Category of Astronomical Heritage: tangible immovable
Vassar College Observatory, Poughkeepsie, USA

Description

Geographical position

Vassar College Observatory, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA

Location

Latitude 41.683057 N, longitude 73.890537 W. Elevation 62m above mean sea level.

IAU observatory code

794

Description of (scientific/cultural/natural) heritage

Fig. 1a. Vassar College Observatory (1865), (academic.com)

Fig. 1b. Vassar College Observatory, Benson J. Lossing (1813--1891)

Charles Samuel Farrar (1825--1903), later Vassar’s first professor of mathematics, chemistry, and physics from 1865 to 1874, "was commissioned to design a unique facility that would combine suitable research resources with space for teaching and appropriate residential accommodations". He designed the Vassar College Observatory building with "brick and stone, arched first floor windows, brick pilasters at the corners, a central entrance at the second story". An octagonal tower in the center (26 feet in diameter) supported the revolving dome (27 feet seven inches in diameter). The wings of the building contained a transit room, a prime vertical room, and a clock and chronograph room. William Harloe, a contractor and one-time mayor of Poughkeepsie, realized the building (1864) -- the important place for women education in astronomy. Besides the purpose of Vassar College Observatory for research and education, it served as a home for Maria and her father.

From the 1870s onwards, more women’s colleges were established:

1865 -- Vassar College, Poughkeepsie/Mass.

1867/72 -- Cornell University, Ithaca/New York

1875 -- Wellesley College, Wellesley/Mass.

-- (1900 Whiting Observatory)

1875 -- Smith College, Northampton/Mass.

1878 -- MIT, Cambridge/Mass.

1879 -- Radcliffe College, Cambridge/Mass.

-- (Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women)

1885 -- Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr/Pennsylvania

1893 -- Mount Holyoke College, Holyoke, Hamden County/Mass.

-- (John Payson Williston Observatory, Seminary 1837)

Fig. 2a. Maria Mitchell (1818--1889), portrait by H. Dassell, 1851 (Wikipedia)

Fig. 2b. Maria Mitchell and her first astronomy class with the meridian circle (Vassar Encyclopedia)

Maria Mitchell (1818--1889) got a good education, also in astronomy and mathematics -- her father was a schoolteacher and amateur astronomer, her mother was a librarian. In 1835, she opened her own school, open to nonwhite children. She assisted her father in observing and data processing. She worked for twenty years as the librarian of the Nantucket Atheneum (1836 to 1856). In the night of October 1, 1847, Mitchell discovered the Comet 1847 VI (C/1847 T1) using a Dollond refracting telescope with three inches of aperture and forty-six inch focal length. For this discovery, she was awarded a gold medal prize by Christian VIII King of Denmark (1848). Maria Mitchell gained recognition in astronomical world. The medal was inscribed "Non Frustra Signorum Obitus Speculamur et Ortus" (Book I of Virgil’s Georgics, line 257) -- later the motto of the Vereinigte Astronomische Gesellschaft (United Astronomical Society), founded in Lilienthal near Bremen in 1800. Mary Hannah Rümker, née. Crockford, (1809--1889), wife of Charles Rümker, Director of Hamburg Observatory, discovered this comet independently on October 11, 1847.

Mitchell was the first internationally known woman, who was not only a professional female astronomer, but also professor of astronomy and director of Vassar College Observatory since 1865. Her research interest was in the field of planets, nebulae, double stars, solar eclipses (July 29, 1878), Venus transit (1882), and recording sunspots, first visually, then since 1873 photographically.

"We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but is somewhat beauty and poetry." (Maria Mitchell, National Women’s History Museum)

Fig. 2c. Maria Mitchell and her students, astronomy class, 1878 (Register of Historic Places Vassar)

Fig. 2d. Maria Mitchell at her desk, albumen print by William Notman, 1870 (Wikipedia)

Mitchell was honoured to be the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1848. Later she was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Philosophical Society.
"In 1906, three of Mitchell’s students were named in James M. Cattell’s first listing of American Men of Science: Antonia Maury ’87; Professor Mary Whitney, ’68, MA ’72; Dr. Christine Ladd Franklin, ’69-the only woman ever to get an honorary degree from Vassar and the first to earn a PhD from Johns Hopkins."
One of her students recalled: "Professor Mitchell’s influence as a teacher was of the highest order. It was helpful and stimulative. Vassar College has owed much to her. Her extended reputation added to its early success, and her force of character was a bulwork of strength in its initial days, when its object met but a partial public sympathy and its position was still insecure."
Whitney, Mary Watson: Maria Mitchell. In: The Sideral Messenger 9 (1890), p. 51.

