Astronomer, Educator, and Optician
John A. Brashear
History Cover Page
John A Brashear (1840 - 1920)
John Brashear served as Acting Director of Pittsburgh's Allegheny Observatory(then located on the campus of the Western University of Pennsylvania on Old Observatory Hill in Allegheny City, Pa., prior to the University's planned move to the Oakland section of Pittsburgh; with annexation to the City of Pittsburgh in 1907, Allegheny City became Pittsburgh's North Side) and, almost singlehandedly, raised the funds to build the three-dome Observatory building which exists today. He was also Acting Chancellor of the Western University of Pennsylvania(now, the University of Pittsburgh) and served on the Board of Directors of Carnegie Institute and the Carnegie Technical Schools(now Carnegie-Mellon University). He associated with many of Pittsburgh's captains of industry including Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, George Westinghouse, William Thaw, and Henry Phipps.
With his love of people, particularly children, most Pittsburghers knew him as "Uncle John." The cremated remains of John Brashear, and his wife Phoebe, lie in a special crypt below the base of one of the telescopes Brashear's company produced for the Allegheny Observatory. From the poem, "The Old Astronomer to His Pupil," by Sarah Williams, which both Brashears loved, the epitaph on their spaces read:
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Autobiography
(Full text - in its entirety)
Biographical Fact Sheet & Brief Biography *** Short Biography *** Capsule Biography *** Photo Album
* 2006 Oct. 18 - Investor's Business Daily:
John Brashear Kept His Goals In Sharp Focus
BY DONNA HOWELL, Technology Reporter
Friends of the Zeiss Project Director Glenn A. Walsh is extensively
quoted in this national business newspaper article, regarding the life of
famous 19th century astronomer and lens maker
John A. Brashear.
Colleagues of John A. Brashear
Scientists: Professor Samuel Pierpont Langley *** Professor James E. Keeler
Philanthropists & Industrialists:
Andrew Carengie ***
Henry Clay Frick ***
Charles M. Schwab ***
Henry Phipps ***
George Westinghouse
John Brashear and the Historic 11-inch Refractor Telescope
11-inch Brashear Refractor at the Nicholas E. Wagman Observatory
Crater on Planet Mars Named for John Brashear
Friends of the Phoebe
The Phoebe, John Brashear's boat used on Lake Muskoka in Canada.
* 2002 March - Magazine of the Antique and Classic Boat Society, Toronto Chapter:
The Restoration of the Historic Steam Launch Phoebe.
By Henk Wevers, P.Eng.
Coordinator Phoebe Restoration Group
Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston.
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 8, 1920:
Obituary of John A.
Brashear
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 22, 1995:
Astronomical: 1908
Brashear Telescope Aimed at the Stars Again
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February, 1996:
Pittsburgh
Astronomer is Saluted as an Asteroid is Named for Him
From the Pittsburgh City Paper, June 9, 1999:
You Had to Ask: The Naming of Asteroids
in
Honor
of Pittsburgh and Allegheny City
Actually Honors John Brashear
* 2002 March - Magazine of the Antique and Classic Boat Society, Toronto Chapter:
The Restoration of the Historic Steam Launch Phoebe.
By Henk Wevers, P.Eng.
Coordinator Phoebe Restoration Group
Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston.
* 2006 Oct. 18 - Investor's Business Daily:
John Brashear Kept His Goals In Sharp Focus
BY DONNA HOWELL, Technology Reporter
Friends of the Zeiss Project Director Glenn A. Walsh is extensively
quoted in this national business newspaper article, regarding the life of
famous 19th century astronomer and lens maker
John A. Brashear.
* The Ralph Mueller Observatory of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History - 10 1/2-inch refracting telescope built by the Warner & Swasey Co. of Cleveland in 1899. The renowned J.A. Brashear Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ground the telescope’s optics.
* Bunyan Observatory Little Thompson Valley Pioneer Museum in Berthoud, Colorado (45 miles north of Denver) uses a Brashear 140mm (51/2-inch) multi-element refractor telescope mounted in a bras tube. Public observing with this telescope is free-of-charge on the first Friday of every month (weather-permitting).
Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, Chicago, Illinois
Nicholas E. Wagman Observatory, Russelton, Pennsylvania, of the
Deer Lakes Regional Park of the County of Allegheny, Russelton,
Pennsylvania
Amateur Astronomers' Association of
Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Brashear
Association, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
L-3 Brashear, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
Brashear
High School of the
School District
of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
John A. Brashear Lodge No. 743
Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
History of The
Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
\Allegheny City Society,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh History and Landmarks
Foundation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh
Regional History Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh<.a> -
(home of the
Nicholas E. Wagman Observatory)
(formerly Contraves Brashear Systems, L.P.)
Current successor to John Brashear's optical company
L-3 Brashear prepared the mirror of the 8.2-meter flagship telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the Subaru Telescope, which started astronomical research in January of 1999 on Mauna Kea in Hawaii:
Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania
John Brashear was instrumental in establishment of, what originally was called, the Carnegie Technical Schools.
(formerly the Carnegie Technical Schools and the Carnegie Institute of
Technology, and
also the Mellon Institute of
Industrial Research)
John Brashear served as Acting Chancellor of, what originally was called, the Western University of Pennsylvania.
(formerly the Pittsburgh Academy and the Western University of
Pennsylvania)
Other History Links
History of the Allegheny Observatory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
America's Fifth Major Planetarium
Preserving the history of Allegheny City and Pittsburgh's North Side
Operated by the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
History of Andrew Carnegie and Carnegie Libraries
History
of
the Andrew Carnegie Free Library Civil War Museum:
The Captain Thomas Espy Post #153, Grand Army of the Republic,
Carnegie, Pennsylvania
History Cover Page for The Duquesne Incline, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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This Internet, World Wide Web Site, created June 26, 1999, administered by Glenn A. Walsh.
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A. Walsh, All Rights Reserved.
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