Call Number:

UPT 50 K33E

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center

Extent:

1.5 cubic feet

Language:

English

Date:

1831-1856 (inclusive) and 1835-1854 (bulk)

Creator:

Kendall, E. Otis (Ezra Otis), 1818-1899

Form:

Notebooks

Abstract:

Ezra Otis Kendall (1818-1899) was professor of mathematics and astronomy at Philadelphia Central High School from 1838 to 1855. During his tenure there, Kendall used the school's observatory to make astronomical observations. The Ezra Otis Kendall collection consists of observation notebooks created by Kendall and his half-brother Sears C. Walker (1805-1853) while using the Central High School observatory.

Ezra Otis Kendall (1818-1899) was born in Wilmington, MA to Ezra Kendall and Susanna Cook Walker on 1818 May 15. He was educated at academies in Woburn and Weymouth, MA. In 1835 Kendall travelled to Philadelphia to teach in a boys' school established by his half-brother, Sears C. Walker (1805-1853), as well as study mathematics. When the Central High School of Philadelphia opened in 1838, Kendall was elected as professor of mathematics and astronomy. Part of the original plan for Central High School was the construction of an observatory for both teaching and observation purposes. When the school opened at its first location, the corner of Juniper Street and Market Street – current site of the John Wanamaker Building – the observatory was part of the structure, and was only the fourth observatory established in the United States after Yale (1830), Williams College (1836), and the Hudson Observatory in Ohio (1838). During the 1840s Kendall and Walker's use of the Central High School facility to observe transits, comets, and occultations established its reputation in American astronomical history. In 1855 Kendall became professor of mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he would spend the next forty-four years. He was appointed to the Thomas A. Scott Professorship of Mathematics in 1881, and the Flower Professorship of Astronomy in 1892. At Penn Kendall would also serve as vice provost (1883-1884) and Dean of the College (1883-1889). For his service, he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1888. Kendall became an emeritus professor in 1896. Kendall married Emma Lavinia Dick (1820-1890), and had one child Otis Howard Kendall (1846-1897) who also taught in the Mathematics Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Ezra Otis Kendall died on 1899 January 5.

The Ezra Otis Kendall collection consists of notebooks with astronomical observations taken primarily at the Central High School observatory between 1841 and 1855. In addition, there are four notebooks of occultations taken in the 1830s, of which two can be attributed to Kendall's half-brother Sears C. Walker. All of notebooks primarily contain astronomical observations, though a few do have commentary by Kendell as well as newspaper clippings. There is one notebook that documents Kendall's personal expenses between 1854 and 1855. There is no correspondence in the collection.

The Ezra Otis Kendall collection is arranged alphabetically.