Maria Mitchell Biography

Maria Mitchell

Maria Mitchell, born in Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1818, was one of the first US born and female astronomers in history.  Living in an area composed mostly of Quakers and independent individuals, Mitchell grew up in an environment where gender equality was strongly encouraged.  Her parents insisted she received the same education as her siblings, which in the long run resulted in her name going down in history.  

Mitchell grew up in essentially the perfect environment to raise her as the astronomer she became.  Her father was the principal of a school he founded when Mitchell was about eleven years old.  This proved to become very convenient for Mitchell's education since she was his teaching assistant in addition to having an intellectual father.  Her father taught her astronomy with the help of his own telescope and even taught her how to calculate the moment of an annular eclipse. On October 1, 1847 at 10:30 PM, Mitchell discovered Miss Mitchell's Comet by using a telescope.

In turn of her comet discovery, Mitchell received a reward from the King of Denmark.  Telescopic comets such as Miss Mitchell's Comet were almost never discovered independently, which made her discovery even more impressive.  Additionally, she was the first female chosen for Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1848) and for the American Association for the Advancement of (1850).  Later on, she worked to calculate a table of the positions of Venus.  

In the year of 1865, Mitchell was the first person to be appointed to the staff of Vassar College when she was declared to be the astronomy professor and was put in charge of the observatory there.

     

The Maria Mitchell observatory in Nantucket's primary goal is to maintain the sciences in the area around it.  It not only operates as the observatory, but also as a Natural History Museum and Maria Mitchell's Home Museum.  Another honor she received was being placed in the US' Women's Hall of Fame.  Additionally, in honor of her 195th birthday, Google's home page displayed an image (a doodle for google) of Mitchell observing the sky and advertised her as the first female pro-astronomer in the US.  

Mitchell has without a doubt impacted history, especially due to her unique societal views keeping in mind the time period she lived in. Not only was she an outstanding and intelligent astronomer, but she deviated from the social norm at the time by being a female intellectual and boycotted slavery.  Mitchell was way ahead of her time, and that certainly isn't a negative characteristic in this case.