The Tragic Case of T. J. J. See

Mercury, November/December 2002 Table of Contents

Courtesy of the Mary Lea Shane Archives of the Lick Observatory

by William Sheehan

Astronomer T. J. J. See's career started off with great promise, but he ended up working in obscurity.

A century ago, Thomas Jefferson Jackson See was one of the best-known and most controversial astronomers in the United States. Born in 1866 in Missouri, he graduated from the University of Missouri as one of the most highly regarded students up to that time. There is a story that a nephew later gained admittance to medical school simply by claiming a connection with him. He received the response, "If you are half as brilliant as your uncle, we'll be glad to have you."

See received all the honors his university had to offer and used his influence on the side of "all the ablest and most independent members of the faculty" to overthrow a "dictatorial" president. From Missouri he proceeded straight to Germany, where he studied with the best, including the famous experimental physicist Hermann Helmholtz. He received a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Berlin. His fellow students considered him "a very capable fellow in some directions, but. . .very peculiar." Though they did not say in what way he was peculiar, the comment was ominously prophetic of future disaster.

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