Caroline Herschel : A Pioneer Of Her Time

Since the finalization of the Hubble space telescope, the Hubble space telescope has had and is still having the greatest societal impact among the human race of Earth. A French cleric in the 15th century

In 1825, she began an experiment on magnetism that lead to a her paper entitled 'The Magnetic Properties of the Violet Rays of the Solar Spectrum'. The paper was presented in front of the Royal Society, where she became the first women to present to the Royal Society. This paper was later disproved however it was a starting point for her career in mathematics and for women in the field. In 1827, she started what would become her most successful study.

Katherine O’Flaherty, later Kate Chopin, was born to Eliza and Thomas O’Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri on February 8, 1850 (Deter). Unfortunately, when Mrs. Chopin was four, her father died in a train incident leaving her under the care of three independent widows’- her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother (Deter). Mrs. Chopin’s great-grandmother, Victoria Verdon Charleville, directed her education, “giving her a taste of the culture and freedom allowed by the French that many Americans during this time disapproved of . . . through the art of storytelling” (Deter). Therefore, much of Mrs. Chopin’s success in writing about women pursuing morality, freedom, and political independence can be attributed to Victoria. Furthermore, the teachers at the St. Louis Sacred Heart Academy, a school Mrs. Chopin’s father had previously enrolled her in, “exposed her to Catholic teachings devoted to creating good wives and mothers, while also teaching independent thinking” (“Biography”).

Many women have had an impact on science over the years and their accomplishments tend to be underappreciated by the public eye. Often times, there are important people that have made a significant impact on the world that we have today that do not receive the credit and attention that they deserve for their accomplishments. Recognizing and acknowledging people that have made an impact on society now and in the past, is an important part of learning about history and the accomplishments of the past.

This paper will discuss the life of Maria Mitchell and how she became the first woman astronomer in the United States. It will tell of where she grew up. How she climbed the ranks to achieve her goals and how she came into discovering her true passion of astronomy. By describing the events that made this courageous woman, we can see clearly how she set an example for her gender in the Nineteenth century.

Sally was interested in sports, science, and math from a young age. Since she was a well educated young girl, she also had a partial scholarship. When she was about 13, she moved to a private school, which was Westlake School for Girls, because of her scholarship. There she began to love astronomy, which is the study

Annie Jump Cannon was born in Dover Delaware on December 11, 1863. Annie got her interest in astronomy from her mother, Mary Jump, who taught her the constellations at a young age. She attended Wellesley College, in Massachusetts, where she studied physics and astronomy. After arriving at Wellesley College, Annie contracted scarlet fever. She had fully recovered, but she remained partially deaf. This had a huge impact on her life and made her road to becoming an astronomer even harder. At Wellesley she learned how to make spectroscopic measurements. She graduated in 1884 and returned to Delaware and took a ten-year hiatus. In 1894 Annie returned to Wellesley to be a junior physics teacher. In 1896 she joined a group, later called Pickering’s Women. They were hired by Harvard College Observatory director Edward Pickering to diminish data and solve astronomical calculations. The way to science they used was “the first step is to accumulate the facts” (Mack).

Herbert Von Schulerfusselmussal IV is curious and imaginative. She is a math wiz and it a talented

As a child, she dwelled a depressing journey beginning with numeral of diseases that led to facial scars and a disfigured eye. Due to the not well-off musical family, she was only capable of attending a rudimentary education. Her father desired all of his children had the comprehension and understanding of mathematics and music, but her mother insisted her daughter to deal with only the domestic household labor. Although her father’s and mother’s distinctive belief, Caroline managed to chain her musical studies and carrying out her domestic chores. She shadowed the paradigm of the late 1700s, when women only received slight education, enough for them to cope with their housewife duties and were encouraged to pursue a more feminized hobby such as embroidery and music. Diagnosed with Typhus at the age of 10, it led to the belief from her parents that she positively will not be wedded, showing lack of

One of her friends, A.J Comrie, who had a Ph.D in astronomy suggested that she was better off being an astronomer in America. In London, she attended a lecture by the new director of the Harvard Observatory, Harlow Shapley. After his lecture, she asked if she could work with him, and he approved. Several months later, with her Cambridge degree in hand, she journeyed to America. In 1839, the Harvard observatory was established and created a reputation through the photography and meticulous cataloging of stars. The majority of the work had been done by a succession of underpaid and predominantly anonymous women known as “computers” or “Pickering’s Harem”. These included women such as Annie Jump Cannon, who did the crucial work in stellar classification, and Henrietta Swann Leavitt, who uncovered the correlation between the brightness of stars and their period of observation.

William Herschel was a musician and an astronomer. The motivation that drove William Herschel to the discovery of Uranus was his obsession with astronomy and the heavens. He charted the stars with a telescope he built himself, he then discovered a “comet” which really was the planet Uranus, but he initially didn’t realize it. He noticed the “comet” had moved and decided that his annotations on the position of the “comet” had been written down incorrectly. Herschel wanted to know the dimensions, and position of the “comet”. He carefully measured the location and diameter of the comet for some time and discovered its journey as parallax to “our side of the sun” on a daily basis. In 1782 Herschel finally called the comet his planet. The knowledge

Marie Sophie Germain was born in Rue Saint-Denis, Paris, France, on April 1, 1776, in a wealthy Persian family. Ambroise-Francois, her father, was a rich man who was assumed to be a wealthy silk merchant, or a goldsmith. Ambroise was elected as the representative of the bourgeoisie to Etats-Généraux en 1789, which had involved his daughter to witness many discussions with her father and his peers. When she was 13, The French Revolution broke out. Enforcing her to remain indoors,as she turned to her father’s library to take away her boredom where she became interested in mathematics. Pouring her time into each book as she had taught herself Latin and Greek, allowing her to read other famous mathematicians work such as Isaac Newton.

While living in Bath with William, Caroline took care of most the housework. Caroline continued to take lessons in many things, such as singing and music from her brother. Although she did have talent in music, she was more interested in her brother’s work in Astronomy. As William began building telescopes, Caroline complied to the role of assisting him.

Out of all of the discoveries I choose to do my research on the discovery of Uranus by William Herschel in 1781. Uranus was actually the first planet to be discovered since the beginning of the recorded history. Around this time the only planets that was recorded were the 5 that could be seen by the naked eye. William Herschel was a musician who was fascinated by astronomy and study many books about the subject. He was very different from other astronomers because he wasn’t interested in calculating planets orbits or charting down start positions, he enjoyed observing the stars, moons, and Sun. He also believed in extra-terrestrial intelligent life or in other words aliens. In this time period large telescopes weren’t available so Herschel

Marie curie made history in 1903 when she became the first woman to get a Nobel Prize in physics. With their prize winning the Curie’s got an international reputation for their scientific efforts. With the prize money they continued their research and went even further. The next year in 1904, they had their second daughter Eve. In 1906 Marie suffered a tremendous loss; when Pierre accidentally