Maria Mitchell:
The Factors That Led Her to Become the First Woman Astronomer.
Maria Mitchell was a very intelligent lady who took an interest in astronomy from watching her father when she was a little girl. Every night when there were no clouds in the sky, she would look out at the stars with her father; she would continue to do this throughout her life. She eventually became famous for her work in astronomy. Maria Mitchell’s father had a huge effect on her life and influenced her becoming the first American woman astronomer.
Maria Mitchell was born on an island off the coast of Massachusetts called Nantucket Island. She was the third of nine siblings in her family. When she got older, she and her astronomer father would go out on the roof of their house at night to stargaze. Maria would help her father with his observations of the sky. She would call out seconds from the chronometer to her father. When they were done with the
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observations, she and her father would have conversations about faraway places and the news brought by the whaling ships. When her father went away, Maria did the work that her father would have done. She knew what to do because she had watched her father help whaling ship captains calibrate chronometers and do other such activities. (Camp,13-14) One day Maria’s mother had a party at her family’s house. Maria didn't enjoy parties much so she went up on the roof and looked at the night sky through her two-inch telescope. While looking through the telescope, she was surprised to see a comet. She ran down to her father and proclaimed “I found a comet!” The comet she found was the first comet ever found by an American woman. She was just 29 years old at the time. She became world renowned for the discovery, and she got a gold medal from the King of Denmark for her achievement. The comet was named after her: ”Miss Mitchell's Comet”. (Camp,18) Her professional career was very successful. In 1856 Maria Mitchell was invited to be the first professor of astronomy at the Vassar College for women. (Camp,19) In 1848 Maria was the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Science. She gave her Vassar college students many astronomical projects to do including photographing sunspots. In 1882 her students found out that Venus was evolve around the sun. In 1869 she was invited to join the American Philosophical Society. A few years later she founded in the Association for the Advancement of Women. Maria served as the president of this organization for three years. (Biography.com) In 1861 while Maria was working at Vassar College, her mother died.
Maria and her father then moved to Lynn, Massachusetts. She retired from Vassar College in 1888 and died on June 28, 1889. She was buried with her family in the cemetery on Nantucket Island. Maria’s cousin Lydia Swain Mitchell founded a memorial for Maria Mitchell: The Maria Mitchell Association. The Association is located at Maria’s birthplace on Vestal street on Nantucket Island. The Association was founded in 1906, thirteen years after Maria’s death. The Maria Mitchell Association is still in operation today. It is open every summer, and every year the place she was born in is packed. In 1912 Harvard College got a $1,000 astronomical fellowship to send a student to the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association. Many people still remember her life because of her cousin who started a place for people to remember the great things Maria Mitchell had done. Maria was also inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1994 for her
greatness.(Soble,154) Maria Mitchell was very successful in her life even though she did not become rich. She achieved her dream of becoming an astronomer just like her father. He had sparked her interest in the stars all those years ago. If it weren’t for her father, she would never have become the person we know about today. Works Citations “Maria Mitchell.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 2 Apr. 2014, (-- removed HTML --) (November 6,2017) Maria Mitchell.” National Women's History Museum, www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/maria-mitchell.>(November 6,2017 Camp, Carole Ann. American Astronomers: Searchers and Wonderers. Enslow Publishers, 1996.>(November 6,2017) Sobel, Dava. The Glass Universe:. How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars. Penguin Publishing Group, 2016. >(November 6,2017)
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