Gift for Astronomical Study.

Professor E. C. Pickering, director of the Astronomical Observatory, has received notice during the recess that the Observatory has been given the sum of $2,500 by the Carnegie Institution at Washington for the purpose of affording resources for the study of the large collection of astronomical photographs which has been made by the Harvard Observatory within the past few years. An exhaustive study of these photographs, which are estimated by Professor Pickering to exceed 100,000 in number, has heretofore been impossible on account of the lack of funds available for the purpose. Many of the photographs are not to be found outside of the University Observatory and on this account are of especial value. The money is to be used in 1903 and Professor Pickering already has a corps of observers at work on the photographs as a result of the gift.