Records of Harvard College Observatory Boyden Station, Bloemfontein, South Africa

The Harvard College Observatory was founded in 1839 by the Harvard Corporation after decades of attempts to develop an observatory at Harvard University. Under the Observatory's first two directors, William Cranch Bond and his son, George Phillips Bond, the Observatory began an extensive study of the Orion Nebula and Saturn, discovering the eighth satellite of Saturn, Hyperion in 1848; and the dark inner ring of Saturn (the Crepe Ring) in 1850. Pioneers in astrophotography, the Bonds produced the first recognizable daguerreotype of the Moon and the star Vega in 1850; and the first photographic print of the Moon in 1857. The Observatory became the world's foremost producer of stellar spectra and magnitudes, established an observing station in Peru, and applied mass-production techniques to the analysis of data during the directorship of Edward C. Pickering from 1877 to 1919. Harlow Shapley, director of the Observatory in the 1950s, expanded the scope of the Observatory's galactic research tracking minor planets and asteroids in the Solar System and increasing its telescopic power with the establishment of the Oak Ridge station, also known as the George R. Agassiz Station, in Harvard, Massachusetts.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Observatory directors Donald H. Menzel and Leo Goldberg maintained programs in solar and stellar astrophysics and space astronomy. In 1973, the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (founded in 1890) merged to form the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The Center is a research institute that carries on studies in astronomy, astrophysics, earth and space sciences, and science education.

In 1890, the Harvard College Observatory sent astronomer Solon Irving Bailey to South America to establish an observatory near Arequipa, Peru. Boyden Station, as it was named, was intended to perform photographic surveys of the sky not visible from Cambridge's northern latitude. In 1908, after severe weather rendered observations at Arequipa increasingly difficult, Bailey traveled to South Africa to explore potential new locations for Boyden Station. He eventually recommended a site near Bloemfontein, although a lack of funds delayed the move until 1927. Bloemfontein's first and longtime director was Greek astronomer John S. Paraskevopoulos, who held the post from 1927 until his death in 1951. Harvard stopped its direct financial support of the site in 1966.

The area in which Boyden Station was established was referred to as the Cape Colony at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was a British colony established in 1806 in what is now South Africa. When the Union of South Africa formed in 1910, the area of the Cape Colony became part of the province of the Cape of Good Hope, also called Cape Province.

Solon Irving Bailey (1854-1931), Phillips Professor of Astronomy at Harvard, spent forty-four years with the Harvard College Observatory. Bailey was largely responsible for the successful establishment of Harvard's Boyden Station Observatory in Arequipa, Peru. His pioneering photographic studies of globular clusters, variable stars, nebulae, and galactic clusters provided the basis from which other astronomers were able to determine the size of the Milky Way and other galaxies.

While earning his AM at Harvard, Bailey joined the staff of the Harvard College Observatory as a volunteer in 1887. In 1889, Observatory director Edward C. Pickering sent him to South America to find a suitable site for a telescope to extend Harvard’s astronomical observations to the southern hemisphere. Bailey traveled in Peru for two years, finally selecting Arequipa as the site of the Boyden Station Observatory, where he served as director until 1905. He also established a series of meteorological stations, culminating in 1893 with the creation of a weather station near the peak of El Misti, a volcano overlooking the city of Arequipa. In 1908, after severe weather rendered observations at Arequipa increasingly difficult, Bailey traveled to South Africa to explore potential new locations for the Boyden Station. He traveled between Peru and Cambridge throughout his career.

Bailey was acting director of the Harvard College Observatory from 1919 to 1921 after the death of Edward Charles Pickering and prior to the appointment of Harlow Shapley. He died in 1931.

John Stefanos Paraskevopoulos (1889-1951) was a Greek astronomer who served as superintendent of the Harvard College Observatory’s Boyden Station. Paraskevopoulos, or "Paras" as he was sometimes known, obtained his PhD in 1910 from the University of Athens. Following his studies, he served in the Greek army during World War I and worked at the National Observatory of Athens.

In 1921, Paraskevopoulos traveled to the United States on a two-year fellowship, working at Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin. He then returned to Greece as head of the astronomy department of the National Observatory of Athens, with the intention of building a large telescope for Greece. However, political instability caused by a war between Greece and Turkey disrupted these plans. Consequently, in September 1923, Paraskevopoulos accepted an offer from the Harvard College Observatory to become superintendent of the Observatory's southern station in Arequipa, Peru. After Boyden Station relocated to South Africa in 1927, Paraskevopoulos served as its director until his sudden death in 1951. A crater "Paraskevopoulos" on the Moon is named in his honor.

Henry ("Harry") J. Smith (1928-1983), astronomer, received his PhD in astronomy from Harvard University in 1955. Smith was superintendent of Boyden Station from 1952 to 1954, following the death of John Paraskevopoulos. From 1955 to 1963, he directed the Solar Activity Patrol at the Sacramento Peak Observatory in New Mexico before leaving for NASA, where he served as Chief of the Solar Physics Program, then Deputy Director of Physics and Astronomy, and finally as Deputy Associate Administrator for Sciences and Applications. From 1976 until his death in 1983, he was a member of the Combat Support Systems Directorate in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Research, Development and Acquisition of the United States Department of the Army. Smith was married to fellow astronomer Elske van Panhuys Smith (1929-), and the two collaborated frequently, including as co-authors of the book, Solar Flares.

Elske van Panhuys Smith (1929-), astronomer and solar physicist, was born on November 9, 1929 in Monte Carlo, Monaco. She went to the United States in 1943 and received her BS in astronomy from Radcliffe College in 1950, her MA in 1951, and her PhD in 1956. She married fellow astronomer Henry J. Smith in 1950, and the two collaborated professionally throughout their lives. Smith aided her husband in his work as superintendent of the Boyden Station of the Harvard College Observatory in South Africa from 1952 to 1954. The couple remained working for the Harvard College Observatory until 1958.

Smith was on the faculty at the University of Maryland for more than 15 years and was dean and director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. She retired in 1995.