Maria Mitchell: First Female Astronomer

Lia Martinez

Nov. 7 2019

Science Essay, Challenge B 

There are billions of humans that have walked to earth; most of them remain nameless. Their legacy isn’t in the work they did but in the children that they loved, encouraged, and challenged. Maria Mitchell was born in 1818 to two such loving Quaker parents in Nantucket, Connecticut. Maria would someday be known as the first female astronomer, but her parents will not be remembered for anything beyond bringing her into the world. Her parents, unlike many at the time, encouraged her education and made her attend schools in the area, including one run by her father. Her dad had a great influence on her, and she most likely wouldn’t be the well known woman she is today if not for him. The main industry and source of income for the island she grew up on was whaling. Men would head out on the open sea for months at a time, leaving women, children, and the few remaining men to run the island. Her father chose a different path and decided that he valued his family over the money that could be made in whaling. For this reason he chose to work as a shopkeeper, a principal, and eventually open his own school. From these decisions and dedication to his family came the soon-to-be well known Maria. The influence of her father changed her life and gave her the courage to pursue and influence science as the first recognized female astronomer. 

Her father had a deep passion for astronomy and decided that was one of the things he would like to share with his daughter. He let her help with the chronometers which the whaling fleets used, and by the age of fourteen most of the sailors in the area trusted her to do the long and vital navigation computations. Her father also encouraged her to use his telescope which in 1830, during a solar eclipse, she accurately calculated the position of her home. Her interest and love for learning led her to open the first non segregated school on Nantucket and then later as the first librarian in Nantucket's Atheneum. 

As an adult she had many more extraordinary findings. In 1847 she discovered and established an orbit of a new comet, which launched her into popularity when she was awarded the gold medal prize by King Frederick VI of Denmark for discovering a telescopic comet. The comet was named after her, and gave her such recognition that she became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The following year she was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She also was given a gift of a large equatorial telescope arranged by a group of powerful and widely recognized American women scientists in 1858. Maria enjoyed the years of accolade on a tour which included meeting many famous European scientists but ultimately she wanted to go back home to her roots, and live with her widowed father. 

After years of living with her dad, she received a letter from Vassar College asking if she would consider teaching there. She was reluctant to leave her father but after months of his pleading, she finally agreed. Maria has the distinct honor of being the first appointed faculty member to Vassar college. During her tenure as a teacher she continued to make great discoveries. She was the first to take daily photographs of sunspot, creating a time lapse documentation of changes to the sun. Additionally, she discovered that the cloud like shapes on the sun were not actually clouds but whirling vertical cavities. Maria retired from Vassar is 1888 and passed away the following year. 

William Mitchell and Lydia Coleman Mitchell were Maria’s parents. They aren’t known for much beyond bringing the first female astronomer into this world. The truth is none of us know what part God has for us to play during our time here on earth. Will be the parent, the child, or someone in the lineage of God’s great plan. But no matter if we are to be remembered by history or not, we will have a vital role to play. And just like Maria’s father loved and encouraged her to do her best, we have a Heavenly Father that loves and encourages us to do the same. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Scientific Women Writer. “History of Scientific Women.” Maria MITCHELL, scientificwomen.net/women/Mitchell-Maria-70

Biography.com, Contributors. “Maria Mitchell.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 20 Sept. 2019, www.biography.com/scientist/Maria-Mitchell