Georgetown University Seismological Observatory

 

The items listed below are available for use in the University Archives in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections on the 5th floor of Lauinger Library. Where they are also available online this is noted. University Archives items do not circulate; request them for use in the Booth Family Center research room via the Aeon request system.

 

 

University Archives staff maintain reference files on a variety of subjects related to Georgetown University history, including on the Seismological Observatory. These files contain photocopies of newspaper and magazine articles, brochures, and other documents found in the University Archives collection. They are intended to provide a starting point for research rather than to offer exhaustive coverage of any subject but they can often provide the answers to basic informational questions. 

 

 

The College Journal was the first printed newspaper produced by Georgetown students. It began publication in 1872. Produced monthly,, it is a combination of student newspaper, literary publication, and alumni bulletin. After 1919, it is replaced as the Georgetown student newspaper by The Hoya, see below. Articles relating to the Seismological Observatory and its staff appear between 1909 and 1919.  Also found are multiple references to the first observatory director Father Francis A. Tondorf.

Digitized issues of the College Journal can be browsed and searched via DigitalGeorgetown. See the DigitalGeorgetown search tips below. Physical copies are available for use in the University Archives. Request them via the Aeon request system.

DigitalGeorgetown Search tips:

• You can navigate to the relevant part of any item on a list of search results by clicking on the title of the item in blue, then clicking on the blue ViewOpen link at the top of the screen, then holding down the control and f keys on your keyboard at the same time, and entering  your search term in the box which appears in the top right corner

• You can sort or limit searches or search results chronologically by using the blue Date Created facet on the right side of the screen. You'll need to scroll down to see it

• Make use of the truncation option, e.g. use seismo* to find results for seismological, seismograph, seismographical, seismogram, seismologist,  AND seismology in one search

• When searching for a person, if that person has an uncommon last name, start by searching on just the last name . Try variations of the name to make sure that you find all relevant articles, e.g. if you are searching for references to John Joseph James, try John James, Johnny James, John J. James, etc. And use quotation marks to search on a discrete phrase, e.g. a search on "John Joseph James" will find that exact name. A search on John Joseph James without quotation marks will look for references to John AND Joseph AND James but not necessarily together

 

 

The Hoya, Georgetown’s best known student newspaper, was first published in 1920. Digitized issues from 1920-1939 and 1959-1980 can be browsed and searched via DigitalGeorgetown. The latest article to reference the Observatory appears to date from 1975. See the DigitalGeorgetown search tips above. Physical copies from 1920 to the present are available for use in the University Archives. Request them via the Aeon request system. Note that there is no index for the physical volumes. 

 

 

The main Georgetown University yearbook is Ye Domesday Booke, first produced in 1901. Digitized volumes from 1901-2011 can be browsed and searched via DigitalGeorgetown. See the DigitalGeorgetown search tips above. Note that no yearbooks were produced in 1903, 1906, 1907, 1945, and 1946 and that many of the pre-World War I yearbooks were produced by Law students with coverage limited to that school. Physical volumes from 1901-2017 are available for use in the University Archives; request them via the Aeon request system.

 

 

The Georgetown University Alumni Association produced an Alumni Magazine between 1948 and 1968. It includes news about on-campus happenings and a number of articles from the 1950s reference the Seismological Observatory. It has been digitized in its entirety and can be browsed and searched via DigitalGeorgetown. See the DigitalGeorgetown search tips above. Physical volumes are available for use in the University Archives. Request them via the Aeon request system.

 

 

A three volume set, this is the most comprehensive University history. Volume 1 covers 1789-1889, volume 2 covers 1889-1964, and volume 3 covers 1964-1989.  Volume 2 mentions the Seismological Observatory in passing; however, its  index does not include any entries under that phrase. Look instead under the names of Francis Tondorf and Frederick Sohon to navigate to the relevant pages.

 

 

Woodstock College, a Jesuit Seminary in Maryland, and the Maryland Province of the Society circulated Woodstock Letters among Jesuits and their institutions between 1872 and 1969. The publication includes articles on events, institutions and people, as well as historical pieces. There is an index and this includes at least eight references to the Seismological Observatory at Georgetown. These references appear in two places in the index. One reference is found in the Seismology section (see page 282); this section also includes an article about Father Tondorf. The remaining references are found in the Washington, D.C. section of the index, which is where articles about Georgetown University are typically referenced (see pages 323-327.) Navigate to the GU heading within that section and scan for words relating to seismology. 

Woodstock Letters has been made available online by the Jesuit Archives & Research Center. To access the index online, click on the Index document in the center of the screen - this is the first document shown under the introductory text on the landing page. By clicking on the Index document, you will be able to access the entire Index volume. Scroll through the pages or perform a control f search (hold down the control and f keys on your keyboard at the same time and enter a search term in the search box which appears to the top left of your screen) to navigate to relevant references. You can also navigate to specific pages by using the page count box at the top left - note that the page numbers given in that box are for the PDF document and include the cover page. You can see the actual page numbers at the top left of each page.

To move from the index to the articles being indexed, take note of the two numbers which appear after each topic in the index, e.g. the station at Georgetown 46, 259 listed under the Seismology section. 

The first number given (46) is the volume number, the second (259) is the page number within that volume. Navigate to volume 46 by selecting it from the list of volumes in blue on the left side of the landing page. You will automatically be taken to the cover page of that volume in the center of the screen - note that it will not necessarily be the top volume on the page but the one you are taken to. Click on the cover page to access the contents. You can use the control f search to navigate within the volume or use the page count box at the top left.

Physical volumes of  Woodstock Letters are available for use in the University Archives; request them via the Aeon request system - start with the index.

 

 

The Washington Post provides surprisingly detailed coverage of happenings on campus, particularly in the late 19th and early to mid 20th centuries. It includes articles on the Seismological Observatory and its work. The earliest relevant article seems to date from 1911, the latest from 1964. The Georgetown University Library offers digital access to the Post’s historic archives (scroll down and select that publication from the list) which cover the period 1877 through 1994.

For the most comprehensive search results, make sure you are using the Advanced Search option. Enter the name Georgetown into one search box and Seismo* into another (the * will create a search on all words beginning  with the letters seismo, e.g. seismological, seismograph, seismographical, seismogram, seismologist AND seismology.) Search results can be sorted by date using options under the Sorted By box on the left of the screen.  Results can also be limited to only articles by using the Document Type option at the bottom of that box. Note that access to the Post is available only ON-SITE. Off-site access is limited to those who can authenticate via their GOCards. If you do not have a GOCard (which is the official identification card at Georgetown University), you cannot access the Post archives from off-campus.