Archives

Carnegie Institution for Science’s archives are open to researchers by advance appointment only. Contact an archivist to schedule a research appointment. All researchers must complete a Registration Form and agree to abide by Carnegie’s Researcher Rules and Protocols throughout their research visit.

The Huntington Library

In the 1980s, Carnegie deposited a large quantity of rare books, manuscripts, and photographs related to the history of Mt. Wilson Observatory at the Huntington Library. These materials include the papers of Edwin Hubble and other Carnegie Observatories researchers and a collection of over 3,300 photographs taken between 1903, when Mt. Wilson Observatory was founded, and the 1970s. Detailed information about these materials can be found starting on page 34 of the Huntington Collections in the History of Science guide and digitized materials can be accessed through the Huntington’s Digital Library.

National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM)

The Carnegie Embryo Collection and related Carnegie Collection of Embryology are housed at the Human Development Anatomy Center at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

Chesney Medical Archives at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes

Records created by the Department of Embryology and its staff held at the Chesney Archives include the Records of the Department of Embryology (1888-1976), the Franklin Mall Collection, and the George L. Streeter Collection.

American Philosophical Society

The American Philosophical Society Library in Philadelphia holds the professional papers of prominent Carnegie biologists including Barbara McClintock, Albert Francis Blakeslee, George Harrison Shull, and George Washington Corner.

The library also holds collections related to the Institution’s involvement in eugenics research including the Eugenics Record Office Records and the Charles Benedict Davenport Papers.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives hold the papers of celebrated Carnegie geneticists Barbara McClintock and Alfred Hershey as well as the Carnegie Institution of Washington at Cold Spring Harbor Administrative Records.

Collections documenting eugenics research, including the Charles B. Davenport Collection and the Eugenics Record Office Collection, are also held at the CSHL Archives.

University of Arizona Libraries, Special Collections

The Desert Botanical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution records are held at the University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections. The Libraries also hold a collection of Forrest Shreve photographs, which document Shreve’s work and the Desert Laboratory.

Arizona Historical Society

The Arizona Historical Society houses the Daniel Trembly MacDougal Papers, which document research by Daniel T. MacDougal and others at Carnegie’s Desert Botanical Laboratory.

Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard University

Materials documenting Carnegie Institution’s archaeological research in Meso-America can be found at the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. These materials include photographs, field notebooks, maps and plans, drawings and paintings, correspondence, reports, and manuscripts documenting the work of S. G. Morley, Karl Ruppert, A. V. Kidder, T. Proskouriakoff, and others at sites such as Chichen Itza and Kaminaljuyu. For more information, see the finding aid for the Records of the Archaeology Division of CIW, 1919-1958.

Library of Congress

The Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress holds the correspondence, writings, and research files of numerous Carnegie scientists and administrators, among them Philip Abelson, Vannevar Bush, John C. Merriam, Elihu Root, Vera Rubin, Maxine Singer, Merle Tuve, and Nina Fedoroff.

Caltech Archives

Seismologist Harry O. Wood and astronomer George Ellery Hale are among the scientists associated with Carnegie whose papers are preserved in the Caltech Archives in Pasadena.

Good Seeing: A Century of Science at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1902- 2002.  James Trefil and Margaret Hindle Hazen.  Washington, D.C. : Joseph Henry Press, 2002.

Excerpt 1: Astronomy

Excerpt 2: Archeology

Centennial History of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.  5 volumes.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004-2005. 

v. 1. The Mount Wilson Observatory / Allan Sandage

v. 2. The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism / by Louis Brown

v. 3. The Geophysical Laboratory / by Hatten S. Yoder, Jr.

v. 4. The Department of Plant Biology / by Patricia Craig

v. 5. The Department of Embryology / edited by Jane Maienschein, Marie Glitz and Garland E. A