Abstract
There is a certain risk in commemorating Kapteyn. The story of his career as an astronomer could awaken unwelcome ideas in the minds of the higher education officials. Kapteyn, they may say, has achieved fame and success entirely on his own, without extra funding, even with hardly any support from his University. So why cannot everybody else? Does the case of Kapteyn not prove that a benign neglect, almost to the point of obstruction, is a necessary challenge to a gifted scientist? This is not the lesson that should be drawn from Kapteyn’s achievement. Yet it cannot be denied that Kapteyn received very little help from the Dutch government or his University. Many young professors in his situation would have been thoroughly demoralized. Kapteyn was not; and, perhaps even more surprisingly, he remained loyal to Groningen almost to the end of his life. Obviously he had a gift of making the best out of limited means. But this may not be the whole story.
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References
What exactly happened to Kapteyn’s private papers remains a matter of dispute. Bastiaan Willink has elaborated on the possibility that they remained with the heirs of Willem de Sitter. When he emigrated to the Dutch Indies in 1939, de Sitter’s son Aernout may have left a chest of papers concerning Kapteyn in Rotterdam, where it would then have disappeared during the bombing of May 1940. This, however, is not much more than an interesting suggestion. See Bastiaan Willink, 1998, “De Tweede Gouden Eeuw. Nederland en de Nobelprijzen voor Natuurwetenschappen 1870–1940” (Amsterdam), p.93. The Huizinga Archives at the University Library at Leiden contain no material with reference to Kapteyn.
W.E. Krul, 1990, “Historicus tegen de Tijd. Opstellen over Leven en Werk van J. Huizinga” (Groningen), p.66.
De Sitter had honoured Kapteyn at his 70th birthday, and both had written commemorations after his death. It seems they decided they had already said what was essential, when they heard of the plans by Kapteyn’s daughter Henrietta to write a biography herself. See W. de Sitter, 1921, “De Bouw van het Sterrenstelsel. Kapteyn’s Beteekenis voor de Moderne Astronomie”, De Gids 85 III, 128–144;
J. Huizinga, 1922, “J.G. Kapteyn”, in: Idem, Verzamelde werken VI (Haarlem, 1950), 336–338;
W. de Sitter, 1922, “Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn”, Hemel en Dampkring 20, 98–111.
Henrietta Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, 1928, “J.C. Kapteyn, Zijn Leven en Werken”.
Henrietta Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, “The Life and Works of J.C. Kapteyn”, an annotated translation with an introduction by E. Robert Paul (Dordrecht, 1993).
An excellent (English) summary of Kapteyn’s career is A. Blaauw, 1973, “Kapteyn, Jacobus Cornelius”, in: Dictionary of Scientific Biography VII (New York), 235–240.
David Gill, 1913, “A History and Description of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope” (London), xxxix.
J. Schuller tot Peursum-Meijer, 1983, “De sterrenkunde vòòr Kapteyn, 1614–1878”, in: A. Blaauw et al., “Sterrenkijhen Bekeken; Sterrenkunde aan de Groningse Universiteit vanaf 1614” (Groningen), 23–26.
For the choice of Kapteyn, see Ibidem, 27–28. His qualities as a mathematician seem to have counted as much as his experience as an astronomer.
Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p.35; ed. Paul, p. 19.
J. Huizinga, “Geschiedenis der Universiteit gedurende de Derde Eeuw van Haar Bestaan, 1814–1914”, in: Idem, Verzamelde werken VIII (Haarlem, 1951), 295–339.
Jaarboek van de Rijks Universiteit te Groningen 1878–1879, p.27. To give an impression of the value of Dutch money at the time: a skilled worker earned f 10 to f 15 a week, a primary schoolteacher was paid about f 1000 a year, a grammar school teacher f 2000; a young professor like Kapteyn had a salary of f 4000; for a senior professor, the maximum was f 6000. In a town like Groningen at the turn of the century, anyone with an annual income over f 4000 would be considered well-to-do.
Jaarboek van de Rijks Universiteit te Groningen 1883–1884, p.35.
Jaarboek van de Rijks Universiteit te Groningen 1884–1885, p.32. This must have been the “small all-purpose instrument” mentioned by Pannekoek, “which was set up in Kapteyn’s garden when a student expressed the wish to train himself [in observation]”. The same instrument was later rebuilt into his famous “parallactic measuring instrument”: A. Pannekoek, 1922, “Kapteyn und Sein Astronomisches Werk”, Die Naturwissenschaften 10, 967–980, quotation, p.969; see also the illustration in Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p.52 (not reproduced by Paul).
