Harvard University Staff

"Hawtrey, I think one can see, came to favor the other way out. It is the fixed rate of exchange which imposes the international constraint; if that is abandoned, the Bank can recover its authority. A system in which the rate of exchange is free to move, while internal stability is maintained by a relentless application of the Bank Rate mechanism, is theoretically conceivable, and as a model is instructive. But it would seem to depend for its working upon the maintenance of confidence in some normal rate of exchange, from which the current rate would be supposed to diverge only more or less temporarily; and it is not easy to see how such confidence could be engendered."

"Once the gold standard was suspended, there could be no doubt of the purpose of that step. In face of the exchange risk the high rate could not possibly attract foreign money. It could only be intended as a safeguard against inflation. Fantastic fears of inflation were expressed. That was to cry, Fire, Fire, in Noah's Flood. It is after depression and unemployment have subsided that inflation becomes dangerous."

"I regard Mr. Hawtrey as my grandparent and Mr. Robertson as my parent in the paths of errancy, and I have been greatly influenced by them."

"We were at an age when our beliefs influenced our behaviour, a characteristic of the young which it is easy for the middle-aged to forget, and the habits of feeling formed then still persist in a recognisable degree. It is those habits of feeling, influencing the majority of us, which make this Club a collectivity and separate us from the rest. They overlaid, somehow, our otherwise extremely diiferent characters-—Moore himself was a puritan and precisian, Strachey (for that was his name at that time) a Voltaircan, Woolf a rabbi, myself a nonconformist, Sheppard a conformist and (as it now turns out) an ecclesiastic, Clive a gay and amiable dog, Sydney-Turner a quietist, Hawtrey a dogmatist and so on."

"If thoughtful individuals, well read in contemporary economic theory in the 1920s, had been asked at that time which economist was most likely to revolutionise twentieth-century monetary economics (and indeed had already started doing so), it is likely that, without hesitation, they would have given the name Ralph Hawtrey, rather than that of his rival, which we would now give, John Maynard Keynes."

"Mehrling: So you didn’t read at that time the classic banking texts, for example, Bagehot’s Lombard Street? Volcker: Well I read some of Bagehot, and I read a lot of Hawtrey. I remember I read a lot of Hawtrey. Mehrling: Currency and Credit? The Art of Central Banking? Volcker: I don’t remember the names of the books, just being in London. In those days I used to read The Economist and the Financial Times, so I kept up with what was going on in the money markets."

"When credit is expanding, the rising price level and high profits bring about a high rate of interest. When the expansion has reached, the limit permitted by the stock of gold, the rate of interest is put still higher in order to bring about a fall in the price level. When the fall in prices takes effect, a low rate of interest becomes appropriate, and when credit contraction has proceeded so far that a redundant supply of gold has accumulated, the rate of interest is depressed still lower in order to bring about a renewed rise in the price level. Thus a high rate of interest corresponds first with rising, then with falling, prices, and so synchronizes with high prices. A low rate of interest corresponds first with falling, and then with rising, prices, and so synchronizes with low prices."

"It is hoped that systematic study of the light changes of all the variables, nearly two thousand in number, in the two Magellanic Clouds may soon be undertaken at this Observatory."

"Since the Cepheid] variables are probably at nearly the same distance from the Earth, their periods are apparently associated with their actual emission of light, as determined by their mass, density, and surface brightness."

"A remarkable relation between the brightness of these Cepheid] variables and the length of their periods will be noticed. In H.A. 60, No.4, attention was called to the fact that the brighter variables have the longer periods, but at that time it was felt that the number was too small the drawing of general conclusions. The periods of 8 additional variables which have been determined since that time, however, conform to the same law. The relation is shown graphically in Figure 1... The two resulting curves, one for the maxima and one for the minima, are surprisingly smooth, and of remarkable form. In Figure 2, the abscissas are equal to the logarithms of the periods, and the ordinates to the corresponding magnitudes, as in Figure 1. A straight line can readily be drawn among each of the two series of points corresponding to the maxima and minima, thus showing that there is a simple relation between the brightness of the variables and their periods. The logarithm of the period increases by about 0.48 for each increase of one magnitude in brightness."

