By the middle of the nineteenth century science was developing into a profession demanding advanced training and devotion to research. American institutions, however, were still better suited to an earlier stage of popular science. Many of the difficulties and frustrations for would-be scientists created by the time lag in institutional change are illustrated in the career of Cleveland Abbe. In the fifteen years between 1856 and 1871 his attempts to become an astronomer touched upon many significant aspects of American science (...) as a profession, including the American observatory movement, the creation of graduate education, government support for science, and the tension between the joint goals of the increase and the diffusion of knowledge. (shrink)