The ascent of American astronomy to world-leading status at the end of the nineteenth century has been persuasively linked to the pioneering deployment of novel astrophysical techniques in new mountaintop observatories. But such a move to the rarefied air of high-altitude sites presented problems inherent to their remote location. As most American observatories of this era were dependent upon the munificence of private benefactors, their resident astronomers had to ensure that their work was seen to be done, and deemed to be important. This required the projection of authority over long distances, so that the value of local endeavours and claims for the generation of new knowledge were seen and acknowledged widely.

This paper will argue that astronomers’ solution to these problems was the transformation of their isolated observatories into news distribution centres. Disciplinary transformations in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era were, therefore, fundamentally implicated with developments in long-range communications technologies. This was a far more complex process, however, than simply hooking astrophysical laboratories up to the then rapidly expanding international telegraph networks. Generating astronomical news meant forging relationships with media outlets, above all newspapers. But such relationships presented significant challenges to astronomers and administrators keen to carefully manage their public image.

The trials of Harvard College Observatory’s high-altitude outpost in Arequipa, Peru, are exemplary of such issues. By exploring the fraught relationship between its first Director, William Pickering, and his boss in Cambridge, his brother Edward, I will argue that differing attitudes and approaches to the distribution of astronomical news shaped both the perception and progress of this institution’s early years. William’s close relationship with the New York Herald, in particular, allowed the near-instantaneous reporting of exciting new planetary discoveries via the newspaper’s telegraphically-linked offices in Lima, New York and Paris. But Edward’s vision for his South American outpost, which centred on a diligent photographic and spectroscopic survey of the stars, was placed in jeopardy by his brother’s sensational use of the Herald, and challenged his own careful management of the Boston and New York media. In this way, the movement of astronomical news via cable and paper profoundly shaped Harvard Observatory’s astrophysical practices.