Upon the premises at Cambridge where in 1876 stood only the main observatory and a lesser adjunct structure are now eight or ten others, a cluster of small wooden buildings, domed or otherwise adapted for astronomical uses, each containing a costly instrument of the most approved device; and besides these a dwelling house has been transformed into a hall, or rather a workshop of photography, and makes the northernmost structure of the little city of science which has been set upon Summer House hill.
Upon Mt. Wilson, in California, in north latitude, and Mt. Harvard, in Peru, in south latitude, stand other unpretentious buildings, from within which observers of the Harvard corps nightly search through the translucent upper atmosphere of those regions to the respective poles. This aggregation of means has yielded ample returns; to say which is to signify that during the period under consideration the institution has made a noteworthy record, and that its affairs have been guided with befitting skill and judgment.
The total permanent funds at the beginning of the present term amounted to about $170,000. The subscription for five years was intended for immediate expenditure. At the end of that period a permanent fund of $50,000 was obtained in like manner. In 1885 was added to the permanent funds the bequest of Robert Treat Paine of his whole estate, of which $164,198 became at once available. In 1886 was made the first of a series of annual gifts of large sums of money by Mrs. Anna P. Draper of New York as a memorial of her husband, the late Prof. Henry Draper. These gifts have constantly been applied in furtherance of photographical observation, especially in that line of investigation which Dr. Draper himself began in his lifetime. In 1887 the bequest of Uriah A. Boyden, amounting to $238,000, became available. This bequest has conditions providing for astronomical work at considerable elevations as free as possible from disturbing or obstructing conditions of atmosphere. The income of the Paine fund may be applied generally.
In pursuing the inquiries thus suggested, and others, the observatory has adhered to its traditions, wherein original investigation has been directed to the physical rather than the mathematical side of astronomical science.