Jaarboek van de Rijks Universiteit te Groningen 1885–1886, p.30.
De Sitter, “De Bouw van het Sterrenstelsel”, p.129, seems to to confirm that Gill and Kapteyn had already met before 1885. See above, note 6. Kapteyn was at work at Leiden Observatory when he wrote his famous letter to Gill in December 1885: J.C. Kapteyn, “De Beteekenis der Photographie voor de Studie van de Hoogere Deelen des Hemels”, Jaarboek der Rijks Universiteit te Groningen 1890–1891, p.3–24, esp. 11. For extracts of their correspondence, see Gill, “History and Description11, xlix–1.
Jaarboek van de Rijks Universiteit te Groningen 1886–1887, p.31.
See the drawing reproduced in E. Dekker, “Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (1851–1922)”, in: Blaauw et al., Sterrenkijken Bekeken, p.33. The floor plan, dating from May 30, 1890, indicates that the Groningen Observatory would combine several functions; Kapteyn was also expected to have his private home in the building.
Kapteyn, “De Beteekenis der Photographie voor de Studie van de Hoogere Delen des Hemels”, Jaarboek der Rijks Universiteit te Groningen 1890–1891, 3–24.
C. Easton, 1922, “Persoonlijke Herinneringen aan J.C. Kapteyn”, Hemel en Dampkring 20, 112–117, 151–164, quotation p.158. Apparently, Kapteyn has been confused with his father, who indeed was a school-teacher.
Jaarboek der Rijks Universiteit te Groningen 1893–1894, p.31. That year, Kapteyn was granted the sum of f 2400 to buy a Repsold measuring instrument; cf. Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p.71; ed. Paul, p.36; W.G. Perdok, 1964, “J.C. Kapteyn”, in: Universitas Groningana MCMXIV-MCMLXIV. Gedenkboek ter Gelegenheid van het 300-jarig Bestaan der Rijks Universiteit Groningen, 176–183, esp. 179.
Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p.123, ed. Paul, p.66. Perdok, “Kapteyn”, p.179, mentions the date of 1906. Paul is probably right that the reference is to a discussion in the First Chamber of Parliament; I have not been able, though, to find any source material concerning this story.
See the list of Kapteyn’s pupils in Blaauw et al., “Sterrenkijken Bekeken”, p. 105, and the contribution by van Berkel in this volume.
Groningen University finally obtained its observatory in 1931, as a result of the search for private funding by Kapteyn’s successor P.J. van Rhijn. See Blaauw et al., “Sterrenkijken Bekeken”, p.58.
After Kapteyn’s retirement, the building (now no longer extant) was renamed the “Astronomical Laboratory Kapteyn”. It remained in use as such until 1970.
Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p.31; ed. Paul, p. 16.
Most biographers comment upon Kapteyn’s insouciance in dress. To modern eyes, this is only noticeable in the existing photographs of Kapteyn, when one compares them to contemporary portraits of other academics.
J.C. Kapteyn, 1914, “Het Sterrekundig Laboratorium”, in: J. Huizinga et al., Academia Groningana MDCXIV-MCMXIV, 550–552, quotation p.552.
A. Pannekoek, “J.C. Kapteyn und Sein Astronomisches Werk”, p.970.
Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p.53 [my translation]; ed. Paul, p.26. Cf. De Sitter, “Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn”, p.98.
Easton, “Persoonlijke Herinneringen”, 151–152; Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, 12–13; ed. Paul, 6–7.
Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p.9, 12, 18; ed. Paul, p.5, 6, 9.
Easton, “Persoonlijke Herinneringen”, 116–117.
P.J. van Rhijn, 1924, “Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn. In Memoriam”, Groningsche Volksalmanak voor 1925, 107–114, esp. 113.
Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p.21–22, 36, 39, 42; ed. Paul, p.11–12, 20, 22.
One of his sisters-in-law was Mrs. Kapteyn-Muysken, around 1900 a well-known author on what was then called “the social question”. Cf. Easton, “Persoonlijke Herinneringen”‘, p. 152.
