Maria Mitchell - Infinite Women

Born: 1 August 1818, United States
Died: 28 June 1889
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA

This biography is reprinted in full with permission from the National Women’s History Museum (United States of America). It was edited by Debra Michals, PhD (2015). NWHM biographies are generously supported by Susan D. Whiting. All rights reserved.

The first female astronomer in the United States, Maria Mitchell was also the first American scientist to discover a comet, which brought her international acclaim. Additionally, she was an early advocate for science and math education for girls and the first female astronomy professor.
Born on August 1, 1818 in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Maria was the third of William and Lydia Mitchell’s ten children. As Quakers, her parents advocated equal education for girls, and her father—an astronomer and teacher—contributed much to her education. Maria attended Cyrus Peirce’s School for Young Ladies, and after completing her education at age 16, opened a school training girls in math and science.
In 1836, Mitchell went to work as the librarian of the Nantucket Atheneum, where for twenty years, she spent her days reading and nights with her father at the observatory he built atop the nearby Pacific Bank, where he was the principal officer.
On October 1, 1847, at age 29, Maria Mitchell discovered the comet that would be named “Miss Mitchell’s Comet,” using a two-inch telescope. She was awarded a gold medal from King Frederick VI of Denmark and became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1848.
Later elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Philosophical Society, Mitchell was likely one of the first professional women employed by the US government, hired to make calculations for a project conducted by the US Coastal Survey.
After leaving the Atheneum in 1856, Mitchell traveled throughout Europe, meeting with astronomers. Over the years, she became involved in the anti-slavery movement and suffrage movements. After the Civil War, Vassar College founder Matthew Vassar recruited Mitchell to join the faculty, where she had access to a twelve-inch telescope, the third largest in the United States, and began to specialize in the surfaces of Jupiter and Saturn. She defied social conventions by having her female students come out at night for class work and celestial observations, and she brought noted feminists to her observatory to speak on political issues, among them Julia Ward Howe. Mitchell’s research and that of her students was frequently published in academic journals that traditionally only featured men. Three of her female protégés were later included in the first list of Academic Men of Science in 1906.
Mitchell also was a leader in the formation of the American Association for the Advancement of Women (AAW), which later became the American Association of University Women. She served as AAW’s 1873 president and also was elected vice president of one of the few mixed-gender professional associations of the era, the pioneer American Social Science Association. She gave an important speech during the nation’s centennial year in 1876 entitled “The Need for Women in Science.”
Retiring from Vassar in 1888, Mitchell continued her research in Lynn, Massachusetts, where her sister lived. Friends and supporters founded the Maria Mitchell Association on Nantucket in 1902; they preserved her home, which is open to visitors. Mitchell was one of three women elected to the Hall of Fame of Great Americans in 1905, and was an inductee into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. Later astronomers honored her by naming lunar crater on the moon for Maria Mitchell.

Works cited
“About Maria Mitchell.” Maria Mitchell Association. Accessed February 3, 2015.
Baker, Rachel. American’s First Woman Astronomer, Maria Mitchell. New York: J. Messner, 1960.
Bergland, Renee. Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science. Boston: Beacon Press, 2008.
“Maria Mitchell.” Vassar Encyclopedia. Accessed February 3, 2015.
“Maria Mitchell.” Notable Women Scientists. Gale, 2000. U.S. History in Context. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.
“This Month in Physics History: Maria Mitchell Discovers a Comet.” American Physical Society News.” Accessed February 3, 2015.
Weatherford, Doris. American Women’s History: An A to Z of People, Organizations, Issues, and Events. New York: Macmillan General Reference, 1994.
Wright, Helen. “Maria Mitchell” in James, Edward T., Janet Wilson James, Paul S. Boyer, eds. Notable American Women: 1607-1950, A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1971.

The following is excerpted from A Cyclopædia of Female Biography, published 1857 by Groomsbridge and Sons and edited by Henry Gardiner Adams.

MITCHELL, MARIA, Is the daughter of William and Lydia C. Mitchell, descendents of the earlier settlers of Nantucket Island, in the state of Massachusetts, and members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. Mrs. Mitchell descended from the same stock with Dr. Franklin, whose mother was from this island; and it is quite remarkable, that throughout this family lineage are to be traced some of those traits of character which, in full measure, marked the character and history of that distinguished philosopher. The mother of Miss Mitchell was much distinguished, in her youth, for her fondness for books.
Of these parents Maria was the third child, born August 1st., 1818. At a very early age she busied herself in writing tales for her brothers and sisters, and other juvenile friends, printing them with her pen, and binding them in the form of books. Some of these little productions were very ingenious, and would have done honour to maturer years.
From her mother and an excellent preceptress she received the first rudiments of her education, and at the age of eleven entered her father’s school, alternately as student and assistant teacher. To the study and practice of astronomy her father was a devotee. Whenever the duties of life permitted, the whole man was engrossed with the pursuit. Without instruments at that period, or the means of procuring any, he contemplated the heavens as a shepherd, watching the motions of the firmament, and investigating its laws by his own resources. It is said that his love of the study originated in observing, in very early life, the phenomenon of the harvest moon, and in attempting to search out the cause before he knew that it had been done by others. Later in life he became possessed of instruments, and engaged in practical operations j and Maria, who had already distinguished herself in mathematical learning, was employed as assistant in the observatory.
The onerous duties of a mere assistant in an establishment of this kind are scarcely calculated to attach one to the employment, yet Miss Mitchell was enamoured of the prospect of observing by herself, and commenced her career by obtaining altitudes of the heavenly bodies, for the determination of the local time. The instrument thus used was the sextant, one of the post difficult of the observatory. Mastering this, she engaged in the study of the science; and familiarizing herself with all the instruments, she became skilful in their use.
On the 1st. of October, 1847, she discovered a telescopic comet, for which she obtained the gold medal of the King of Denmark, an interesting account of which has been written by the Hon. Edward Everett, late President of Harvard University.
Miss Mitchell calculated the elements of this comet, and communicated a memoir on the subject to the Smithsonian Institute. She has been for some time engaged with her father in making the necessary astronomical observation for the measuration of an arc of the meridian between Nantucket and Portland, in the employment of Dr. Bache, for the coast survey. At the invitation of the superintendent, she also made some observations at the northern extremity of this arc. She is also engaged in the computations of the new Nantucket Almanac, authorized by the government of the United States, and under the superintendence of Lieutenant Davis. Amidst all these employments, she finds time to read many of the French and German mathematical writers, and to keep up with the literature of the day. She has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the only lady having that honour, and subsequently, on the nomination of Professor Agassis, a member of the American Association for the Promotion of Science.