American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World

“American Eclipse is a fun adventure read. Barron argues that these little remembered expeditions to the American West to study the eclipse of 1878 were a success for America for decades that followed.”

The year 1878 proved a bizarre year in an infamously tumultuous decade. Biblical scale weather phenomena and locusts plagued the United States.

In American Eclipse: A Nation’s Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World, David Baron discusses one of the strangest and most forgotten events of that year, the Great Eclipse of July 29, 1878. With predictions of the Second Coming by evangelists in previous years, the public panicked.

American Eclipse suffers from not having a clear introduction, or order. The author intends to explain that the 1870s was also a boom period for the United States and the nation sought to show itself ready to stand with the great nations of the worlds, as reflected in the American Centennial in 1876. Exploring the eclipse would be another landmark.

The background is well written, if sometimes appearing disorganized, and makes for an engaging, if roundabout, preface to the subject. Reading about Edison and then about American feminism in the era seems off in a book about an eclipse and America’s emerging greatness, which begins on page 46, but that purpose becomes clear later.

Eclipses could be predicted with precision by 1878 and advances in astronomy made the one to be seen so clearly in the United States important. Questions could be answered about Mercury’s eccentric orbit and if it has a near neighbor, to be named Vulcan (if proven to exist).  No less important would be to compare predictions to the reality of the eclipse.

The United States Naval Observatory intended to record this event from Montana to Texas. It already boasted of having the world’s largest refracting telescope. Congress, after some pressure, funded the project.

Thomas Edison would be the most famous participant in this project, an entrepreneur inventor among distinguished scientists. He and his entourage traveled in an elegant hotel railroad car.

Also accompanying this expedition was “a patchwork of tourists, immigrants, gold seekers, cowboys, politicians, and businessmen.” Local people came forward to help with what the newspapers made a national sensation.

Scientists joining this grand expedition included international notables. British astronomer Norman Lockyer had discovered helium on the sun and had participated on similar trips around the world. He came despite the recent death of his son. Planet hunter James Craig Watson and his wife Deliah had previous adventures in China and Egypt. Chemistry professor John W. Langley “used an improvised photometer to measure the brightness of the corona.”

The author writes that Rawlins, Wyoming, became the Athens of the West. At night, the astronomers gave the local people tours of the night sky. Photographs were taken but cameras were not yet sophisticated enough for use in recording an eclipse. Edison demonstrated his “tasimeter” to measure heat from the sun during the eclipse.

An important part of the story is Maria Mitchell, pioneer in American astronomy and discoverer of a comet. Denied participation in the Naval Observatory expeditions and otherwise discriminated against as a woman, she led her own group to Colorado for the event.

With her most talented Vassar students and former students, Mitchell mounted an expedition “more daring, more distant, and more resolutely public.” “The Vassar eclipse expedition of 1878 would pose a far greater challenge and carry larger stakes.” They made no discoveries but achieved a triumph for women’s rights as groundbreakers of women scientists in 1878.

These efforts represented the new age and the new America. Railroads and telegraphs made the journeys comfortable and swift. The Army provided support for the Naval Observatory and its Signal Corps helped with timely information in the new and evolving field of meteorology.

American Eclipse is a fun adventure read. Barron argues that these little remembered expeditions to the American West to study the eclipse of 1878 were a success for America for decades that followed.

That triumph manifested itself in many ways, including technology, transportation, and the growing women’s movement. The narrative will confuse some readers but that will only add to the suspense.

American Eclipse is well illustrated with the images carefully placed in the text. The book has a 19th century feel to it, although the physical quality of the paperback could be better. This work has annotation and a select bibliography.