In his study, Kapteyn always had a portrait bust of Dickens: Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p.39 (not “the best of Dickens”, as E. Robert Paul has it in his version, p.20). On his death bed, when he was no longer able to speak, Kapteyn had his American friend Charles St. John read Dickens to him: Anon., 1922, “From an Oxford Note-book”, The Observatory 45, 271–272; Easton, “Persoonlijke Herinneringen”, p. 115.
Jaarboek der Rijks Universiteit te Groningen 1890–1891, p.27.
Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p. 107; ed. Paul, p.55.
Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p.90. Paul’s translation has “at great cost”, which would be out of character; p.47.
Huizinga, “J.C. Kapteyn”, p.337.
Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p. 138; ed. Paul, p.73.
“I have to think strongly of St. Francis. I will not mention the similarity in the book, but suggest it”. Johan Huizinga, “Amerika Dagboek”, ed. A. van der Lern (Amsterdam, 1993), 108.
W. Moll, 1957, “Persoonlijke Herinneringen aan de Stad Groningen rond de Eeuwwisseling”, Groningsche Volksalmanak voor 1957, 33–52, quotation p.44.
Easton, “Persoonlijke herinneringen”, p.151.
Perdok, “J.C. Kapteyn”, p. 181; the original conversation is in Groningen dialect.
Van Rhijn, “Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn”, p.112; see also de Sitter, “De Bouw van het Sterrenstelsel”, p. 132.
Easton, “Persoonlijke Herinneringen”, p.112.
Ibidem, 156–157; Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, 106–107, ed. Paul, p.55.
Perdok, “J.C. Kapteyn”, p.181.
Huizinga, “J.C. Kapteyn”, p.337.
Pannekoek, “Kapteyn und Sein Astronomisches Werk”, p.977; Perdok, “J.C. Kapteyn”, p. 180; Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, 118–119; ed. Paul, 62–63; Easton, “Persoonlijke Herinnering en”‘, 153–154. Easton points to the fact that only now Kapteyn began to think of English as his second language; at his father’s boarding school French had been the language of conversation, and until 1900 he had mostly published in Dutch, German and French.
D.C. Hesseling, 1931, “Levensbericht van Ursul Philip Boissevain”, Jaarboek Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen 1930–1931, 35–78.
See various contributions in Douwe Draaisma, 1992, “Een Laboratorium voor de Ziel. Gerard Heymans en het Begin van de Experimentele Psychologie” (Groningen).
Moll, “Persoonlijke Herinneringen”, 45–49.
Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p. 106; ed. Paul, p.54.
G. Heymans, 1910, “Die Psychologie der Frauen” (Heidelberg).
For a balanced discussion of Heymans’ enquiries, and on Kapteyn’s collaboration, cf. Inge de Wilde, 1998, “Nieuwe Deelgenoten in de Wetenschap. Vrouwelijke Studenten en Docerenden aan de Rijksuniversiteit te Groningen 1871–1919” (Assen), 161–197.
Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, 88, 124; ed. Paul, 46, 66–67. De Wilde, “Nieuwe Deelgenoten”, 90, 101, has photographs of Dody Kapteyn (born 1880) as a medical student in Groningen.
Etine Imke Smid, “Bepaling der Eigenbeweging in Rechte Klimming en Declinatie van 119 Sterren”, doctoral degree at Groningen University, June 13, 1914. E.I. Smid (1885–1960) continued her career as astronomer until her marriage in 1916; cf. De Wilde, “Nieuwe Deelgenoten”, 105–106.
At least some of Johan Huizinga’s children remembered her in this way.
Easton, “Persoonlijke Herinneringen”, p.114.
On the crisis: Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, 61–62; ed. Paul, p.30.
On Kapteyn’s faithful and competent assistant T.W. de Vries, see Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p.54, ed. Paul, p.27. In 1907, de Vries was paid the modest salary of f 1000 a year, according to the State Budget for Groningen University; besides, the budget has an entrance of f 800 for an attendant at the Laboratory. There is a photograph of Kapteyn’s staff in Blaauw et al., “Sterrenhijken Bekeken”, p.50.
On the subsidies received by Kapteyn for the project, cf. Gill, “A History and Description”, li; Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, 53, 57; ed. Paul, 26, 28.
Blaauw, “Kapteyn”, Dictionary of Scientific Biography VII, 236.
Cf. Groningen, Town and Provincial Archives, inventory nr. 83: prison archives, documents concerning the employment of prisoners.
