Born: 9 August 1861, United States
Died: 5 October 1942
Country most active: France, United Kingdom
Also known as: Dorothea Klumpke Roberts
The following is excerpted from What Women Have Done for Astronomy in the United States, written by Anne P McKenney and published in Popular Astronomy, vol. 12, pp.171-182 in 1904.
Dorothea Klumpke: was born in San Francisco, but left there in her youth and spent several years in Germany, Switzerland and Paris. In 1887 she was a student at the Observatory of Paris, and acted as a translator for the first Astrophotographic Congress which convened in 1887. Her observations of several minor planets and of the Tempel-Swift comet have been published. On December 23, 1893, Miss Klumpke sustained her doctorate thesis before Darbonx, Jesse and Andoyer. It was a purely theoretical study of the rings of Saturn. At the conclusion of the examination Darbonx remarked “Your thesis is the first which a woman has presented and successfully maintained with our faculty to obtain the degree of doctor of mathematical sciences. You worthily open the way, and the faculty votes unanimously to declare you worthy of obtaining the degree of ‘doctor.'” Dr. Klumpke is now at the head of the bureau for the measurements of the plates of the Astro-photographic Catalogue at the Paris Observatory.