The Sidereal Messenger, 1890, Vol. 9: A Monthly Review of Astronomy (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Excerpt from The Sidereal Messenger, 1890, Vol. 9: A Monthly Review of Astronomy

Maria Mitchell was born on the island of Nantucket Aug. 1, 1818. Her father and mother were both Quakers, and her mother was descended from the earliest settlers of the island. Her father had a natural taste for scientific study, and throughout his active life, first as teacher and after wards as bank cashier, he devoted his leisure time to astro nomical pursuits. He was for many years employed by the United States Coast Survey in observations pertaining to the survey of the island. In these observations his daughter began to assist him at the early age of eleven. Her educa tion was the best Nantucket could afford, of a thoroughly substantial but simple character. It gave her only the rudi ments of the science, and the mathematics which her later studies required. When eighteen years old she became libra rian of the Athenaeum library, an excellent library well sup plied with scientific books, and attesting the intellectual character of the Quaker town. In the reading room of this library Miss Mitchell, by her private reading, laid the foun dations of her mathematical knowledge. Throughout these years she continued her father's assistant, and gradually passed to independent observations. She swept for comets on the roof of the Pacific bank, still heading the main street of Nantucket. She found several before their discovery was known to her, and in the mean time was training herself by her studv for the investigation of the positions she obtained. She computed several orbits from her own observations. But not until 1847 did she sweep her glass over that partie ular comet which brought her to the notice of the public.

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