Astronomy Department Project And Grant Proposal Files

These records of the Astronomy Department consist of miscellaneous departmental project files and materials relating to research grant proposals submitted to various sponsoring agencies. The records span the dates 1949-1971, with the bulk from 1963-1969, the height of the United States Space Program.

The Northwestern University Project materials are arranged alphabetically by folder title and chronologically within each folder. The “projects” include those relating to observatories, procurements, conferences and events, all of special interest to or sponsored by the department and not part of routine departmental business.

The remaining records are Grant Proposals, arranged alphabetically by sponsoring agency and include: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, the United States Air Force, the United States Army and the United States Navy. The proposals are in the form of descriptive papers of varying lengths, accompanied by a cover letter from a member of Northwestern's Astronomy Department. The paper details the nature of a given project and its possible value to the sponsor. Those proposals that were accepted and received funding have progress reports, correspondence and financial records, such as itemized budgets, filed with the project's descriptions.

The records of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles were removed from the collection. Photographs were removed and have been filed under the Astronomy Department in the University Archives Photographic Collection (see Separation Record).