1 Details on the establishment of the observatory can be found in the author's “Benjamin Apthorp Gould and the Founding of the Argentine National Observatory,” in the forthcoming July 1971 issue of The Americas (Academy of American Franciscan History).

2 Lehigh University Register (1870); Mary E. Riley (Lehigh University Library) to the author, 30 March 1970. Thome did not receive the degree of D.Sc. as is often stated in obituary notices and elsewhere. He was, however, awarded a Ph.D. by Lehigh in recognition of his services in Córdoba, probably in June 1888. After that date the degree appears with his name in the Lehigh University Registers. The statement found in all Argentine biographical sketches that he was a graduate of “Flower University” is based on an error in the long obituary article published in La Nación, 29 March 1908, by his friend Julio Lederer. The mistake probably arises from confusion with the Flower Observatory of the University of Pennsylvania.

3 Published as Resultados del Observatorio Nacional en Córdoba (Buenos Aires: Coni, 1879), vol. I. Hereinafter cited as Resultados. The Atlas was published two years earlier but was withheld until 1879 in order to be a companion volume.

4 Resultados, I, pp. 100-102.

5 Ibid., pp. 7-8. This work was revised and reprinted much later under Thome's supervision as Atlas de la Uranometría Argentina que contiene las estrellas del hemisferio sud por el Observatorio Nacional de Córdoba (Buenos Aires: J. Peuser, 1905).

6 Resultados, I, p. viii.

7 Vol. II (1881); vols. Ill, IV, VII, and VIII (all 1884); vols. V (1886) and VI (1887). Vols. IX-XV appeared at intervals from 1887 to 1896.

8 Prior to Gould's arrival Argentina had no means of forecasting the weather. The Meteorological Office operated out of the Observatory from 1872 to 1885 through a nationwide telegraphic system linking it with various colegios nacionales used as weather stations.

9 The Bonner Durchmusterung, published by Argelander from 1852 to 1862 and continued by Schönfeld from 1875 to 1885, formed a catalogue of over 300,000 stars of the Northern Hemisphere with accompanying Atlas, and over 130,000 stars of the northern portion of the Southern Hemisphere. It forms the basis of catalogues still in use by modern astronomers.

10 Resultados, XVI (1892), p. vi.

11 The equipment of the observatory is described in detail in the author's article already cited. For the small telescope see also Warner, Deborah Jean, Alvan Clark & Sons Artists in Optics (Washington: Smithsonian, 1968), p. 48 Google Scholar.

12 Resultados, XVI, pp. vii-x. The equipment and technique are describ detail.

13 Ibid., p. xvii. Vol. XVI contained -22 degrees to -32 degrees; vol. (1894) from-32 to-42.

14 Resultados, XVIII (1900).

15 This photometer was still in the possession of the observatory when the was completed in 1932. Thome had met Pickering in Chicago in 1893 and had particularly grateful for his interest in the work at Córdoba.

16 This information and all the quoted material are from a private letter which clears up the confusion caused by discrepancies in the official budget and some of Thome's published statements, which are guarded and appear contradictory. Thome to Edward Pickering, 10 January 1899. Harvard College Observatory Archives, courtesy of Mrs. Lyle G. Boyd.

17 Resultados, XVIII, p. vii. For a thorough analysis of the financial picture in Argentina at this time see Ford, A.G., The Gold Standard 1880-1914 Britain and Argentina (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962), pp. 90–109 Google Scholar.

18 República Argentina, Congreso Nacional Diario de sesiones de la cámara de senadores (1908), p. 437 Google Scholar.

19 Astronomische Nachrichten, CXXXXII (1897), cols. 355-356.

20 Monthly Notices of the R.A.S. 64 (June 1904): 812.

21 Resultados, XXI, pt. 1 (Córdoba: n. pub., 1914), preface.

22 Perrine did not give details on the manufacturer.

23 Resultados, XXV, pt. 2 (Córdoba: n. pub., 1932).

24 For a complete record of the conference, including minutes of all general sessions and committee meetings, a copy of the invitation sent, a list of all French and foreign delegates by their observatories or titles, notes or letters sent to the conference by astronomers, and all resolutions adopted see Academie des Sciences, Congrés Astrophotographique International (Paris: Gauthier Villars, 1887)Google ScholarPubMed. Much more accessible is a capsuled version published in L'Astronomie Revue d'Astronomie Populaire 6 (1887): 161-69.

25 For aid in obtaining materials, many of which were hard to find, regarding the original conference and the subsequent sessions, particularly that of 1900, the author would like to thank the Yale University Library.

26 Thome to Oswaldo Magnasco, 22 February 1901, printed in Memoria presentada al congreso nacional de 1901 por el Ministro de Justicia, Culto e Instrucción Pública (Buenos Aires: República Argentina, 1901), 2: 364-73. These annual reports will be cited hereinafter as Memoria, followed by the year it was submitted to Congress.