"The range of H 1255 is only four tenths of a magnitude, and on account of its brightness it is difficult to observe on all plates except those taken with the 1-inch Cooke lens. It seemed necessary, therefore, to take unusual precautions in order to secure accurate observations, and to give each one its full weight. Accordingly, one hundred and thirty six photographs were selected, including nearly all of those taken with the Cooke lens, and also those taken with the 8 inch Bache Telescope on which the variable was certainly faint. Four independent estimates of brightness were made on each plate, and means were taken, thus reducing the probable error one half. The phase was computed for each observation, thus covering all parts of the light curve. ...H 1255 and H 1303 differ from the other variables in a marked degree as in each case the duration of the phase of minimum is very long in proportion to the length of the period. This fact led to considerable difficulty in determining their periods as they were apparently at their minimum brightness for some time before and after the actual minima occurred. In H 1255, the change in brightness is obviously continuous throughout the period, although it is much more rapid near minimum than near maximum. This is clearly seen in Plate IV, Figs. 5 and 6."

"Apparently no sharp dividing line can be drawn between true Algol stars and those whose variations are continuous. Periods of nine variables in this region, which are of the Algol type or closely resemble it, have been determined and are here discussed."

"The discovery of variable stars, at this Observatory and elsewhere, has progressed so rapidly during the last five years, that the difficulty of keeping pace in observing and discussing them has become very great. In the study of distribution now in progress here, the actual time devoted to the search for new variables is small, but thorough observation requires much time, while the discussion of results may be prolonged almost indefinitely. When new lists of variables are published, therefore, it should be remembered that their discovery does not interfere materially with the study of individual objects. The number of these is so large that the publication of full results for all must be greatly delayed."

"It is worthy of notice that in Table VI the brighter variables have the longer periods. It is also noticeable that those having the longest periods appear to be as regular in their variations as those which pass through their changes in a day or two."

"She and others realized that one needed only to calculate the distance to these [Magellanic] Cepheids, which almost certainly were roughly the same distance to the earth, to have a useful yardstick for measuring other distances."

"The photographic plates from Peru that Leavitt was studying in Harvard covered two clouds of stars, known as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds... During the course of her painstaking work, Leavitt noticed that the Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) showed an overall pattern of behaviour in which the brighter Cepheids... went through their cycle more slowly. The initial discovery was reported in 1908, and by 1912 Leavitt had enough data to pin down this period-luminosity relationship in a mathematical formula, established from her study of twenty-five Cepheids in the SMC. ...Leavitt found a clear mathematical relationship between the apparent brightness of a Cepheid in the SMC and its period... This could only mean that the absolute magnitudes of Cepheids are related to one another in the same way, since the distance effect is essentially the same for all of the Cepheids in the SMC. All that was needed now was to find the distance to just one or two Cepheids in our neighborhood... so that distances... could be worked out from the period-luminosity law that Leavitt had discovered."

"As a senior in 1892 Leavitt was introduced to astronomy. She was fascinated by it, and after graduation she enrolled in a course to study the subject full time. Tragically Henrietta Leavitt was suddenly struck down by a serous illness, and she was forced to spend over two years at home recovering. Her illness left her profoundly deaf. ...when she felt fit enough she put forward her name in 1895 as a volunteer worker at Harvard College Observatory."

"Hubble tackled two of the most fundamental questions of the universe: how old is it, and how big? To answer both it is necessary to know two things—how far away certain galaxies are and how fast they are flying away from us. The red shift gives the speed at which galaxies are retiring, but doesn't tell us how far away they are to begin with. For that you need what are known as "standard candles"—stars whose brightness can be reliably calculated and used as benchmarks... Hubble's luck was to come along soon after an ingenious woman named Henrietta Swan Leavitt had figured out a way to do so."

"Apart from her few and very important scientific papers, Leavitt left behind almost no traces of her life. She was born on the Fourth of July 1868 in Lancaster, Mass., and died of cancer on Dec. 12, 1921. Her will tells nearly all. She left an estate worth $314.91, mostly in Liberty Bonds, with a few items such as a desk valued at $5. She never married and had few living relatives. She also left behind a legacy of a great astronomical discovery."

"Miss Leavitt was of an especially quiet and retiring nature, and absorbed in her work to an unusual degree. She had the highest esteem of all her associates at the Harvard Observatory, where her loss is keenly felt."

