Scholar of the Stars: Maria Mitchell

Born: August 1, 1818

Died: June 28, 1889

Country: United States 

Culture or Era: American Industrial Revolution

Portrait of Maria Mitchell in 1851 by Herminia Dassel, a female artist

Maria Mitchell observed her first solar eclipse when she was twelve years old. Face pressed into her father’s telescope, she was brought up looking at the stars. Her father, William, was a teacher who loved science and astronomy. Her mother, Lydia, was a librarian who was passionate about reading and education. The two educated all of their children equally, as parents who cared deeply about sharing their knowledge with their children, and encouraging them to be curious about the world around them. 

It helped that they lived in Nantucket, an island off the coast of Massachusetts where ships from all around made port. Many of her neighbors were sailors, and while the husbands were at sea, their wives kept their town running. In both her home and neighborhood, Maria was lucky to be raised in a place where women had much more opportunity than many other young girls in the country. 

Growing up, Maria observed the solar eclipse through a telescope her father owned and had taught her how to use. Maria’s father taught her to operate various scientific instruments like chronometers, sextants, and different type telescopes to chart the stars. Her father provided chronometers to the local seamen who worked on whaling ships at dock in the harbor. Chronometers were special types of clocks that were more accurate and had to be very precisely synchronized with the movement of the heavens. He taught her how to use one and how to match the stars. From her father, Maria’s passion for astronomy grew from a young age.

When she was 13, she helped her father calculate the exact position of their Nantucket home using just their observations through their telescope. By the time she was fourteen, Maria was making calculation tables and giving them to sailors to help them navigate accurately using the stars.  

Maria Mitchell's home office, courtesy of the Library of Congress

Maria finished her education when she was just 16 years old. Like her parents, Maria was passionate about knowledge and wanted to share it with others. Shortly after she finished her schooling, as a teenager Maria opened a school to provide stronger math and science education for girls. And unlike the local public school which was racially segregated, Maria’s school was open to everyone who wanted to learn. In Maria’s eyes, everyone deserved to learn and grow their knowledge. When she wasn’t teaching, Maria was working at the Nantucket Atheneum, the local library, where she continued to teach herself astronomy and celestial mechanics. After her shift at the library, Maria taught classes in the evening, and her nights were spent with her father, observing the stars and writing down their notes. 

Maria Mitchell's family home in Nantucket, Massachusetts, with an observatory deck on the roof. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Lydia’s father had built a small homemade observatory on top of the local bank where he worked. Together they observed the stars and wrote their findings. Maria calculated the positions of stars and nebulae, and noted down observational tables to help their local sailors navigate while sailing at night. Together, Maria and her husband helped ensure that their local sailors had everything they needed to accurately navigate using the stars.

Later in Life

Maria’s skills that she built as a teenager served her all her life. When she was 29, she was the first American to discover a new comet, C/1847 T1, which was then dubbed “Miss Mitchell’s Comet”. For her discovery she was awarded a gold medal prize by the King of Denmark. Her discovery made her immediately famous, and the next year she became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the year after that she was also elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Despite never attending college, in 1865, when she was 47, Maria was asked to become a professor at Vassar College, an all-women’s school, where she taught astronomy and served as the director of the observatory. Under her tutelage, the astronomy department at Vassar grew even larger than Harvard’s, creating a new generation of female scientists. While there, Maria was the first to discover that sunspots were vertical whirling spots rather than clouds.

Maria Mitchell (standing, left) with her telescopes and female astronomy students at Vassar

As a teacher, she encouraged her students in every way. She told them,

I am far from thinking that every woman should be an astronomer or a mathematician or an artist, but I do think that every woman should strive for perfection in everything she undertakes. If it be art, literature or science, let her work be incessant, continuous, life-long.

In 1869 Maria was elected as the first female member of the American Philosophical Society, and 1873 she helped found the Association for the Advancement of Women, which she would later serve as president. She lived a long life, and is buried next to her parents in Nantucket’s Prospect Hill Cemetery. 

Legacy

Maria Mitchell is known today as America’s first female astronomer. Her unique childhood with access to education, knowledge, and scientific training set her on a path of success to lead such a pioneering and inspiring life. Her work continues to be an inspiration to the scientific community, and in her honor one of the craters of the moon, “Mitchell”, is named in her honor. In 1902, the Maria Mitchell Association was founded in Nantucket to preserve her legacy by fostering continued scientific curiosity. It still operates two observatories, a natural science museum, a research center, and preserved Maria’s birthplace as a museum.