27 Julio Roca, the strongman of the dominant oligarchy, had been president earlier (1880-1886) during Gould's tenure and was reelected in 1898. In his messages to Congress he often mentioned the observatory in favorable terms, calling attention to the role it was playing in enhancing the reputation of Argentina as a civilized country. A longtime supporter of foreign investment and technology, Roca regarded the observatory as a badge of achievement rather than a costly luxury. For characteristic statements readily accessible see Mabragana, Heraclio, ed., Los mensajes: Historia del desenvolvimiento de la nación, redactada cronológicamente por sus göbernantes, 1810-1910, 6 vols. (Buenos Aires: Compañía gral. de fósforos, 1910), 4: 171; 6: 36Google Scholar.

28 The burden of the arguments in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies was that this expense represented an opportunity for the Argentine to amount to something in the eyes of Europeans and to make a significant contribution to the march of science. Congreso Nacional, Diario de sesiones de la cámara de senadores, 1900, May 10 and 12. Diario de sesiones de la cámara de diputados, 1900,1, May 16 and 18. The bill became Law N. 3924.

29 Thome to Oswaldo Magnasco, loc. cit.

30 Ibid.

31 For the citation see Académie des Sciences, Comptes Rendus 133 (1901): 1059-61Google Scholar.

32 Thome to Gonzales, Joaquin, 20 March 1902, printed in Memoria (1902), pp. 631-40Google Scholar; Thome to Juan R. Fernández, 31 March 1903, printed in Memoria (1903), pp. 346-53Google ScholarPubMed; Monthly Notices of the R.A.S. 63 (June 1903): 549-52.

33 National Archives. Thome to Josiah Quincy, 27 June 1893; Thome to Edward H. Strobel, 3 July 1893, in Despatches from the United States Consuls in Córdoba Argentina, I.

34 Thome to José V. Zapata, 12 April 1894, printed in Memoria (1894), 2: 126-40Google Scholar.

35 Ibid.

36 Memoria (1905), 2: 259-62. These included letters from Lewis Boss, Simon Newcomb, Edward S. Holden, John Hagen and C.A. Young.

37 Thome to Amancio Alcorta, 20 April 1893, printed in Memoria (1893) 3: 171-84Google ScholarPubMed.

38 From his paper, “The National Argentine Observatory,” read in August of 1893 at the Congress of Astronomy and Astro-physics in Chicago, printed in Astronomy and Astro-Physics 13 (January 1894): 8-14.

39 The entire consular correspondence is contained in one volume of the Despatches from the United States Consuls in Córdoba, already cited. During the period 1871-1906 hardly a hundred dollars’ worth of business was transacted. On a few occasions Thome sent in reports on the local scene; some light is shed on the American community in Córdoba, and Thome's trips abroad (up to 1900) can be pinpointed through these records.

40 Thome to Robert Bacon, 24 June 1906, ibid. A pencilled note from “H.W.” to W. Carr enclosed in the file reads: “Mr. Thome seems an intelligent man, and I fear his feelings are hurt. Let us say the nicest possible things in accepting his resignation in order to earn his good will, —if he is as ‘all right’ as he seems.”

41 The passage to which Thome took such exception was really quite mild. “A strong national observatory was organized at Córdoba, in the Argentine Republic, in 1870, under the direction of Dr. B. A. Gould. This ranked among the leading observatories of the world for many years; but the financial disasters of Argentina have had a depressing effect upon that observatory, which, though it still continues its valuable work with perseverance and effect, is certainly in no position to undertake any additional obligations beyond that of a share in the photographic chart and other works there in progress.” Report of the Committee on Southern and Solar Observatories (Washington: Carnegie Institution, December 1903), p. 26.

42 Monthly Notices of the R.A.S. 64 (June 1904): 810-12.

43 Thome to Antonio Bermejo, 15 April 1895, printed in Memoria (1895), 2: 243-62Google Scholar.

44 Astronomy and Astro-Physics, loc. cit.

45 Astronomische Gesellschaft, Vierteljahrschrift 44 (1909): 99-100. For interesting comments on the new instrument see the papers by M.L. Zimmer and A. Estelle Glancy in Proceedings of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress, 10 vols. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1917), 2: 102-9.

46 Monthly Notices of the R.A.S. 69 (February 1909): 255-57.

47 Two in particular are worth noting: Julio Lederer, “Juan M. Thome. Director del Observatorio de Córdoba,” La Nación, 29 March 1908 (University of Pennsylvania Library); and a pamphlet, Enrique Legrand, Breves apuntes sobre los trabajos de Juan M. Thome (Montevideo: A Barreiro y Ramos, 1909)—Library of Congress.