Maria Mitchell

Biography

Born parents Quaker S, the latter decide to give him same education that the boys receive, which is not current for the time. She discovers astronomy by assisting her father, William Mitchell, in her observatory. At the end of the Years 1830, it is librarian with the Nantucket Athenaeum and consults the books at its disposal to perfect its education and its culture. The evening she works with her father.

During the autumn 1847, it discovers using a Télescope, the Comet " Mitchell" miss; , whose official name is C/1847 T1 and gains on this occasion a price (a medal of Or) created by the King Frederic VI of Denmark given to the first discoverer of a " comet télescopique" (in other words a comet not being able to be seen with the eye naked because of its weak luminosity). It becomes the second woman then to discover a comet, the first being Caroline Herschel, which brings a world famous to him.

Its discovery is worth to him to be allowed in several American scientific institutions and to become the first woman member, like the American Academy off Arts and Sciences (1848), with the American Association for the Advancement off Science (1850) and the American Philosophical Society (1869).

The following year, it becomes it first woman with being allowed like member of the American Academy off Arts and Sciences and in 1850 the first woman has to enter the American Association for the Advancement off Science.

Later, she works with the Nautical Almanac Office of the United States, which calculation enters the tables of positions of Venus. She travels then through the Europe with the writer Nathaniel Hawthorne and her family.

In 1865, it becomes professor of astronomy to the Vassar College (still a first in the United States) and became the first teaching holder (man and woman included/understood) of the young University. It is also named director of the Observatoire of the University. Later, in spite of its experiment, its famous and its seniority, she learns that her wages are weaker than those several young astronomers, she insists to be increased, which she obtains.

In 1842, it gives up the faith Quaker to follow the principles Unitaristes.

In sign of protest against the Slavery, she refuses to wear clothing in Coton. She is also the friend of several militant so that the right of Vote of the women is granted and is off the Co-founder of the American Association for the Advancement Women.

For health reasons, it is forced to leave the University of Vassar in 1888 and dies the following year.

Homages

In its honor, several things bear its name:

the observatory present on its native island
a crater on the the Moon
a ship of the category Liberty ship, supplying the the United Kingdom during the Second world war

On a purely posthumous basis, it entered in 1905 to the Hall off Famed for Great Americans .

Random links: