Maria Mitchell
| Maria Mitchell | |
|---|---|
Maria Mitchell, painting by H. Dasell, 1851
|
|
| Born |
August 1, 1818 Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States |
| Died | June 28, 1889 (aged 70) Lynn, Massachusetts, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | Nautical Almanac Office, Vassar College, Vassar College Observatory |
| Known for | Discovery of C/1847 T1 First female U.S. professional astronomer |
| Notable awards | King of Denmark's Cometary Prize Medal, 1848 |
Maria Mitchell [pronounced "mə-RYE-ə"] (August 1, 1818 – June 28, 1889) was an American astronomer who, in 1847, by using a telescope, discovered a comet which as a result became known as "Miss Mitchell's Comet". She won a gold medal prize for her discovery which was presented to her by King Frederick VI of Denmark. On the medal was inscribed "Non Frustra Signorum Obitus Speculamur et Ortus" in Latin (taken from Georgics by Virgil (Book I, line 257) (English: "Not in vain do we watch the setting and rising of the stars"). Mitchell was the first American woman to work as a professional astronomer.
One of ten children, she was raised in the Quaker religion but later adopted Christian Unitarianism.
Maria Mitchell was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts. She was the great-great-great-great granddaughter of Peter Foulger and Mary Morrill Foulger, and through them was a first cousin four times removed of Benjamin Franklin. She had nine brothers and sisters. Her parents, William Mitchell and Lydia Coleman Mitchell, were Quakers. Maria Mitchell was born into a community unusual for its time in regard to equality for women. Her parents, like other Quakers, valued education and insisted on giving her the same quality of education that boys received. One of the tenets of the Quaker religion was intellectual equality between the sexes. Additionally, Nantucket's importance as a whaling port meant that wives of sailors were left for months and sometimes years to manage affairs while their husbands were at sea, thus fostering an atmosphere of relative independence and equality for the women who called the island home.
After attending Elizabeth Gardener's small school in her earliest childhood years, Maria attended the North Grammar school, where William Mitchell was the first principal. Two years following the founding of that school, when Maria was eleven, her father built his own school on Howard Street. There, she was a student and also a teaching assistant to her father. At home, Maria's father taught her astronomy using his personal telescope. At age twelve and a half, she aided her father in calculating the exact moment of an annular eclipse.
...
Wikipedia