"In addition to these larger labors, Miss Leavitt took part in various minor investigations. She gave considerable time to the discovery of new celestial objects. Altogether, she found 4 new stars, 2400 variable stars, or about one half of the known variables, and various asteroids and other objects."

"One of the most striking accomplishments of Miss Leavitt was the discovery of 1,777 variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds. These results were [made] possible by photographs of long exposure made at Arequipa with the 24-inch Bruce refractor and forwarded to Cambridge. Some of these plates had exposures of from two to four hours and showed very faint stars, among which nearly all the variables are found. ...from a study of 25 of them, the important law was derived, that the length of period bears a definite relation to the absolute magnitude."

"About 1906 a Durchmustering of variable stars was proposed at the Harvard Observatory. Somewhat later this was undertaken on plates included in the Map of the Sky... A comparison of the photographs of a number of these regions by Miss Leavitt led to the discovery of several hundred variables and other special objects. Among them were a number of stars of the Algol type."

"A determination of the visual magnitudes of the stars had a very large place in the work of the Observatory during the first half of Professor Pickering's directorate. As soon as the need of photographic magnitudes became urgent, the importance of a standard sequence, from which the photographic magnitudes could be derived for stars anywhere in the sky, became evident. A sequence of stars of varying magnitudes had been early selected near the North Pole, and the determination of the magnitudes of the stars involved was assigned to Miss Leavitt. This work was carried out with unusual originality, skill, and patience."

"It is to be hoped, also, that the parallaxes of some variables of this type may be measured."

"To the Editor of the Bulletin: In Professor Hart's most interesting and illuminating article printed in the Alumni Bulletin he remarks that barring certain exceptions "petticoats are considered to have no place in Harvard or a Harvard Catalogue." Unfortunately this statement is only too true, and I believe the time is ripe to take serious account of the important and indispensable services that women are rendering to the University in technical and administrative positions in her offices and her institutions. We have recently read in the papers of the death of Miss Henrietta S. Leavitt of the Astronomical Observatory, whose work in photographic photometry gave her an international reputation... in fact, the services that the women have rendered at the Observatory are too well known in the scientific world to need further comment. ...Harvard should follow the lead already taken by the other large universities of the country, including California, Chicago, Columbia, Princeton, and Yale, in recognizing high grade service afforded by women on its staff, and this recognition should be not merely the inclusion of their names in the Catalogue... but should carry with it privileges of retirement and pension funds and of leave of absence at stated periods in order to afford opportunity for study and research. Several of the universities named are already ahead of Harvard in this respect, and in some of them women occupying high grade technical positions take rank with instructors and assistant professors when their acquirements and the nature of their work make them worthy of it. ...my heading "Petticoats in Harvard" is not an attempt to bring up the question is... only a plea for fitting recognition of scholarly work efficiently and faithfully performed in our midst by an unrecognized body of experts."

"Miss Henrietta Swan Leavitt, for more than twenty years a member of the staff of the Harvard Astronomical Observatory, died at her home in Cambridge on Dec. 12. She was a graduate of Radcliffe College, and had studied astronomy as a graduate student. She joined the staff of the Harvard Observatory in 1895, and finally was in charge of the department of photographic stellar photometry. She determined the brightness of a series of stars near the north pole ranging from the fourth to the twentieth magnitude; discovered four new stars and 2,400 variables of about half of all the known variable stars; formulated a law establishing a definite relation between the brightness and the length of period of such variables; and made other noteworthy achievements in astronomy. The scientific results of her work form parts of volumes 60, 71, 84, and 85 in the "Annals of the Harvard Observatory.""

"How far are the spiral nebulae? How large is the universe? We cannot begin to answer these questions unless we measure the distance of heavenly objects. The breakthrough was made by Henrietta Leavitt, who was interested in a rather special class of stars, the Cepheids. The intensity of light coming from Cepheids rises and falls regularly with time... Concentrating on one of the Magellanic Clouds, she found that there was a very close relationship... The brighter the Cepheid was, the longer its period. The distance of the Magellanic Cloud is so great that the stars there can be regarded as all being effectively the same distance from the Earth. If you are in Los Angeles, everybody in Carnegie Hall is about the same distance from you. ...Suppose that a Cepheid in the cloud has a certain brightness and a period of one week. Now look at another Cepheid in some more distant galaxy. If it has the same period, we can assume it has the same intrinsic brightness, and yet it is dimmer than it should be. ...we can work out the relative distance from Earth. A star of the same intrinsic brightness that is twice as far away will be four times dimmer. ...It is slightly complicated by the effects on brightness of interstellar dust clouds, but it was a huge step forward."

