WOMEN IN ASTRONOMY 



195 



work as was entrusted to Miss Dorothea Klumpke in Paris. 

 For many years Mrs. W. Fleming, with her large corps 

 of women assistants, had charge of the immense collection 

 of astronomical photographs in the Observatory of Har- 

 vard University. To her and her staff were assigned the 

 reductions and measurements of the photographic and 

 photometric work done in Cambridge and Arequipa, Peru. 

 She was singularly successful in her studies of photo- 

 graphic plates and made many discoveries which astrono- 

 mers regard of the greatest importance. By such studies 

 she and her assistants detected many new nebulas, double 

 and variable stars, besides spectra of different types and of 

 rare interest. In addition to this they examined and classi- 

 fied tens of thousands of photographs of stellar spectra, a 

 labor which involved countless details of reduction and 

 measurements of exceeding delicacy and skill. 



A complete list of the women who, during the past half 

 century, have devoted themselves to the study of astronomy 

 and who have contributed to its advancement by their 

 observations and writings would be a very long one. 

 Among those, however, whose labors have attracted special 

 notice, mention must be made of the Misses Antonia C. 

 Maury, Florence Cushman, Louisa D. Wells, Mabel C. 

 Stephens, Eva F. Leland, Anna Winlock, Annie J. Cannon 

 and Henrietta S. Leavitt, all of whom are on the staff of 

 the Harvard Observatory. 



Then, too, there are many women who occupy important 

 positions as professors or assistant professors in our col- 

 leges and universities. Chief among these in the United 

 States are Sarah F. Whiting, of Wellesley ; Mary W. Whit- 

 ney, of Vassar ; Mary E. Boyd, of Smith ; Susan Cunning- 

 ham, of Swarthmore, and Annie S. Young, of Mt. Holyoke. 

 Nor must we forget such able computers as Mrs. Margaretta 

 Palmer, of Yale, and Miss Hanna Mace, the clever assistant 

 of the late Simon Newcomb in the Naval Observatory in 

 Washington. 



