Yerkes Observatory, founded in 1897 by George Ellery Hale and financed by businessman Charles T. Yerkes, is the birthplace of modern astrophysics. The observatory changed the face of astronomy from being a mere housing of telescopes and astronomers to being an integration of optics with a laboratory for chemistry and physics. Those who worked at Yerkes Observatory represented a who's who of astronomers, scientists, and physics icons including Hale, Barnard, Hubble, Einstein, and Sagan. Astronome