Wolbach Library closed permanently on March 22, 2024. For library assistance, please email asklib@fas.harvard.edu.
Project PHaEDRA will continue under the Harvard Plate Stacks and Smithsonian Transcription Center.
The Wolbach's Special Collections include both archival materials and other specially curated content. Please see our Collections Access Policy for comprehensive information about accessing archival materials.
The Wolbach Library administers HCO's Astronomical Photographic Glass Plate Collection located at the Observatory Plate Stacks. The Plate Stacks store over 550,000 direct photo and spectral images, covering both the northern and southern hemispheres. The Glass Plates make up over a century of irreplaceable scientific observations and represent the first full image of the visible Universe.
PHaEDRA stands for "Preserving Harvard's Early Data and Research in Astronony." The PHaEDRA collection is composed of over 2,500 notebooks produced by Harvard's Women Computers and other astronomers from the early 19th and 20th century. These notebooks represent the evolution of observation methods and astronomy as a science.
The ink annotations in these glass plates demonstrate the many different types of scientific work and labor performed by women in the Plate Stacks from the late 19th through the early 20th century. They also represent the work of specific women astronomers who have now been recognized for their extensive contributions to our fundamental understanding of how the Universe works.
The Harvard College Observatory experimented in early photographic techniques used for studying the sky. Wolbach's dagguerreotypes include the earliest extant images of the moon among other gems. You can learn more about Harvard's Daguerreotype collections here.
The Harvard College Observatory participated in several eclipse expeditions in the 1800s and early 1900s. Many staff members used these opportunities to experiment with eclipse photography. The Glass Plate Collection is home to several sets of photographic glass plates featuring views of totality, Baily’s beads, and diamond ring effects. Many of these photographs were taken in Shelbyville, Kentucky (1869); Willows, California (1889); Japan (1887); Chile (1893); and Washington, Georgia (1900).
The AI Collection contains historical publications, papers, and objects created by observatories worldwide. Along with the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, Wolbach holds the most complete collection in the United States; many of these objects are unique. Publications and artifacts representing the history of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory are also held within the AI Collection.
Digitized film-captured data taken onboard the Skylab Space Station.
Collection curated by Wolbach Library staff and indexed by the ADS.
Publications scanned from high-resolution 35mm film and made available via a simple page-turning interface.
A digitized and searchable online collection of CfA Newsletters, also accessible through the CfA Intranet. SAO NEWS (1961-1973), CenterLine (1974-1981), CfA Almanac (1982-2000).
An on-going effort to digitize the majority of the Astronomical Photographic Glass Plate Collection's 550,000 glass plate negatives and to produce full photometry results for the entire sky.
a select world wide collection from the 19th century on, cataloged individually and shelved together.
These volumes are shelved alphabetically by author.
Digitized CfA Colloquia dating back through the 1990s.
