About — Harlow Shapley Project

ABOUT & CONTACT

A Giant of Science

Photo: Harlow Shapley, ca 1940, at the rotating desk that he used as Director of Harvard College Observatory from 1921-1952. The desk was built for Edward C. Pickering HCO Director 1877-1919. AIP/ESVA Shapley Collection

Harlow Shapley is one of the most important figures in the history of science due to his discovery of the center of our galaxy and our true place in it. He made other breakthroughs that were basic to astronomy. He was a prolific writer and gifted speaker. He was an internationalist, liberal, and humanitarian. Over four decades, through the news media, books and lectures he explained science and astronomy to the public.

But awareness and even mentions of Shapley have lapsed since his death in 1972.

This project's goal is to reintroduce Shapley from today’s perspective and communicate with new audiences. Much of his story is relevant to today’s issues in science and public life.

You just landed on a new planet - the online hub of the Harlow Shapley Project! Poke around! You’ll find a complete Bibliography of Shapley’s publications. Also a Lloyd a section with videos about the Shapleys’ Nobel laureate son. Other posts describe the Shapleys’ abolitionist ancestors, Martha Shapley as an astronomer, life at the observatory residence in the Shapley years. My Mount Wilson lecture slides tell how Shapley publicized “we are not alone” for years before Sagan. Use the Search tool to find what you want in the posts and other content.

Contact & Comment

Shapley Family

Help us tell the Shapley story

We’d love your feedback! Enter comments and questions about a post or any part of the site with the form below. We will download Comments and respond quickly. Thank you for getting in touch!

Thank you for your interest!

PROJECT TEAM

Principal Investigator: Deborah Shapley, Bio at Debthink

Special Advisors: June Matthews, Peter Shapley

Team: Thomas J. Bogdan maintains the Bibliography of Harlow Shapley Publications. With June Matthews Bogdan co-edited Mildred Matthews’ memoir “Shapley’s Round Table.” Jeff Kanipe and Horace Smith are regular astronomy advisors. Other experts help with specific projects. Librarians at Harvard University Archives, Huntington Library and other collections continue to give invaluable assistance.

FAMILY

**Martha Betz-Shapley** (1915-2016)

Martha Betz of Kansas City, b. 1890, met an astronomy student Harlow Shapley in math class at the University of Missouri (Colombia). Both graduated in the class of 1910. They dated while each pursued graduate study, he at Princeton and she at U of Mo. Her field was German philology but her forte was math. They married in April 1914 and moved to Pasadena CA where he began research at Mount Wilson Observatory.

The post Martha Shapley – Astronomer describes her work there on eclipsing binary stars, while Mildred, Willis and Alan were born.
In 1921 they moved into the big Residence at Harvard College Observatory where Harlow would be Director for the next 31 years. Martha’s astronomy work gave way to managing a family of now five children. She was also a welcoming, intelligent “First Lady” for observatory staff, students and guests.
In 1942 Martha Shapley began mathematical work at the MIT Computation Laboratory directed by Zdenck Kopal. Afterward she continued some work with Kopal on eclipsing binary stars. Her later years were spent mostly at the Shapley’s wooded ‘farm’ in Sharon, N.H., greeting family and assisting with Harlow’s writing and schedule. She died in Tucson, AZ in 1981.

**Mildred Shapley Matthews** (1915-2016)

Mildred Shapley was b. 1915 in Pasadena, CA. In 1916 the new asteroid 878 Mildred was named for her by her father Harlow who co-discovered it. Mildred was six in 1921 when her parents and little brothers moved into the Director’s Residence on the hill at Harvard Observatory.
In the mid-1960s, she wrote a memoir of growing up there, Shapley’s Round Table, published in 2021. Excerpts and stories are at Close-up: Life with the Director.

In 1936 she graduated from University of Michigan. In 1937 she married Ralph Matthews. They moved to California and raised four children. Mildred worked in Italy as a research assistant in astronomy. In 1970 she moved to the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She became editor of the LPL’s definitive Space Science reference series. In 1993 she received the Harold Masursky Award for meritorious service to planetary science from the American Astronomical Society. Children: June, Bruce, Melvin, Martha.

Willis-Harlow-Shapley — **Willis Harlow Shapley** (1917-2005)

Willis Shapley was born in 1917 in Pasadena CA. He attended Harvard and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1938. While doing graduate work in political science, in 1940 he married Virginia Bishop. In 1942 he began federal service at the Bureau of Budget. He worked on the budgets of OSRD, oversight of military R&D, and related issues. He helped to craft legislation that established NASA in 1958.

In 1961 he drafted an interagency plan later known as the Webb-McNamara memorandum.
President Kennedy used it as the basis the 1961 decision to land men on the moon before the end of the decade. From 1965-75 Shapley was Associate Deputy Administrator (No. 3) of NASA. In early 1969 he chaired the Committee on Symbolic Activities for the First Lunar Landing, which set out the messaging around the Apollo 11 astronaut’s landing July 20, 1969. Shapley also set policy for how samples from the moon should be treated.
From 1975, for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he was lead author of a new annual analysis of each federal agency’s R & D budget. He wrote or co-wrote this respected series until 1987. But after the Challenger shuttle disaster in January 1986, Shapley was recalled to his previous position at NASA. He retired a second time in October 1988. He was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1969 and in 1988. Children: Sarah, Deborah.

