Library Telescope Program: Telescope Dedications

Michael F. A'Hearn (1940-1917) was an American astronomer and astronomy professor at the University of Maryland and the principal investigator for NASA's EPOXI mission.

This telescope is owned by the Delmar Public Library.

Alànkw is the Lenape word for star. The Lenape are recognized as a Sovereign Indigenous Nation by the State of Delaware and were our states first visual astronomers. Their language is their testament to their astronomical observations with a lexicon which includes words for comet, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, the Pleiades, and eclipses.  

Photo: The stars of the Pleiades cluster. Courtesy of NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

This telescope is owned by the Elsmere Library.

Joel Baily (1732-1797) was a Chester County, Pennsylvania surveyor known for his observations of the transit of Venus in 1769 in Lewes, Delaware

Photo: A survey of a tract of 160 acres of land in New Castle, drawn and signed by Baily. Courtesy of Alexander Historical Auctions.

This telescope is owned by the Claymont Library.

George Walton Baker (1837-1924) was born in Norfolk, England and emigrated to the US at the age of 18. He was an inventor with multiple patents, president of the G.W. Baker Machine Company, amateur astronomer, and telescope maker who lived and worked in Wilmington, Delaware. He used a 4.5 inch refractor with an objective by O’Byrne.

Harvey Washington Banks, PhD (1923-1979) was the first African American to earn a doctorate in astronomy in 1961. He taught at Delaware State College.

This telescope is owned by the Dover Public Library.

Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806) was an African American Astronomer known for his contributions to the 1795 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanac. 

Photo: Almanack and Ephemeris from 1795 with a woodcut depiction of Benjamin Banneker on the cover. Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society.

This telescope is owned by the Georgetown Library.

Owen Biddle, Sr. (1737-1799) was an astronomer and clockmaker. He was a member of the committee sent by the American Philosophical Society to observe the transit of Venus in 1769 in Lewes, Delaware.

Photo: Ben Franklin's Royal Society of London article, 1769. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

This telescope is owned by the Rehoboth Beach Public Library.

Isaac Briggs (1763-1825) was an American engineer and surveyor and philomath of the almanacs for use in Delaware in the 18th century.

Photo: Paper cut-out silhouette of Isaac Briggs (1763-1825) by an unknown artist. Courtesy of Maryland Center for History and Culture.

This telescope is owned by the Woodlawn Library.

Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941) was born in Dover, Delaware and is a legend for her work in stellar classification at the Harvard University Observatory.

This telescope is owned by the Frankford Library.

John Francis Clemons (1943-2024) was a NASA engineer and the author of Safely to Earth: The Men and Women Who Brought the Astronauts Home. Jack retired to Lewes, Delaware and served as a NASA ambassador.

Photo: Jack Clemons at Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Control, Rockville, Maryland, April 4, 2005.

This telescope is owned by the Milford Public Library.

Nancy J. Currie-Gregg (1958) was an American engineer, United States Army officer and a NASA astronaut. She was born in Wilmington, Delaware.

Photo: Courtesy NASA Image and Video Library.

This telescope is owned by the Wilmington Library.

Jeremiah Dixon (1733-1779) was a surveyor and astronomer known for his work in determining what was later called the Mason & Dixon Line.

Photo: Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, A Plan of the Boundary lines between the Province of Maryland and the Three Lower Counties of Delaware. Courtesy Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.

This telescope is owned by the Kent County Public Library.

Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) was an avid amateur astronomer who built a state of the art observatory in Wilmington. His Clark refractor was donated by the family and is still in use at the Mt. Cuba Observatory.

Photo: Courtesy of Hagley Museum and Library.

Irénée du Pont (1920-2023) was a founder and board member of the Mt. Cuba Observatory. He established the Crystal Trust, the patron of the Delaware Library Telescope Program.

Photo: The News Journal, January 2023.

This telescope is owned by the South Coastal Library.

George P. Durney (1923-1998) was an ILC Dover Project Engineer known as "The Father of the Space Suit."

Photo: Courtesy of the Delaware Aviation Hall of Fame.

This telescope is owned by the Dover Public Library.

John Ewing (1732-1802) was a member of the committee sent by the American Philosophical Society to observe the transit of Venus in 1769. With David Rittenhouse, he worked on the survey of the border of Delaware.

Photo: Rev. John Ewing (1732-1802) portrait painting by Charles Wilson Peale. Courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania.

This telescope is owned by the Greenwood Library.

