Maria Mitchell

Born on 1 August 1818 on Nantucket in Massachusetts, Maria Mitchell was the first American woman to work as a professional astronomer. Mitchell’s parents insisted on giving her the same quality of education that boys received. Her father was a keen amateur astronomer and instilled a love of astronomy into her at an early age. She started her working career in teaching, first as an assistant at her father’s school, then later running her own school before becoming first librarian of the Nantucket Atheneum. She later worked at the US Nautical Almanac Office, calculating tables of positions of Venus. She discovered a comet in 1847 that became known as “Miss Mitchell’s Comet.” Mitchell was the first woman member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Philosophical Society. She cofounded the American Association for the Advancement of Women. In 1865 Vassar College made Mitchell the first member of its faculty, appointing her professor of astronomy. Mitchell died in 1889 at age 70.

Date in History: 1 August 1818