For Domela’s term in prison, see for instance Jan Meyers, 1993, “Domela, een Leven op Aarde. Leven en Streven van Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis” (Amsterdam), 163–176. Meyers lays much stress on the complete unwillingness of the prison authorities to have the inmates do any other than the usual mindless jobs.
A.S. Eddington, 1922, “Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn”, The Observatory 45, 261–265, quotation p.262.
A.S. Eddington, 1922, “Jacobus Cornelis Kapteyn, 1851–1922”, Proceedings Royal Society London, Section A, 102, xxix–xxxv, quotation p.xxxi. It is significant that neither Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, Gill or Pannekoek, who certainly would have known about it, mention anything of the sort. For Kapteyn’s collaborators, see also Gill, “A History and Description”, lvi.
The Groningen archives contain no indication of any exception from the usual labour made for specific prisoners, or of any payments made by Kapteyn or the University to the prison authorities.
Groningen, Town and Provincial Archives, Primitief Kohier van den Hoofdelijken Omslag [Register of the Local Taxes], 1900, 1910.
Easton, “Persoonlijke Herinneringen”, p. 157.
The fact that David Gill in 1892 had received the Ordre pour le Mérite, must certainly have influenced Kapteyn in accepting it.
The attempts by the Dutch Academy of Sciences to act as a mediator are documented in detail in W. Otterspeer, J. Schuller tot Peursum-Meijer, “Wetenschap en Wereldvrede. De Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen en het Herstel van de Internationale Wetenschap tijdens het Interbellum” (Amsterdam, 1997). For the attitude of Kapteyn and Heymans, see especially pp.99–117.
See also A. Blaauw, “History of the IAU: The Birth and First Half-Century of the International Astronomical Union” (Dordrecht, 1994).
Easton, “Persoonlijke Herinneringen”, p.160.
Pannekoek, “Kapteyn und Sein Astronomisches Werk”, p.977.
Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p.171; ed. Paul, p.87. According to Moll, “Persoonlijke Herinneringen”, p.45, they went on bicycle from Groningen to the railway station in Assen, intending to take the train incognito.
The first decades of the 20th century were a remarkably successful period for the natural sciences in the Netherlands, with several Nobel Prize winners. For Kapteyn’s work in this context, see Willink, “De Tweede Gouden Eeuw”, 88–94.
Easton, “Persoonlijke Herinneringen”, 155–156; see also the perspicacious remarks in Pannekoek, “Kapteyn und Sein Astronomisches Werk”, p.980.
It is true that Eddington attended the meeting in Potsdam; but the war had estranged Kapteyn from many of his British and American friends.
Only van Rhijn, “Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn”, p.113, is much more reserved on this point: “To work with Kapteyn was not easy; he demanded much, and was disappointed when the work was not ready as soon as he had expected”. Van Rhijn, professor of astronomy in Groningen from 1921 to 1956, carefully continued the work at the Astronomical Laboratory along the lines Kapteyn had set out. But it was rumoured that Kapteyn would have preferred the physicist and later Nobel Prize winner F. Zernike, who worked as his assistant between 1913 and 1915, to be his successor; A. Blaauw et ah, “Sterrenkijken Bekeken”, 61–62.
Anon., 1922, “From an Oxford Note-book”, The Observatory 45, 271–272.
Quoted in Hertzsprung-Kapteyn, p.133; ed. Paul, p.71.
Ibidem, p.140; ed. Paul, p.74.
Ibidem, p.141; ed. Paul, p.75.
To K.A.R. Bosscha, May 19, 1920; quoted in Dekker, “Sterrerikijken Bekeken”, p.37.
Van Rhijn, “Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn”, p. 114. An introduction to Kapteyn with special attention to this last phase of his work is: E. Dekker, 1980, “Jacobus C. Kapteyn (1851–1922)”, in: A.J. Kox, M. Chamalaun, eds., “Van Stevin tot Lorentz. Portretten van Nederlandse Natuurwetenschappers” (Amsterdam), 177–191.
Eddington, “Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn” [The Observatory], p.265.
Huizinga, “Kapteyn”, Verzamelde Werken VI, 338. Van Anrooy played an instrumental version of the final chorale from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.
Eddington, “Kapteyn”, Proceedings, xxxv.
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Krul, W.E. (2000). Kapteyn and Groningen: A Portrait. In: The Legacy of J.C. Kapteyn. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 246. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9864-9_3
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