Project Editor: Susannah Hall, UCARE, 2008

GOODWIN DELOSS SWEZEY'S OBSERVATORY

In 1896, Goodwin DeLoss Swezey joined the faculty of the University of Nebraska as an Astronomer and Meteorology instructor. The University allocated $500 to build a "temporary" Astronomy building, and proposed Swezey eventually begin to gather ideas for a more permanent observatory.

Over the next decade, G.D. Swezey corresponded with several other schools about the costs and equipment for an observatory. In 1905, the plans for the observatory began to gain momentum. Swezey gathered estimates and ideas for the building, and even commissioned a 12" lens ground by Dr. Charles S. Minnich, an apothecary in Palmer, NE, for a telescope. He had the engineering department build the mounting for the telescope, and nearly everything was prepared for by the end of 1906. However, the University could not afford the other equipment and the $12,500 observatory.

In 1917, the plans for an observatory again come to the university's attention. G.D. Swezey and Charles Chowin, a campus building supervisor, draw up more serious blueprints and plans for the building. However, the $25,000 allocated for the project are appropriated at the last minute for a different building that went over its budget. These two sets of plans remain:

Set 1

Set 2

In 1929, the observatory plans were reviewed again, but it came to nothing. The appraisal of the program was promising, and a letter from Fred A. Marsh on October 20, 1929 stated:

"Our board went no farther yesterday than to express, by unanimous vote, a friendly attitude toward the proposal which we made. I am very hopeful of affirmation action soon, but with my present limited knowledge of the University's needs I dare not press very hard for any building project however worthy it may seem to me. It has seemed to me that the little cubby where you are obliged to work is almost a disgrace to our campus and is certainly belittling to the great branch of learning which you teach."

Needless to say, the severe economic downturn which occurred in the two weeks following this letter cut short any plans for the Astronomy department. After this third disheartening disappointment, G.D. Swezey gave up lobbying for the building.

Peru Normal would eventually use the plans, before NU reconsidered them in the late 1960s. In 1931, the department had the lens ground by C.S. Minnich appraised; it was valued at $15,000. Although it was kept by the department for many years, it was eventually lost, stolen or destroyed between the 1950s and early 1980s.

In 1932, G.D. Swezey retired, and the Astronomy department was absorbed by the Mathematics department. It was difficult for Swezey to realize that, instead of leaving behind a strong Astronomy program and an impressive observatory, he was leaving behind a dying department. His retirement coincided with a large wave of faculty resignations and dismissals caused by economic limitations of the Great Depression. Although records do not support or deny the suggestion, it is possible that Swezey was encouraged to leave because his department was not considered vital to the university.

The Astronomy classes were all taught by a single assistant professor, Oliver C. Collins, until he retired in the late 1950s. The department was revived at the very end of the 1960s when new astrophysics faculty joined the university, and Behlen funds were used to convert an old army base 30 miles outside Lincoln into, finally, a real observatory for the University of Nebraska.