Maria Mitchell was also active as leader of the American Association for the Advancement of Women (AAW). A crater on the moon is named after Maria Mitchell. The Maria Mitchell Association on Nantucket, founded in 1902, preserved her home, which is open to the public.

Fig. 2e. Vassar College Observatory (vassar.edu)

History

Fig. 3a. Mary Watson Whitney (1847--1921), (Wikipedia)

Fig. 3b. Caroline Ellen Furness (1869--1936), (vassar.edu)

Directors of Vassar College Observatory

1865 to 1888 -- Maria Mitchell (1818--1889)
1888 to 1895 -- Mary Watson Whitney (1847--1921)
1895 to 1936 -- Caroline Ellen Furness (1869--1936)
1936 to 1957 -- Maud Worcester Makemson (1891--1977)
1958 to 1990 -- Henry Albers (1925--2009)
1990 to 2016 -- Frederick R. Chromey (*....) -- new observatory
2016 to .... -- Colette Salyk (*....)

Fig. 4a. Maria Mitchell and Mary Whitney in the dome of Vassar College Observatory, 1877, (Wikipedia)

Fig. 4b. Maria Mitchell’s telescope, today in the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History, (Wikipedia, CC3, Dpbsmith)

Instruments of Vassar College Observatory

cf. Vassar College Artifacts Collection

Pair of celestial globes used by Mitchell and her successors
Vassar pendulum clock with mercury pendulum, mounted on its own independent masonry plinth, William Bond & Son of Boston (1864), Standard clock number 377 for 300 dollars
Drum Chronograph, made by Richard Bond, William Cranch Bond’s youngest son
Vassar Chronometer, William Bond & Son of Boston (1864), Standard clock number 323 for 500 dollars
12-inch-refractor (aperture of 12-3/8 inches -- the third-largest refracting telescope in America at that time), equatorial mount, Henry Fitz of New York (1865),
donated to the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of History and Technology in 1963 -- "a symbol of science education and the role of women in science".
8-inch-refractor, Alvan Clark of Cambridgeport, Massachusetts
Repsold measuring machine-for astrophotographic plates
Zeiss Blink comparator -- one of only two still in existence in the United States (the other one is in Mt. Wilson Observatory)
Spectrometer, installed in Sanders Science (mid-1920s)
....

Fig. 4c. Repsold measuring machine-for astrophotographic plates, (Wikipedia)

State of preservation

Fig. 5a. Vassar College Observatory, East, 1873 (Register of Historic Places, Vassar)

Fig. 5b. Vassar College Observatory, 2014 (Wikipedia, CC4, Collin Knopp Schwyn)

The building of Vassar College Observatory -- an important place where women made history -- underwent a large restoration and renovation in 2008. The Vassar College Observatory was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1991, and a U.S. National Register of Historic Places, 1991 (NRHP reference No. 91002051).

Fig. 5c. Vassar College Observatory, North-West, ~1900 (Barrett Gallagher, Register of Historic Places, Vassar)

Comparison with related/similar sites

Fig. 6. Women Colleges with Observatory (G. Wolfschmidt)

Several US women’s colleges were established, e.g. the "Seven Sisters" in Massachusetts and New York -- four with observatories: Like Vassar College (1861) there are Whiting Observatory (1900) of Wellesley College, Radcliffe College Observatory (1879), and John Payson Williston Observatory (1881) of Mount Holyoke College.

Threats or potential threats

No threats

Present use

The building still exists, but the telescope has been removed and most of the building is used as office space and not for astronomy as a museum or public observatory.

Fig. 7a. Maria Mitchell Observatory (MMO), 1908 (www.mariamitchell.org)

Fig. 7b. Maria Mitchell Observatory at the birthplace of Maria Mitchell in Nantucket, Mass., (Wikipedia)

The Maria Mitchell Association, established in Nantucket (4 Vestal Street) to preserve the sciences on the island and Mitchell’s work, operates a Natural History Museum, Aquarium, Science Library, Maria Mitchell’s Home Museum, and the Maria Mitchell Observatory (MMO, 3 Vestal Street, 1908), an observatory named in her honor.
There exists a 7.5-inch telescope with a lens from Thomas Cooke & Sons of York, England, and a cast-iron pier, mounting, Mitchell’s 5-inch Alvan Clark telescope as a guide, and a clockwork by Alvan Clark & Sons in Cambridge, MA. 8000 photographic plates were taken at Maria Mitchell Observatory from 1913 to 1995.

Fig. 7c. Margaret Harwood (1885--1979), (Wikipedia)

Directors of the Maria Mitchell Observatory

1912 to 1957 -- Margaret Harwood (1885--1979)
1957 to 1978 -- Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit (1907--2007)
1978 to 1991 -- Emilia Pisani Belserene (1922--2012)
1991 to 1996 -- Eileen Dolores Friel (*....)
1997 to 2013 -- Vladimir Strelnitski (*....)
2013 to 2015 -- Michael West (*....)

Fig. 7d. Maria Mitchell Observatory, Nantucket, MA (Wikipedia, CC3, Versagee)

Astronomical relevance today

Today, the old observatory is no longer used for astronomical research.

Fig. 8. Class of 1951 Observatory (1997) (Vassar.edu)

In the late 1990s, a new observatory was built by Roth and Moore Architects on the Vassar College campus, the Class of 1951 Observatory (1997, 41.683011°N, 73.890604°W) with two telescopes: a 20-inch-reflector, used primarily for public outreach, and a 32-inch-reflector, used for teaching and research -- in addition a Coronado five-inch solar telescope and the historic eight-inch refracting telescope. The Class of 1951 Observatory has participated in the nationwide effort Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope Follow-Up Network (KELT-FUN), where small observatories confirm potential exoplanet candidates discovered by satellites. Vassar students have confirmed several exoplanets over the years.

References

Bibliography (books and published articles)

Among The Stars: The Life of Maria Mitchell. Nantucket, MA: Mill Hill Press 2007.
Bergland, Renée: Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science: An Astronomer Among the American Romantics. Boston: Beacon Press 2008.
Chromey, Fred: Obituary: Henry Albers (1925--2009). In: Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 43 (December 2011).
Farrar, Charles S.: History of Sculpture and Painting. Topical lessons with specific references to valuable books. Milwaukee: Riverside Printing Company 1879.
Gormley, Beatrice. Maria Mitchell The Soul of an Astronomer. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co 1995, p. 4-6.
Furness, Caroline: Mary Whitney. In: Popular Astronomy 31 (1923).
Hockey, Thomas (ed.); Trimble, Virginia; Williams, Thomas R.; Bracher, Katherine; Jarrell, Richard; Marché, Jordan D. & F. Jamil Ragep: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer Science & Business Media 2007.
Hoffleit, Dorrit: Maria Mitchell’s Famous Students’ and Comets over Nantucket. Cambridge 1983.
Hoffleit, Dorrit: Maria Mitchell Observatory -- For Astronomical Research and Public Enlightenment. In: Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers 30 (2001), 1, p. 62-93.
Kohlstedt, Sally Gregory: Maria Mitchell: The Advancement of Women in Science. In: The New England Quarterly 51 (1978), 1, p. 39-63.
Lankford, John & Rickey L. Slavings: Gender and Science: Women in American Astronomy, 1859-1940. In: Physics Today (March 1990).
Milham, Willis I.: Early American Observatories: Which Was the First Astronomical Observatory in America? Williamstown, Massachusetts: Williams College 1938, p.~38--44.
Makemson, Maud W.: Caroline Ellen Furness 1869-1936. In: Popular Astronomy XLIV (March 26, 1936), No. 5.
Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey & Joy Dorothy Harvey (ed.): The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Vol. 2: L-Z. Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th-Century. New York, London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis 2000, p. 901, Professional experience: Nantucket Atheneum, librarian (1836--1856).
Pasachoff, Jay: Williams College’s Hopkins Observatory: the oldest extant observatory in the United States. In: Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 1 (1998), 1, p. 61--78.
Rossiter, Margaret W.: Women Scientists in America: Vol. 2: Before Affirmative Action, 1940-1972. Baltimore, London: Johns Hopkins University Press 1995.
Sobel, Dava: Harvard Astronomers, Assistants, and Associates. The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning 2017, p. 288 Harwood.
Torjesen, Elizabeth Fraser: Comet Over Nantucket: Maria Mitchell and Her Island: The Story of America’s First Woman Astronomer. Richmond, IN: Friends United Press 1984.
Van Lengen, Karen & Lisa Reilly: The Campus Guide: Vassar College. New York: Princeton Architectural Press 2004.
Vassar College Special Collections (VCSC), Biographical File, Mary Whitney, Caroline E. Furness Papers.
Wright, Helen: Sweeper in the Skies: The Life of Maria Mitchell. Clinton Corners, NY: College Avenue Press 1997, p. 46-52.