilton Moore Jeffers, known for his work in positional astronomy, his use of the Meridian Circle, and his contributions to the observatory’s Index Catalogue of Visual Double Stars
• James E. Keeler, the first to observe the gap in Saturn's rings with the Great Refractor in early 1888, and the observatory's director from 1898 until his death in 1900
• Russell Tracy Crawford, one of the first Lick fellowship awardees in 1897, and known for his work in theoretical astronomy and his observations and computations of comet orbits
• Donald Osterbrock, Lick Observatory director, historian of science, and astronomer known for his study of the birth of stars and gaseous nebulae
• William H. Wright, Lick Observatory director known for his work on radial velocity of stars in our galaxy
• Richard Hawley Tucker, who oversaw the study of precise star positions using the Meridian Circle at Lick Observatory, and led observation expeditions in Argentina
• Gerald E. Kron, known for advancing the study of stellar populations and interstellar reddening through measuring the photometry of variable stars, stars of extreme luminosity, and star clusters
• Stanislaus Vasilevskis, who supervised Lick Observatory's proper-motion study, which involved taking multiple series of thousands of photographs of the northern sky and measuring the movements of more than 300,000 stars in the Milky Way galaxy
• Nicholas U. Mayall, who while at Lick worked on a 20-year project with astronomers at Mount Wilson and Mount Palomar on the big-bang concept of the beginning of the universe, and also studied Pluto and galaxy movement
• Sandra Faber, Astronomer and Professor Emerita of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz

Also available in our holdings are the papers of Elizabeth Ballard Campbell and family. Elizabeth was the wife of Lick Observatory director William Wallace Campbell, and accompanied him and other Lick astronomers on several of their expeditions to study solar eclipses around the world. Included in this collection are her diary entries recounting the trips, as well as photographs of the expeditions to India (1898), Spain (1905), Flint Island (1908), Russia (1914), Washington (1918), and Australia (1922).

Image (top): Ensenada Eclipse Expedition, September 1923: observers at eclipse camp, led by W. H. Wright. Seated, left to right: Ambrose Swasey, Mrs. Elizabeth Campbell, W.W. Campbell, Mrs. Edna Leib Wright, W.H. Wright, Joseph H. Moore. Standing: Joseph Pearce, Hamilton Jeffers, Z.A. Merfield, Robert Trumpler, Grace Leib (later Grace Hubble), Willem Luyten, William F. Meyer, Allen H. Babcock, E. Percival Lewis.  Lick Observatory Records: Glass negatives. UA 36: Series 6. University Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Image (bottom): Page from Elizabeth Ballard Campbell's photograph scrapbook of Russian eclipse expedition, circa 1914. Elizabeth Ballard Campbell family papers. MS 268. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

History of Lick Observatory

Several publications made by and about Lick Observatory are cataloged separately in our holdings in Special Collections & Archives, and may be found by searching our Library holdings. Notable titles include:

• A brief account of the Lick Observatory of the University of California. (1893-1931) A series of pamphlets published by the observatory giving information on the history of the observatory, staff members, telescopes and other instruments, and notable research projects, as well as some photographs.
• Hand-book of the Lick Observatory of the University of California. (1888) A handbook compiled by Edward S. Holden, first director of Lick Observatory. Contains a history of the construction of the observatory, descriptions of telescopes and other instruments, and visitor information.
• Publications of the Lick Observatory. (1887-1975)
• Lick Observatory bulletins. (1901-1988) These bulletins were regularly published and distributed to publicize recent research findings and programs on Mount Hamilton by Lick staff astronomers.
• Astronomical photographs taken at the Lick observatory, by J.H. Moore, N.U. Mayall and J.F. Chappell. (1941) A portfolio of oversized photographs of stars, nebulae, and other celestial objects.
• Eye on the sky: Lick Observatory's first century, by Donald E. Osterbrock, John R. Gustafson, and W.J. Shiloh Unruh. (1988) A history of the first 100 years of Lick Observatory, written by astronomer, historian, and former Lick director Donald Osterbrock.

For more information on the history of Lick Observatory, consult the Lick History series of the Lick Observatory Records collection.

Lick Observatory Library Holdings

The Lick Observatory Archives hold a selection of materials from the original library at Lick Observatory (pictured at right), including many early printed works on the history of astronomy. Notable titles include: