Women in Early British and Irish Astronomy: Stars and Satellites PDF
Preview Women in Early British and Irish Astronomy: Stars and Satellites
Mary Brück Women in Early British and Irish Astronomy Stars and Satellites 123 Women in Early British and Irish Astronomy Mary Brück Women in Early British and Irish Astronomy Stars and Satellites MaryBrück ISBN978-90-481-2472-5 e-ISBN978-90-481-2473-2 DOI10.1007/978-90-481-2473-2 SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2009931554 (cid:2)c SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2009 Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorby anymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recordingorotherwise,withoutwritten permissionfromthePublisher,withtheexceptionofanymaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurpose ofbeingenteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Formysisters(ne´es Conway) Eithne,MeadhbhandAoife Foreword Theroleofwomeninthegrowthofsciencehasbecomeanimportantareaofmodern historicalscholarlyresearch.Andasfarasthestudyoftheroleofwomeninastron- omyisconcerned,Dr.MaryBru¨ckisanestablishedandillustriouspioneer,withan internationalreputationandacclaimedbooksandarticlesalreadytohercredit.Her presentbook,StarsandSatellites,bringstogethermanyfigureswhoworkedovera 300-yeartimescale,andwhoserelationshipwithastronomyrangedfrominformed assistants to independentresearchers to major writers and interpreters of contem- poraryastronomyto,eventually,paidprofessionals.Butwhatismore,MaryBru¨ck is the undoubted pioneer in the study of Irish women scientists, several of whom appearinthepresentvolume,forIrelandwasoneofthemostastronomically-active regionsof the British Isles in the nineteenth century.And as she is a professional astronomerherself,withaUniversityCollegeDublintraining,combinedwithalove of historyandan Irishwoman’sgeniusfornarrativeand the giftof makingpeople cometolife,herlatestbookisbothamineofinformationandajoytoread. In the present-day world, where it is accepted that capable girls will have full accesstosecondaryandthenhighereducation,andwillproceedtotheprofessions with a first-rate training behind them, we tend to have a distorted view of earlier scientificwomen.Itistruethatmostgirlsandwomeninthepastwerenotexpected tobecomeinvolvedinscienceandscholarship,andastheelderlyMarySomerville recordedinherPersonalRecollections(asmentionedinChapter6),accesstolearn- ing in the days of her youth, around 1800, was not easy. But I would argue that theopportunityforwomentomakesignificantcontributionsto sciencein general, andtoastronomyinparticular,wasperhapsgreaterintheBritishIsles(andperhaps theUSA)thanitwouldhavebeenincontinentalEurope.Andthisderivedfromthe socialorganisationofBritishscience,especiallyaftertheFrenchRevolutionaryand Napoleonicwarswhichbeganinthe1790s. During and after these devastating wars, several European countries remod- elledtheirancientuniversities,whiletheFrenchRevolutionaryE´colePolytechnique (1794)andthenewuniversitiesofBerlin(1809),Bonn(1818),andthere-founding ofMunichbroughtfreshpowerfulresearchinstitutionsintobeing.Indeed,manyof thecountriesofpost-NapoleoniccontinentalEuropecametore-inventkeypartsof vii viii Foreword their national identities by means of high culture: music, literature, critical schol- arship,scientificresearch,andhighereducation.Theseuniversities,conservatoires, instituts,acade´mies,andsimilarbodiesgenerallyreceivedstatefunds,usuallyfrom taxation,tobespentinthecauseofadvancingnationalculturalprestige.Theywere hierarchicinstitutions,oftenunderthepatronageofministersofstateandoperated viaofficially-appointedcareerdirectorsandprofessorswhoweretheretodrawup andsuperviseresearchplans.Andyes,theypaidintellectualdividendsintermsof studentnumbersanddiscoveries,withmajorresearchschoolsinchemistry,physiol- ogy,puremathematics,andothersciencesby1840.Theirmostsuccessfulgraduates emerged with the new, prestigious Ph.D. degree, and then hoped in their turn to ascendtheirrespectiveacademicladderstoseniorchairsanddirectorships.Inmany ways, the internalorganisationof these academic institutionshad been influenced by the lurch towards political absolutism, starting with Bonaparte and continuing withEurope’sKings,Emperors,andCzarswho,regainingtheiroldauthorityafter 1815,weredeterminedtopreventpopularlibertarianideasfrombreakingoutagain. Yet the education system that arose from Europe’s revolutionary and Napoleonic maelstromwasverymuchofaman’sworld,towhichwomenhadnoaccess. In Great Britain, however, things were very different. Emerging as the victor from the Napoleonic wars, it managed to channel its home-grownpopular unrest peacefully through a stream of reform legislation, and there was no need for a powerful Parliament and a now largely constitutional monarchy to re-establish national identity through centralised institutions of high culture. Britain had an alreadyfirmly-rootedandvigorousintellectualandculturallife,butitwasexpressed through private, self-governing institutions. Seven ancient independent universi- tiesexistedacrossEngland,Scotland,andIrelandbefore1828,togetherwithgreat nationallearnedsocieties,suchasTheRoyalSociety(1660),TheSocietyofAnti- quaries (1717), The Royal Academy (1768), The Royal Astronomical Society (1820),and The British Association forthe Advancementof Science (1831).And then by 1830 there were scores of literary and philosophical societies across the kingdom,aswellasaburgeoningnumberofmechanics’institutions.Yetnotasin- gle penny of government money went to any of them, nor could any minister of stateexertanycontrol,fortheuniversitiesandeventhosesocietieswithroyaltitles were still constitutionally independent,paid their own way, and elected their own memberswithoutanyofficialinterference. Consequently, Britain’s cultural and scientific organisation worked on a self- electing rather than on a hierarchical basis, and while the above-mentionedinsti- tutionswere undoubtedlymale-dominated,the system itself containedan inherent flexibility. I have styled this system ‘Grand Amateur’, for the scientists and other culturedpeopleoperatingwithinitwereself-confessed‘Amateurs’insofarasthey pursuedtheirsubjectsforloveandnotforgain,and‘Grand’becausetheysupplied fromtheir ownmeans the financialand technicalresourceswith which to address greatprojects,betheytheadvancementofBritishartorthediscoveryofnebulaein deepspace. And curiouslyenough,this wasa worldinto whichintelligent,originalwomen astronomerscouldenter,andwheretheycouldmakeaseriouscontribution,forthe Foreword ix holdingof an M.A. or Ph.D. degree or of an academic post was not necessary.In theearlydaysthisentrywouldusuallybeeffectedbymeansofahusband,brother, or father, who was already active in astronomy. But then, because of the flexibil- ityoftheBritishsocialsystem,morewomenstartedtocomethroughintheirown right, such as the mathematician, astronomer, and writer Mary Somerville. Some of these women had particularly enlightened parents who gave them a first-class privateeducation,forexamplethe Irish ‘ScholarlySisters’ Agnesand MaryEllen Clerke, and Lady MargaretHuggins (ne´e Lindsay), whom we will meet in Chap- ters11and12.Otherspickeduptheirastronomyfromworkingwithmalerelatives, such as Caroline Herschel, Elizabeth Brown, and Caroline Lassell. By the 1880s, moreover,women were beginningto enter astronomyon the strength of a univer- sity training in science, such as Annie Maunder and Alice Everett, though their subsequentscientific careerswere still veryoftenin the privateresearchtradition. But by the early twentieth century, as Mary Bru¨ck makes clear, both astronomy andastronomerswerechanging.Theescalatingcostandtechnologicalcomplexity of the ‘new astronomy’were movingthe science, especially in the USA, towards anacademicprofessionalism,leadingtotheBritish-bornCeciliaPayne-Goposhkin becomingthefirstwomanHarvardPh.D.astronomerandfullHarvardprofessorin astronomy. WiththeexceptionofspecialmembershipgrantedtobothCarolineHerscheland MarySomervillein1835,theRoyalAstronomicalSocietywastoelectnowoman toitsFellowshipuntilachangewasmadetoitsstatutesin1916.Longbeforethat, however – since the early 1880s, in fact – the new, large ‘metropolitan’ amateur astronomicalsocieties of Liverpool,then Leeds, Manchester,Belfast, and Cardiff, had been electing women on equal terms to men, and even on to their governing councils,asalso hadtheprofessionalRoyalMeteorologicalSociety.Indeed,these high-levelamateursocietieswerethefirstscientificbodiestogiveavoicetowomen whoenjoyedseriousastronomybutwere notperhapsin the full‘GrandAmateur’ league, but worked as teachers or were independent ladies of means. And it was Elizabeth Brown of Cirencester – who with her sister Jemima was co-heiressto a familyvintner’sbusiness– whowas the drivingforcebehindthe foundingof The BritishAstronomicalAssociationin1891. It is clear that Mary Bru¨ck’s chief interest lies in the incidents and circum- stancesthatformindividualhumanlives.Forshecomesfroma narrativetradition of historical scholarship, and is not concerned with issues in feminist theory. Her interest is individual people and, in this particular study, how a couple of dozen women,bornacrossthreecenturies,allcometoengagewithastronomyonaserious, ground-breakinglevel. And it is due to Mary Bru¨ck’s eye for personality,motiva- tion,originality,andpersistenceinthefaceofobstaclesthatthewomenwhoselives andcareersshetracesandanalysestakeonthefascinationthattheydo. This is also a very positive, uplifting, and beautifully-written book, and while fullyacknowledgingthedifficultieswithwhichmanyofthesewomenastronomers hadtograpple,itnonethelessgivesusafreshvisionofwhatdeterminedindividuals could,andstillcan,achieve. AllanChapman Acknowledgements Manyfriendsoldandnewhaveprovidedencouragementaswellasenlightenment tomewhile puttingtogetherthisbook.Iwould liketothankinparticularBarbara Becker, Mary Creese and Ian Elliott, helpful correspondents for many years, and Allan Chapman who has also very kindly contributed the Foreword. I owe a spe- cial debt of gratitude to Vanda Morton, who generously allowed me to read and usetheunpublishedmemoirsofTherezaStory-Maskelyne,andtoMichaelHoskin, who kindly advised me on my chapter on Caroline Herschel. Peter Hingley, the immensely erudite librarian and archivist at the Royal Astronomical Society has generouslyfoundmeillustrationsfromtheSociety’sarchives.Otherswhohelpedin variouswaysandwhomIwishtothankareRichardBaum,JohnBirt,TomBogden, Andrew Bru¨ck, Mary Croarken, AnthonyCross, Clive Davenhall, Rickard Deasy, David Gavine, Gerard Gilligan, Ian Glass, Mark Hurn, Kevin Kilburn, Anthony Kinder, Sir Patrick Moore, Richard Morris, Willie Soon, Terry Moseley, Stephen Wainright,GeorgeWilkins.IwouldalsoliketorememberthelateSheelaghGrew of Armagh Observatory,a dear friend and a valuable contributor to the history of Irishastronomy. I also thank the archivists who kindly provided material on this and on earlier occasionsespeciallyAdamPerkins,RoyalGreenwichObservatoryarchives,Cam- bridgeUniversityLibrary;AnthonyKinder,BritishAstronomicalAssociation;Kate Perry, Girton College Cambridge; the archivists of Lick Observatory, California; WellesleyCollege,USA,VassarCollege,USA.Mostofall,Iamdeeplygratefulto KarenMoran,librarianattheRoyalObservatoryEdinburgh,formakingherknowl- edgeandexpertisesogenerouslyandcheerfullyavailable,andtoJasonCowanwho copiedmostoftheillustrations,thesourcesofwhicharecreditedindividually. Andrew Lawrence, Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edin- burgh, is warmly supportive of historical research and of the value of archive conservation.Itis a pleasure to thankhim and my formercolleaguesat the Royal Observatory Edinburgh for their friendship. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the labours of the editors, Sue Bowler and Simon Mitton, of the Royal Astronomical Society,whobroughtmyofferingtofruition. Penicuik May2008 xi Contents Introduction ....................................................................... xiv 1 ACleverandDeterminedWife ............................................. 1 2 TheLabyrinthsofHeaven................................................... 9 3 MartyrtoAstronomy ........................................................ 25 4 TheArtofNavigation........................................................ 45 5 Celebrities..................................................................... 57 6 QueenofScience.............................................................. 67 7 IntheShadowofGiantMirrors ............................................ 91 8 TheAdmiral’sCircle......................................................... 107 9 IntrepidTravellers............................................................ 127 10 AdventurousAmateurs ...................................................... 151 11 TheNewAstronomy.......................................................... 161 12 TheScholarlySisters......................................................... 185 13 Slave-WageEarners.......................................................... 203 14 SunspotsandCorona......................................................... 221 xiii
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