In this book, we have attempted to correct some mistaken views of the history of the AAVSO that have developed over a number of years. Those problems have crept into the historical record in a number of ways, but all seem to have their origin in the Pickering memorial booklet. That document, crafted to honor Edward C. Pickering after his death in 1919, asserts that he was “a founder.” We have attempted to show that Pickering was so busy with other more important matters of both research and observatory administration that he had little time to spend on William T. Olcott and his variable star observers. Also, the outcome of Olcott's initiative was far from certain, and Pickering had good reasons to limit his interest to providing the necessary technical support to Olcott in parallel to two other groups of variable star observers who also provided variable star observations for his use. That technical support hardly qualifies him as a founder.

Thus the history of the AAVSO appears to have gotten off track in that honest attempt to honor Pickering. Olcott's modest and self-effacing personality may have prevented him from speaking up in the matter when confronted with two strong professional women who were the other members of this committee – and likely strong advocates of the “Pickering as Founder” thesis. We have no records of that committee's work, only their final report.