Jim, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, spends a good deal of time gazing at stars and planets through telescopes of all sizes and shapes. As director of UW’s Space Place, he shares the joy of astronomy with thousands of children, helping to fulfill the university’s public service mission, in keeping with the Wisconsin Idea. In addition, Jim’s academic specialty is the history of astronomy.

It seemed fitting, then, to capture Jim’s portrait at the Washburn Observatory–a historic landmark that serves as a popular venue for outreach education and community engagement. After photographing Jim at the telescope, I took the opportunity to learn more about the history of this place.

Cadwallader Colden Washburn, the facility’s namesake, was born in 1818 in Livermore, Maine (about 50 miles from my hometown of Fairfield). He left the Pine Tree State to pursue a career as a lawyer, land agent, U.S. representative, Civil War general, and Wisconsin governor. Although he never expressed a strong personal interest in astronomy, he worked behind the scenes to convince state legislators to allocate $3,000 annually for the study of astronomy at UW. The appropriation passed in 1876, but it was contingent upon the university acquiring a fully equipped observatory. In September 1877, the university announced that Washburn would donate such a facility, complete with a 15.6-inch refractor telescope.

This was big news. Wisconsin’s telescope would be the third largest refractor in the U.S., surpassed only by a 26-inch instrument at the Naval Observatory and an 18-inch scope at Northwestern University’s Dearborn Observatory. More important, it would be (nominally) larger than the 15-inch refractor at rival Harvard University.

Washburn had made his fortune in the flour-milling industry, founding the company known today as General Mills.

“On the day before he was to select a site for the new observatory, his flour mill in Minneapolis exploded, killing several workers. Nonetheless he kept his appointment with the [UW Board of] Regents before setting off for Minneapolis, perhaps thinking that it would be wiser to present a confident appearance to the business world in the face of this disaster than to delay the donation of the observatory. The observatory site was lovely–100 feet above Lake Mendota to the north, isolated from Madison to the east by the University campus, and surrounded by orchards and a vineyard.”

The orchards and vineyard are gone, but Washburn Observatory still sits atop the hill overlooking Lake Mendota. The telescope, cutting-edge technology in its day, might be a relic by today’s standards. But don’t tell that to all the visitors who eagerly join Jim on clear evenings to stand in the darkened dome and peer through Gov. Washburn’s big blue telescope.

Occasionally, one of those visitors will hold their state-of-the-art Galaxy smartphone to the eyepiece of that 19th century telescope to record an image of a celestial object. Jim gets a kick out of this…except when people forget to turn off the flash.

 

This is the latest installment in my “True Colors in Black and White” series, in which I strive to create distinctive portraits that showcase each subject’s unique personality, profession, or avocation.