Boyden Observatory - named for the American engineer Uriah A. Boyden (1804-1879) - was established as a southern station of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College (popularly known as Harvard College Observatory) in 1890, at Arequipa in Peru. In 1927 it was relocated to South Africa, 26 kilometres east of the city of Bloemfontein on a hill (dubbed "Harvard Kopje") near the settlement of Mazelspoort, the water and electricity plants of the city. In September of 1927 the first observations were made from the site. This exclusively-American observatory in South Africa operated from 1927 until 1954, when Harvard announced it could no longer fund the operation. The observatory was in danger of being closed down. In 1955 an international governing body was established, consisting of USA, Éire, Northern Ireland, Belgium, West-Germany, and Sweden. Known as the Boyden Council, it was the first international observatory, and functioned from 1955 until 1976. In 1976 Boyden Observatory was incorporated into the Astronomy Department of the University of the Orange Free State, and became a South African institution. It remained an active research centre until the late 1980s, after which it languished until the early 2000s. In the last two decades, activity at the Observatory has picked up again. In addition to a museum and a science education centre, the Observatory acquired a 20-inch Boller & Chivens telescope (from the South African Astronomical Observatory; 2015 June), and hosts the Watcher (Éire, South Africa, Spain, Czech Republic; since 2006) and BOOTES (Spain, Éire; since 2022 May) robotic telescopes. Despite being a continuously-operational astronomical research centre for over 130 years, the many owners of the observatory have removed records from the site as ownership changed hands. This has resulted in a fragmented collection of original materials, held today across seven nations. The EAP1190 project has digitized the oldest materials that survive in South Africa, taking the first step to digitally reuniting this unique Observatory's record of documents and images. In addition to material born at the Observatory (the bulk of which dates to the mid-1930s) a valuable compilation of original stellar observations, made by Senator Alexander William Roberts, was deposited at the Observatory c.1940. This material, the bulk of which is from the 1890s and 1910s, forms part of this collection. Finally, a unique set of weather observations, made at the Observatory from 1947 to 1974, has been digitized and will be available to climate scientists for the first time.
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Extent: 95 enclosures containing 22,578 folios; 26 volumes of astronomical registers containing 969 folios; 2 volumes of weather records containing 985 folios; 11 enclosures containing 508 printed photographs; 287 glass plate negatives; 105 lantern slides.
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Custodial history: The collection consists of two broad categories of material: created internally, by agents of the Observatory, and created external to the Observatory. In the first category are primarily such items as are generated during the course of astronomical work: images of celestial objects, observatory buildings, telescopes, instrumentation, and people. In addition, a small quantity of material was created by Observatory staff engaged in non-scientific functions, such as weddings, social gatherings, and road journeys. A small number of items were created while the observatory was located in Peru and continued to be used in South Africa. Items originating outside Boyden Observatory include the valuable collection of original astronomical observations made by Senator A. W. Roberts. The Roberts material was deposited at Boyden for safe-keeping after his death in 1938. This material was rehoused but the original arrangement maintained.
Arrangement: Prior to 2018, the material was not arranged according to any formal scheme, and was kept in various locations and conditions as happened to be available. During 2018 and 2019, the Centre for Astronomical Heritage (CfAH) assisted the Boyden Museum staff to start rehabilitating the collection and the storage space (within the Boyden Museum and Library). Enclosures were made from archival quality materials, and fragile items (glass photographic plates) were cleaned and rehoused. During rehousing, any existing system of arrangement was maintained and is noted in the accompanying catalogue. When in doubt, ISAG(G) guidelines were followed. There is no control vocabulary for astronomical archives, although several ontologies do exist. The CfAH is working on developing such a vocabulary (with a focus on astronomical equipment), with the intention to update the Boyden catalogue in due course.
Author(s)/Creator(s): John Stefanos Paraskevopoulos (Director, Boyden Observatory); visiting astronomers and staff members (Boyden Observatory); Alexander William Roberts (Variable star observer).
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