National Air and Space Museum Archives

John A. O'Keefe Collection

Summary

Collection ID:
NASM.2002.0055
Creators:
O'Keefe, John Aloysius, 1916-
Dates:
undated
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
31.61 Cubic feet
(29 record center boxes)
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This collection consists of twenty-nine cubic feet of the papers of John A. O'Keefe, mostly relating to his study of tektites. The following types of material are included: correspondence, publications by O'Keefe and various authors, photographs, slides, notes, and reports.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
John A. O'Keefe (1916-2001) was a pioneer in space geodesy and planetary physics, but his passion was his longtime study of tektites. O'Keefe graduated from Harvard University in 1937 with a bachelor's degree in astronomy and received his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Chicago in 1941. During World War II, O'Keefe was with the US Army Corps of Engineers, where he spent 13 years heading the research and analysis branch. During his time with the Corps, O'Keefe made significant contributions to geodesy, including his development of the present NATO map coordinate system (UTM) and his initiative to use satellite tracking for geodesy. In 1958, O'Keefe left the Army Map Service to become the assistant chief of the theoretical division at NASA's newly formed Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. At Goddard, O'Keefe spent the remainder of this career focusing on the study of tektites and the origin of the moon. O'Keefe authored the book, Tektites and Their Origin (1976), in which he presents his belief that tektites were ejected from volcanoes on the moon.

Administration

Immediate Source of Acquisition
Martha O'Keefe, Gift, 2002

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access.
Preferred Citation
John A. O'Keefe Collection, Accession 2002-0055, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Conditions Governing Use
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Tektite Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Geodesics (Mathematics) Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Physics Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Papers Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Correspondence Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Reports Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Slides (photographs) Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

National Air and Space Museum Archives
14390 Air & Space Museum Parkway
Chantilly, VA 20151
NASMRefDesk@si.edu