The Goddard Rocket Researches: A Photographic Record

'The Goddard Rocket Researches: A Photographic Record' is an annotated photo album covering Robert H. Goddard's work and experimentation with rocketry. It was assembled and curated by Esther Goddard sometime after her husband's passing in 1945.

The vast majority of these photographs were taken by Esther herself. Esther was an avid camerawoman and photographer, and during Robert's lifetime she meticulously documented his life's work in rocketry--from experiments and instruments to processes and workspaces. In his book Rocket Man: Robert H. Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age, David A. Clary states that Esther "became a pioneer in photographic documentation of technology, taking pictures of tests and flights--including deriving stills from movies--and illustrating Robert's notes with detailed photographs of everything manufactured in the shop and assembled into rockets". Esther also shot 16mm film footage when Robert bought her a movie camera in 1926. That footage can be seen here.

Following Robert's death in 1945, Esther dedicated the rest of her life to relentlessly crafting and promoting the legend and reputation of Robert’s life and work. This element of careful curation can be seen in this photo album, both in its construction and the classification system present in the bottom right of each photograph.

This series contains two separate pages: the first is a complete pdf scan of the photo album itself. The second contains jpgs of each individual photograph in the album.

Sources consulted for the descriptions in this series were Esther's photo album annotations, The Papers of Robert Goddard, and Rocket Man: Robert H. Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age by David Clary.

Photographs were scanned at 400dpi. Photographs were cropped by Esther for her photo album. We have cropped them only to level any uneven and/or crookedness present.

These images are the property of Clark University and are intended for non-commercial use. Images may be copied for research, teaching, personal, or any fair use as defined by U.S. copyright law. Images may not be altered in any way. Users of these images are asked to acknowledge Clark University. For questions or further information about usage rights, please contact archives@clarku.edu

All collection descriptions written by Katie Stebbins, Digital Projects Librarian.