This biography of Edith F. Gill was sourced from the Harvard Plate Stacks website on January 14, 2024. It was written by Samantha Notick, Curatorial Assistant at the Harvard Plate Stacks, in 2023. Please note that this information may have been updated since it was added to our database; for the most current information, check their website at https://platestacks.cfa.harvard.edu.
Born: 20 August 1871, United States
Died: 28 September 1928
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
Edith Frances Gill (August 20th, 1871-September 28, 1928) worked as one of the Women Astronomical Computers at the Harvard College Observatory from 1889 until 1927.
While working at the Observatory, Gill was one of the assistants to Annie Jump Cannon’s work on the Henry Draper Catalogue. Her work included proofreading the remarks and text of the Catalogue, as well as ascertaining or confirming stellar positions and magnitudes and classifying stars. In the classification work, specifically for the Southern Sky-section of the Catalogue, involved examining plates from Observatories in the southern hemisphere. Gill worked with her sister, Mabel, as well as Williamina Fleming, Louisa Wells, and Evelyn Leland, among many others.1
Described by Cecilia Payne-Gaposhkin in her memoir, Edith and her sister Mabel both would “…hover in the background” and were “quiet, self-effacing, always busy.”2 They both feature in some of the most famous photographs taken of the Women Astronomical Computers; ones taken of the group in 1911 and 1925, respectively. She worked at the Observatory for about 31 years, from the early days of the Women Astronomical Computers, to the days when the group was well established and students and fellows were beginning to become very present and active.
Edith Gill was born August 20, 1871, in Cambridge to John and Harriet F Gill (neé Miner).3 John Gill worked as a Jeweler. Edith’s sister Mabel was born two years later, followed by a brother, Harry.4 Edith began working at the Harvard College Observatory in 1889, at the age of about 18. Mabel joined her four years later, in 1892. In 1888, she gained another brother, Harold. The Gill family resided in Cambridge until at least 1900, when they moved to Belmont.5 Gill worked at the Observatory until 1927, continuing to live in Belmont for the remainder of her life. She passed away in September of 1928. She is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.6
Works cited
1-Dava Sobel, The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took Measure of the Stars (New York: Viking, 2016), 91, 171
2-Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections, ed. Katherine Haramundanis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 141.
3-Massachusetts, U.S., Birth Records, 1840-1915. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts. Accessed via Ancestry.com. May 2023.
4-1880 United States Census, Characteristics of Population. U.S. Bureau of the Census. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. digital images. Ancestrylibrary.com. Accessed 2022.
5-1900 United States Census, Characteristics of Population. U.S. Bureau of the Census. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. digital images. Ancestrylibrary.com. Accessed 2022.
6- Burial Search for “First: Edith, Last: Gill” on Mt. Auburn Cemetery Burial Search Site