Pickering, Edward Charles (1846-1919)

Distinguished astronomer and a founding member of the American Society for Psychical Research. He was born on July 19, 1846, in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied at the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University (B.S., 1865). After graduation he taught mathematics and physics at Lawrence (1865-67) and then became a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1868-77). In 1877 he was appointed director of the Harvard Observatory, a position he held for 42 years. Pickering devised methods of measuring the magnitudes of stars and supervised the cataloguing of some 80,000 stars. He also established the Harvard Observatory auxiliary station at Arequipa, Peru, in 1891.

In the field of parapsychology, Pickering was vice president of the American Society for Psychical Research from 1885 to 1888 and served on the society's Committee on Thought Transference. He participated in the statistical analysis of experiments in telepathy using cards, dice, and numbers, a precursor to the methods later championed by parapsychology. He died on February 3, 1919, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Sources:

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Pickering, Edward Charles. "Possibility of Errors in Scientific Researches, Due to Thought-Transference." Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 1 (1885).

Pickering, Edward Charles, and J. M. Peirce. "Discussion of Returns in Response to Circular No. 4." Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 1 (July 1885).

Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. New York: Helix Press, 1964.