The Day We Found the Universe - Marcia Bartusiak [157]
151 Curtis was known to be a dynamic lecturer; Shapley feared he would look bad by comparison: The role of the Harvard appointment on Shapley's performance at the debate was first discussed by British historian Michael Hoskin. Historic accounts of the Great Debate previous to Hoskin were based solely on the printed publication of the debate. Hoskin was the first to unearth archival materials on both the session and its background. See Hoskin (1976a).
151 “I am sure that we could be just as good friends if we did go at each other ‘hammer and tongs’”: HUA, Curtis to Shapley, February 26, 1920.
151 “‘take the lid off’ and definitely attach each other's view-point”: Ibid.
151 “I have neither time nor data nor very good arguments”: HUA, Shapley to Russell, March 31, 1920.
152 “two talks on the same subject”: HP, Shapley to Hale, February 19, 1920.
152 “My sympathies are with the audience”: HUA, Shapley to Abbot, March 12, 1920.
152 “We could scarcely get warmed up in 35 minutes”: HP, Curtis to Hale, March 9, 1920.
152 compromised at forty minutes: HUA, Abbot to Shapley, March 18, 1920.
152 “If you or he wish to answer points made by the other”: HUA, Shapley Papers, Hale to Curtis, March 3, 1920.
152 For Curtis it was $2 for the stagecoach to San Jose, then another $100 for the round-trip railroad ticket: LOA, Curtis Papers, Curtis to Campbell, April 8, 1920.
152 When the train broke down … to collect a few native ants: AIP, interview of Harlow Shapley by Charles Weiner and Helen Wright on August 8, 1966.
152 “growth and development” … in weather forecasting: NAS, Program of Scientific Sessions, Annual Meeting, April 26, 27, 28, 1920.
153 “Dr. Harlow Shapley, of the Mount Wilson solar observatory”: “Scientists Gather for 1920 Conclave” (1920), p. 38.
153 two friends of Harvard president A. Lawrence Lowell … were in the audience to size him up: Bok (1978), p. 250.
153 “just got a new theory of Eternity”: Shapley (1969), p. 78.
153 conference dinner was the following night: NAS, Academy press release, “America's Academicians Meet in Washington,” April 19, 1920.
153 Shapley did save the typescript of his talk: Subsequent Shapley lecture quotes are taken from HUA, Shapley Papers, “Debate MS.”
154 “so much greater weight” … “be used as checks or as secondary standards”: Shapley (1918d), p. 43.
154 wondering whether he should change his approach on the fly: HUA, Curtis to Shapley, June 13, 1920.
154 some of his slides, displaying his essential points, do survive: All the major points are discussed in Hoskin (1976a), pp. 178–81.
155 eleven “miserable” Cepheids: HUA, Shapley to Russell, March 31, 1920.
155 Everyone in essence went home maintaining the beliefs they held: Fernie (1995), p. 412.
156 “came out considerably in front”: Hoskin (1976a), p. 174.
156 “gift of the gab”: Ibid. There's some evidence that Shapley got wind of this gossip about his poor speaking skills. Once at Harvard, he wrote his old boss George Hale that he was planning a series of lectures. “It turns out that I have some of the knacks of entertaining a general audience (as I rather suspected would be the case if I got a little experience)—not too much dignity, you know, some enthusiasm, and an increasing confidence.” HL, Walter Adams Papers, Shapley to Hale, October 3, 1921.
156 “He has … a some what peculiar and nervous personality” … “more balance more force and a broader mental range”: HUA, G. R. Agassiz to Lowell, April 28, 1920.
156 “Yes, I guess mine was too technical”: HUA, Curtis to Shapley, June 13, 1920.
156 At first Curtis wasn't keen on publishing his comments: HUA, Curtis to Shapley, June 13, 1920.
156 “generally observed in composing telegrams” … “shoot our arrows into the air”: HUA, Curtis to Shapley, August 2, 1920.
157 “ten pages of buncombe”: HUA, Shapley to Curtis, July 27, 1920.