Yerkes

Built just before the turn of the 20th century, funded by a transportation tycoon, the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, exists today as a conservancy, managed by the Yerkes Future Foundation. The “Great Refractor,” a massive 40-inch refracting telescope, still the largest of its kind ever built, is still operational. The plate shown was published on the front page of newspapers worldwide. The Yerkes has tens of thousands of these plates, which were recently deeded to the conservancy from the University of Chicago.

If you want to learn more, check out www. yerkesobservatory.org