EDWARD EMERSON BARNARD 



1857-1923 



By Edwin B. Fhost 



By the death on February 6, 1923, of Edward Emerson Barnard, professor of practical 

 astronomy in the University of Chicago, and astronomer at the Yerkes Observatory, the world 

 has lost one of its foremost searchers of the skies, and the National Academy of Sciences one of 

 its most distinguished investigators in the field of physical science. 



He was born at Nashville, Term., on December 16, 1857, the son of Reuben and Elizabeth 

 Jane (Haywood) Barnard. The death of his father before his birth threw a heavy burden upon 

 his mother, who was obliged to support herself and her two young sons. Those were hard times 

 for poor people in that section of our country, and they were still harder after the Civil War 

 came on, a few years later, bringing tragedy to all on the scene of conflict. The Battle of Nash- 

 ville made an impression upon the lad that never left him. Later in his youth he survived an 

 attack of cholera, when that plague raged beyond its usual bounds. 



His mother's firmness of character was such that she did not lose her taste for culture in 

 the struggle with poverty. The name Emerson, given to the young son in honor of our American 

 philosopher, was an evidence of this. She inspired the lad with a desire to know good literature, 

 although his opportunities for any regular education in school were most meager; in fact, 

 Edward Barnard attended the common school only two months in his life. His mother had a 

 taste for art, also, and partially supported herself by modeling wax flowers. That she had 

 impressed upon her son character and self-reliance was indicated by her statement that the 

 lad, when less than 9 years old, could be depended upon to do a task in which many other boys 

 had failed. A photographer in Nashville had on the roof of his studio a ponderous enlarging 

 camera which had to be kept pointed at the sun. Most of the lads had lacked the patience 

 necessary in the human substitute for a driving clock, and went to sleep at the task. Edward 

 Barnard justified his mother's confidence; he worked in that studio, in various capacities, 

 for 17 years. His duties, doubtless often monotonous, were fitting him to be a pioneer in the 

 photography of the heavens. 



As a boy, he had watched with wondering eyes the starry skies above him, as he lay upon 

 an old wagon box in the yard; and he had, indeed, learned to know the stars, but not their 

 names or their constellations. A man employed in the studio, who had mechanical skill, one 

 day picked up in the street the small objective of a broken spyglass, and, making for it a paper 

 tube, constructed a telescope for the young apprentice. With this, Edward Barnard studied 

 the stars further, but still without the means of identifying them, untd chance brought into his 

 hands, somewhat later, a volume of the works of Thomas Dick, who enjoyed a considerable 

 reputation as a writer on astronomy, as well as on theology. It seems that Barnard found his 

 first star map here, and was delighted to learn the conventional names of the objects with which 

 he was already so familiar. Later, he put together a better instrument for which he purchased 

 lenses of 2^ inches aperture. 



The young man was now supporting himself and his mother by his daily work in the studio, 



but a passion for astronomical observation had already developed. Through rigid economy he 



gratified this passion by the purchase, in 1876, of a 5-inch telescope, equatorially mounted, 



from John Byrne, of New York, the price of which, $400, represented some two-thirds of a 



whole year's earnings. This gives sufficient evidence of his determination to acquaint himself 



with the science of astronomy. In 1877 the American Association for the Advancement of 



Science held its annual session at Nashville, and the youth of 20, who was becoming locally 



well known for his zeal as a stargazer, joined the association. His friends persuaded him to 



bring his telescope and meet the president, Simon Newcomb. This distinguished astronomer.. 



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