Abstract

In 1903, after a long trip across the Pacific Ocean, an expedition from the Lick Observatory settled in Santiago de Chile and built an observatory that was a twin of the one they had in California. Through the modern technique of spectroscopy, the goal was to measure the southern stars' radial velocities and thereby to try to understand the structure of the universe. One of the expedition's most valued objects was the set of mirrors of the astronomical equipment. In this paper, I understand the mirrors as scientific devices, but also as metaphors that orientate the analysis of knowledge production, of collective identities, and of geographical similarities. In this way, I seek to rebuild part of this expedition's story from its mirrors, and thus to understand how part of the scientific circulation was generated in the early twentieth century, through the reflections of two places that were spatially and culturally distant.