"By the death of Miss Leavitt on December 12, 1921, the Observatory lost an investigator of the highest value. She had obtained a comprehensive experience in photographic photometry, and had developed a clear appreciation of the difficulties involved in the theory and practice of this important research. Her work on standard magnitude sequences was nearly concluded at the time of her death, but she had hardly begun work on her extensive program of photographic measures of variable stars. In the foregoing summary no mention has been made of Miss Leavitt's work on standard photometry..."

"The following statement regarding the periods of 25 variable stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud has been prepared by Miss Leavitt."

"I should be willing to pay thirty cents an hour in view of the quality of your work, although our usual price, in such cases, is twenty five cents an hour."

"He acknowledges the use and calibration of her period-luminosity relation first by Hertzsprung and later by Shapley and ends the “Period- Luminosity Relations to Cepheids” section in his book without ever mentioning that he, Hubble, had used Shapley’s technique. ...Hubble’s underwhelming acknowledgment of Henrietta Leavitt is an example of the ongoing denial and lack of the professional and public recognition that Henrietta Leavitt suffers from, despite her landmark discovery. With the exception of naming a moon crater after her, the profession of astronomy has not done much to celebrate her work. No astronomy prize is named after her and the period-luminosity relation has not been renamed as the H. Leavitt law."

"She deserved the Nobel Prize for her work."

"Let's not allow mental illness to be further stigmatized by events like the Newtown tragedy, nor to distract us from the solutions that are closer at hand. It's a lot faster, easier, and cheaper to reduce the number of assault weapons in circulation than it is to identify, treat and contain the very small subgroup of people with mental illness who present a homicide risk. We need to do both, of course, but gun safety will make the difference sooner."

"Intent on one great love, perfect, Requited and for ever, I missed love's everywhere Small presence, thousand-guised."

"Strangers have crossed the sound, but not the sound of the dark oarsmen Or the golden-haired sons of kings, Strangers whose thought is not formed to the cadence of waves, Rhythm of the sickle, oar and milking pail"

"He has married me with a ring, a ring of bright water Whose ripples spread from the heart of the sea, He has married me with a ring of light, the glitter Broadcast on the swift river."

"In rose with petals soft as air I bind for you the tides and fire — the death that lives within the flower, oh, gladly love, for you I bear."

"Getting up any cliff is like a physics problem -- you just got to hold on, try everything, and stick with it."

"We have to beef up our searches, which are now pretty dismal, so we can find out about these things before we get hit. … It takes a dramatic event to get people's attention, and we thought the comet crash with Jupiter might have done the job. … we tend to ignore an extraterrestrial hazard that could reduce the planet to rubble. … What we really need is a good scare."

"This is a terrific outburst. And since it doesn’t have a tail right now, some observers have confused it with a nova. We’ve had at least two reports of a new star."

"It is probably a good idea to search, at some level, for asteroids that come to the Earth's general vicinity. But merely counting the asteroids found is not sufficient. It is desirable to follow up each discovery to examine whether it can or can not be a threat during the next century or so. Objects for which the threat cannot be eliminated should be singled out for special study, notably to the extent of searching for old images in photographic archives. 1997 XF11 was noteworthy for the apathy shown to it prior to the very widespead announcement in March. If proper attention had been given to it earlier, the circumstances that led to the announcement would never have occurred. Sometimes statistics will conspire to draw attention to a problem. Maybe they are trying to tell us something."

"What delighted me was that it's 30 years from now — not next week or next year. … That would be totally hopeless; that would be terrifying, in fact. Time is on our side in this one — that's why it's such a wonderful illustration of the process... I say 30 years is a good long time to do something about it if it is a problem … We should be thankful we have this kind of notice."

"When the Deep Impact probe hit Comet 9P/Tempel, there was almost no change in brightness. … This outburst by Comet Holmes is extreme!"