340 MARIA MITCHELL. 



Miss Mitchell resigned her place in the Nantucket Athenreum in 

 1853, and after her mother's death, in 18G1, she and her father moved 

 from Nantucket to Lynn, where her sister was already settled, and 

 where she was able to make a home for her father, now retired from 

 business. She always spoke of this period of her life as dull and arid. 

 She had lost a very dear occupation at the death of her mother, and 

 for a while her enthusiasm for her scientific work seemed likely to 

 give way. She was perhaps quite ready for a change in the routine 

 of her life, when the opportunity for change offered itself. 



In the year 1865 she was appointed Professor of Astronomy and 

 Director of the Observatory at Vassar College. Although she had 

 been consulted somewhat in the equipment of the observatory, the 

 building was not what, in her mind, it should have been for the 

 money expended, and she discovered in course of time that the serious 

 tone of an institution of high learning had not been anticipated in its 

 construction. It must be said, however, that the founder, Mr. Vassar, 

 stood by her in every determined step that she took, and the very 

 appreciative and far-sighted President, Dr. Raymond, satisfied the 

 Trustees that the credit of the institution and its real usefulness could 

 be guaranteed only by establishing its claims to scientific recognition, 

 and that to this end the requirements necessary to admission to the 

 observatory must be severe. And so it came to pass that Professor 

 Mitchell's classes were small, and that from the outset a rigorous 

 mathematical training accompanied the course, beyond the usual limits. 

 Professor Whitney says : " The struggle between the desire to es- 

 tablish and maintain a truly collegiate standard, and the necessity of 

 securing a sufficient number of pupils to meet the yearly expenses of 

 the institution, began with the life of the College. That incubus upon 

 college progress, a preparatory course school within its own walls, 

 could not then be avoided. But I am happy to say that it has now 

 passed out of existence." 



Miss Mitchell's studies were not relinquished during these years of 

 teaching, for she had a happy faculty of taking her pupils with her 

 explaining to them abstruse points, and making them companions in 

 the labor and the harvest; still, as Miss Whitney observes, — "It is 

 possible that, had she determined to remain only an observer, she 

 might have contributed more to the stock of astronomical knowledge, 

 since the daily routine of class preparation and class work must very 

 essentially curtail the night work of an astronomer. But," she con- 

 tinues, " I must believe that her choice was the wise one, and that what 

 Vassar College has gained, and all the young women have gained 



