Born: 24 June 1869, United States
Died: 9 February 1936
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following, written by Maud W. Makemson, was published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 48, No. 282, p.97 in 1936.
Professor Caroline Ellen Furness, director of the Vassar College Observatory since 1915, died on February 9, 1936, in a New York hospital after a lingering illness. With the exception of a few years of high-school teaching and periods spent in travel and research, she had been associated with Vassar College since she first entered it in 1887 as a scholarship student, eager to penetrate the mysteries of the universe under the able guidance of Professor Mary Whitney.
Miss Furness was born in Cleveland, Ohio, June 24, 1869, of old New England stock. Through association with her father, who was a teacher of science in Hughes High School, Cincinnati, she became interested in the varied manifestations of nature in childhood, and remained an enthusiastic student of plant and bird life even after she definitely entered on what was to prove a notable astronomical career. After graduating from Vassar, she taught for three years in high schools, first in West Winsted, Connecticut, then in Columbus, Ohio. In the latter city, she increased her mathematical knowledge by courses at the State University.
Recalled to Vassar in 1894, Miss Furness became Professor Whitney’s devoted assistant and entered whole-heartedly into the program of the Observatory. Summers were spent in graduate study at such institutions as the University of Chicago, the Yerkes Observatory, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During the year 1898-99 final preparation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy was completed at Columbia University under the direction of Professor Harold Jacoby, and the degree was awarded her in 1900. Publication No. 1 of the Vassar Observatory, which appeared in 1900, entitled “Catalogue of Stars within One Degree of the North Pole, and Optical Distortion of the Helsingfors Astro-photographic Telescope, Deduced from Photographic Measures,” contains the following paragraph:
“The first piece of reduction, based upon stellar photographs, was suggested by Professor Jacoby of Columbia University. He had in his possession twelve polar plates taken by Professor Donner of Helsingfors, Finland, partly measured and awaiting reduction. Miss Caroline E. Furness, assistant in the observatory, was placed in charge of the investigation.” Publication No. 2, Catalogue of Stars within Two Degrees of the North Pole, by Caroline E. Furness, Ph.D., completing the measure and reduction of the Helsingfors plates, appeared in 1905. In 1908, Miss Furness spent a semester in Holland, working under the direction of Kapteyn at Groningen.
Having been appointed instructor in astronomy in 1903, Miss Furness was advanced to an associate professorship in 1911, and a few years later became director of the Vassar College Observatory on the retirement of Miss Whitney. In 1916 she was appointed to the Alumnae Maria Mitchell chair of astronomy. The sabbatical year 1918-19 she devoted to a trip around the world, visiting astronomers and observatories in many lands. Having ardently in her heart the desire that women of all lands be given the education and broader opportunities in life that had so recently been granted to American women, she took advantage of every opening to. talk with women and attend their gatherings in the various countries she visited. She definitely allied herself with the liberal and humanitarian in politics and religion.
The variety and breadth of the activities of this remarkable woman can be realized partially, at least, from reading the list of her published works. She is best known to the scientific world through her valuable book, Introduction to the Study of Variable Stars, published in 1915, but the files of the Astronomische Nachrichten, the Astronomical Journal, Popular Astronomy, Popular Science, reveal the result of her researches in such fields as the observation of variable stars (made in an era when the magnitudes of many of the comparison stars had to be determined at the same time), micrometric observations of minor planets and comets with the Vassar twelve-inch, reduction of photographic plates, observations of the solar eclipse of 1925 which obligingly passed directly over the Vassar Observatory, computation of comet orbits, history of astronomy, and so on. When to these are added such articles as “Medical Opportunities for Women in Japan,” in the New York Medical Journal, 1919; “Impressions of Japanese Women,” in the Vassar Quarterly, 1920; “John Burroughs and Some Bird-Lovers from Vassar,” printed in the Slabsides Book of John Burroughs, 1931; as well as contributions to the Christian Register and to the Journal of the American Association of University Women, the pattern of this rich and productive life begins to assume definition.
Miss Furness took an active interest in the various women’s organizations of Poughkeepsie and served the local branch of the National Alliance of Unitarian Women as its president for many years. It is pleasant to remember that Miss Furness spent the last active year of her life carrying out a project to which she had long looked forward with keenest anticipation, and found the realization fully as gratifying as the expectation. She motored across the continent, visiting observatories and national parks and monuments, and even a “dude ranch”
Along the route, meeting numerous friends among astronomers and Vassar alumnae and enjoying the entire experience with the frank delight so characteristic of her. From the Mount Wilson Observatory at Pasadena where she worked during the year, she made fascinating trips to places of interest, visiting the University of Arizona, where she invited her friends on a desert picnic, going to the Tehachapis to see the California poppies in bloom, and finding pleasure in all she saw.
The following paragraph from the resolution adopted by the faculty of Vassar College on February 10 expresses the deep respect with which her colleagues regarded her work:
“Miss Furness was the academic descendant of Maria Mitchell, who chose her student, Mary W. Whitney, to be her successor, Miss Whitney in turn choosing Miss Furness to succeed her. Miss Furness carried on the tradition established by
Maria Mitchell, and the Vassar Observatory continued to make frequent and valuable contributions in the field of astronomy.
Under Miss Furness’ direction, the Observatory also took part in co-operative enterprises, such as the observation of the total solar eclipse of January, 1925. Because of her numerous pub lications, both scientific and of a general nature, Miss Furness was internationally known and had many friends among astronomers, at whose observatories she was always a welcome guest and an enthusiastic co-worker. At the Century of Progress Exposition the judges included her book, An Introduction to the Study of Variable Stars, among the best one hundred books written by American women during the last century. The college has lost a loyal, able, and devoted alumna, the faculty one of its most valued and best known members, and the community a generous friend.”