The Past Looks Like an Onion: The Centennial “Great Debate” Through Journalists’ Testimonies

The discussion between California astronomers Harlow Shapley of Mount Wilson Observatory and Heber Doust Curtis of Lick Observatory during the 1920 NAS meeting in Washington, DC, is now a centennial vestige of early twentieth-century scientists’ efforts to map the universe. Historians have reconstructed that evening session using surviving archives (such as the formal accounts published in the Bulletin of the National Research Council in 1921), which could have contributed to a romanticized version of the event. Nevertheless, the repercussions of the event in the press have been overlooked as a source of information. On the day following the session, newspapers from all over the country covered the news on a debate on “the size of the universe” including the question of the existence of other galaxies. They used metaphors, figures, and quotes from the lecturers and the attendees, reinforcing the rivalry between the Lick and Mount Wilson observatories, with the goal of stirring the imagination of the American public, connecting the existence of other galaxies to pluralist debates. The myth of the debate may not have been based solely on the Bulletin papers; it is a complex process, which involves the media’s coverage of the event (from journalists’ testimonies in the newspapers articles to public perception).