Alan-Shapley — **Alan Horace Shapley** (1919-2006)

Alan Shapley was born in 1919 in Pasadena, CA. Graduated from Harvard in 1940. Army? Carnegie Institution 1942-46. From 1947 he was at the National Bureau of Standards specializing in ionospheric and radio research, earth-sun relationships. He was associated with the Federation of American Scientists 1948-53. He was Vice Chair of US Committee for the International Geophysical Year in 1957-58.

The IGY’s multinational research programs included Antarctica, which Shapley visited. He was Director of the National Geophysical and Solar Terrestrial Data Center of NOAA in Boulder, CO. He married Kay Malooney in 1956. In 1957 the Shapleys enlarged their Boulder home to take the large turntable desk that Harlow Shapley famously used in his tenure as Director of HCO. In 1981 when the Boulder house was to be sold the desk was returned to Cambridge, MA. Daughter: Carol. (Not related to Gen. Alan Shapley)

Lloyd-Shapley — **Lloyd Stowell Shapley** (1923 - 2016)

Lloyd Shapley was b. 1923 in Cambridge MA, Attended Philips Exeter Academy, then Harvard. He left while an undergraduate in 1943 to serve in Army Signal Corps. He was awarded the Bronze Star in 1944 for classified work in China, later revealed as breaking the Soviet weather code. Harvard AB in mathematics (1948). While at Princeton for PhD (1953) he mentored John Nash. At Rand Corporation (1954 -1981). Married Marion Ludolph in 1955. In 1962 he co-wrote with David Gale the marriage problem paper that later win him the Nobel.

He was a professor at UCLA (1981-2016).
For Lloyd Shapley’s biography including his relations with Nash, see post Lloyd Shapley –Nobelist. See Lloyd Centennial section (2023) for summaries of his mathematical work by Bruce Krell and a video lesson in how to play Kriegspiel. Stories has tributes by Pradeep Dubay, Xingwei Hu and Martin Shubik. See The Prizes for Lloyd’s Bronze Star (1944), Von Neumann Theory Prize (1981), and as co-winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Alvin E. Roth (2012). Sons: Peter, Christopher.

**Carl Betz-Shapley** (1927-2012)

Harvard and Principia College. His early interest was in art studies and cataloguing. His music interest was in conducting. He became a Christian Scientist, and mainly an educator stressing spiritual values. He and his wife Virginia Lloyd Thayer founded the Shapley School in Ridgefield Connecticut (1962-67) which was later known as Shapley International School. Lived in the United Kingdom where he was associated with the Universal Peace Federation. Died in Moldova.

**John Shapley** (1890-1978)

Younger brother of Harlow. Also grew up on the farm and attended the one-room schoolhouse. Received AB University of Missouri (1912), MA from Princeton (1913) and PhD at University of Vienna (1914). Joined Brown University faculty (1915). In World War I used his mathematical skills to teach US troops. Married Fern Rusk in 1918. Professor at New York University from 1924.

At U Mo in 1912 he and his professor founded the College Art Association; it is the leadingprofessional group for art scholars and teachers. From 1921-39 he edited CAA’s journal The Art Bulletin. To make art accessible to the public in the 1920s he produced the “Carnegie Sets;” these were used in thousands of schools to teach art history.
He headed the University of Chicago Art Department (1929-38). In 1938 he “used his income and connections at the University [of Chicago Press to arrange the publication of Bernard Berenson’s Drawings of the Florentine Painters, Amplified Edition at modest cost. See Fern Shapley bio..
John Shapley specialized in Early Christian and Byzantine art. He later worked in Baghdad (1960- 63) and was president of the Byzantine Institute.

**Fern Rusk-Shapley** (1890-1984)

Fern Rusk was born in 1890 in Champaign, Ill. She majored in history of art at University of Missouri AB (1913), PhD (1916). At Bryn Mawr (1914-15). She married John Shapley in 1918. By 1932 she was known as “a talented art historian” and came to work at I Tatti, Bernard Berenson’s villa outside Florence, Italy. She assisted Berenson, Nicky Mariano, and John Walker in a massive redo of Berenson’s 1903 Drawings of the Florentine Painters. The project was slow and hard for Berenson. Fern viewed and checked references on thousands of works that came to light since the 1903 edition. There were crises with Clarendon Press.

Fern likely got her husband John at University of Chicago to help. See John Shapley’s bio. The University Press published the three volumes in September 1938. It has been called one of the books that changed art history. (Go here for the I Tatti Harvard Center’s digital version of Berenson’s Drawings.)
In Washington from 1943 Fern was a curator at the National Gallery of Art. She was Curator of Paintings 1947-56 and Assistant Chief Curator 1956-60. After retiring from the staff in 1960, she continued as Curator of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Collection, much of which is at NGA. Her definitive catalogs of the Kress collection are Volume I (1966), Volume II (1968), and Volume III (1970). In 1979 NGA published her two-volume catalog Italian Paintings at the National Gallery of Art.
Upon her death in 1984 a tribute by the NGA Director said: “Her connoisseurship …particularly of Italian painting set the highest standard of excellence for all time.”
Children: Ellen Fish, Dora Van Wijk