| Description |
xii, 324 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm |
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text txt rdacontent |
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unmediated n rdamedia |
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volume nc rdacarrier |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-305) and index. |
| Contents |
Mrs. Draper's intent -- What Miss Maury saw -- Miss Bruce's largesse -- Stella nova -- Bailey's picture from Peru -- Mrs. Fleming's title -- Pickering's "harem" -- Lingua franca -- Miss Leavitt's relationship -- The Pickering fellows -- Shapley's "kilo-girl" hours -- Miss Payne's thesis -- The Observatory Pinafore -- Miss Cannon's prize -- The lifetimes of stars -- Some highlights in the history of the Harvard College Observatory -- A catalogue of Harvard astronomers, assistants, and associates. |
| Summary |
In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or "human computers," to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. At the outset this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of the resident astronomers, but soon the female corps included graduates of the new women's colleges -- Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the ladies turned from computation to studying the stars captured nightly on glass photographic plates. The "glass universe" of half a million plates that Harvard amassed over the ensuing decades -- through the generous support of Mrs. Anna Palmer Draper, the widow of a pioneer in stellar photography -- enabled the women to make extraordinary discoveries that attracted worldwide acclaim. They helped discern what stars were made of, divided the stars into meaningful categories for further research, and found a way to measure distances across space by starlight. Their ranks included Williamina Fleming, a Scottish woman originally hired as a maid who went on to identify ten novae and more than three hundred variable stars; Annie Jump Cannon, who designed a stellar classification system that was adopted by astronomers the world over and is still in use; and Dr. Cecilia Helena Payne, who in 1956 became the first ever woman professor of astronomy at Harvard -- and Harvard's first female department chair. |
| Source |
B&T 02.2017 PARS |
| Subject |
Bailey, Solon I. (Solon Irving), 1854-
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Cannon, Annie Jump, 1863-1941.
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Draper, Mary Anna, 1839-1914.
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Fleming, Williamina P., 1857-1911.
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Leavitt, Henrietta Swan, 1868-1921.
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Maury, Antonia C., 1866-1952.
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Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia, 1900-1979.
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Pickering, Edward C. (Edward Charles), 1846-1919.
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Shapley, Harlow, 1885-1972.
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Harvard College Observatory.
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Women in astronomy -- Massachusetts -- History.
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Women astronomers -- Biography.
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Women mathematicians -- Massachusetts -- History.
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Astronomy -- History -- 19th century.
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Astronomy -- History -- 20th century.
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Astronomy -- History -- 19th century.
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Astronomy -- History -- 20th century.
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Harvard College Observatory.
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Women in astronomy -- Massachusetts -- History.
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Women mathematicians -- Massachusetts -- History.
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Astronomy -- History.
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Shapley, Harlow, 1885-1972 (OCoLC)fst00007259
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Pickering, Edward C. (Edward Charles), 1846-1919 (OCoLC)fst00199996
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Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia, 1900-1979 (OCoLC)fst00035973
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Maury, Antonia C., 1866-1952 (OCoLC)fst01959175
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Leavitt, Henrietta Swan, 1868-1921 (OCoLC)fst01604108
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Fleming, Williamina P., 1857-1911 (OCoLC)fst01957442
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Cannon, Annie Jump, 1863-1941 (OCoLC)fst01661459
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Bailey, Solon I. (Solon Irving), 1854-1931 (OCoLC)fst01806271
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Harvard College Observatory. (OCoLC)fst00541468
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Women mathematicians. (OCoLC)fst01178130
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Women in astronomy. (OCoLC)fst01177831
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Women astronomers. (OCoLC)fst01177176
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Astronomy. (OCoLC)fst00819673
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Massachusetts. (OCoLC)fst01204307
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| Chronological Term |
1800-1999
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| Genre/Form |
Biography. (OCoLC)fst01423686
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Biographies. (OCoLC)fst01919896
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History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
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Biographies.
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| ISBN |
9780670016952 (hardcover) |
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0670016950 (hardcover) |
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9780698148697 (ebook) |
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069814869X (ebook) |
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