Theodore Freeman (1930-1964) was an American aeronautical engineer, U.S. Air Force officer, and NASA astronaut who was raised in Lewes, Delaware.

Photo: Theodore Freeman Scrapbook. Courtesy of the Delaware Heritage Collection. 

This telescope is owned by the Lewes Public Library.

Ellwood Garrett (1815-1910) was son of the famous abolitionist, Thomas Garret, a Quaker, and an early Daguerreotypist. Ellwood had an observatory in Wilmington sporting a Brashear telescope and observed the 1882 Transit of Venus from Wilmington.

Photo: Ambrotype, Ellwood Garrett, circa 1860s? Courtesy of the Delaware Historical Society.

This telescope is owned by the New Castle Public Library.

John Gizis is a University of Delaware Professor of Astronomy who discovered TRAPPIST-1 in 1999 during a survey of close-by ultra-cool dwarf stars.

Photo: Courtesy of the University of Delaware.

Henry Russell Glyde (1937-2024) was a Unidel Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware and long-time chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Photo: Courtesy of the University of Delaware.

Richard B. Herr (1936–1997)

Photo: Courtesy of the AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, John Irwin Slide Collection.

This telescope is owned by the Bridgeville Public Library.

Jamie Holder is an astronomer and the current Director of Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware.

Photo: Courtesy of the University of Delaware.

This telescope is owned by the Milton Public Library.

George W. Humphrey (1843-1899) was an avid amateur astronomer and telescope maker.

Photo: Courtesy of the Delaware Astronomical Society.

This telescope is owned by the Appoquinimink Library.

John G. Jackson (1818-1897) was a Quaker born in Hockessin, Delaware. He attended the Westtown School and was a devoted amateur astronomer and surveyor. He built an astronomical observatory in Hockessin.

Photo: Courtesy of The Mill Creek Hundred History Blog

This telescope is owned by the Hockessin Library.

Fred T. Johnson (1924-2017) was one of the “Tuskegee Airmen” assigned to the 477th Bomber Group and later as a member of the 617th Medium Bombardment Squadron. He was Delaware’s first and only black navigator at the time. After the war, Mr. Johnson became the first African American to teach at Warner Junior High School in Wilmington, teaching earth and physical science. Mr. Johnson was in charge of the planetarium at Warner and was chairman of the science
department until he retired in 1981.

Photo: Courtesy of the  Delaware Aviation Hall of Fame.

This telescope is owned by the North Wilmington Library.

John Lukens (1720-1789) was an astronomer and surveyor. He was part of the committee established by the American Philosophical Society to observe the transit of Venus in 1769. He was Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Photo: Poor Will's Almanack with notes by John Lukens, 1778, page 4. Courtesy of the American Philosophical Society.

This telescope is owned by the Brandywine Hundred Library.

William Augustus Norton (1810-1883) was a Civil engineering professor, astronomer, and president of Delaware College. He wrote An Elementary Treatise on Astronomy (1839) and First Book of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy (1858).

Photo: Portrait of William A. Norton from Timothy Dwight's Memories of Yale Life and Men (1903).

This telescope is owned by the Selbyville Public Library.

William Poole (1729-1779) lived in Wilmington, Delaware. He was a Quaker, Brandywine mill owner, and a member of the American Philosophical Society. He observed the 1769 Transit of Venus from Wilmington.

Photo: Excerpt from Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, V1(1769-1771). Courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh Library System.

This telescope is owned by the Kirkwood Library,

Judith Provencal is a resident Astronomer at Mt. Cuba Astronomical Observatory and a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware.

Photo: Courtesy of the University of Delaware, Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Armand Spitz (1904-1971) developed planetaria and manufactured them for a number of years in Yorklyn, Delaware, called the Planetarium Capital of the World.

Photo: Courtesy of Main Line Today.

Henry Barr Seidel (1819-1898) was a 19th c Wilmington, Delaware amateur astronomer.

Photo: from History of Delaware: 1609-1888, by John Thomas Scharf and
L. J. Richards, 1888.

This telescope is owned by the Corbit-Calloway Memorial Library.

Harcourt C. “Ace” Vernon was a founding member of the Mt. Cuba Observatory.

Photo: Courtesy of the Mount Cuba Astronomical Observatory.

This telescope is owned by the Delaware City Library.

Barbara Ann Williams is the first African American woman to achieve a PhD in Astronomy. She is a retired associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware.

Photo: Courtesy of Scott Willams.