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Williamina Paton Fleming

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Williamina Paton Fleming

Williamina Paton Fleming (May 15, 1857 - May 21, 1911) was a Scottish astronomer who lived in Boston and worked at the Harvard College Observatory, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, founded in 1839.

Williamina was born in Dundee, daughter of Robert and Mary (née Walker) Stevens.

She grew up in the town, and was educated in the public schools of Dundee.

She married James Orr Fleming, and moved to America, where the family settled in Boston, probably in 1879. Needing to support herself, Williamina became a copyist and computer at Harvard College Observatory in 1881. It is said that she was first employed, in 1879, as second maid in the home of Professor Edward Charles Pickering, who became frustrated with his male assistants at the observatory and, according to legend, declared that his maid could do a better job, and hired her to do clerical work there.⚠ [^The Horsehead Nebula in the 19th Century Retrieved May 21, 2013.^] Beginning as a part-time worker, she would eventually become a full-time member of staff in 1881, in charge of dozens of women hired to do mathematical classifications, and would also edit the observatory's publications.⚠ [^1911ApJ....34..314C Page 314 Retrieved May 21, 2013.^]

She devised and helped implement a system of classifying stars by assigning them a letter according to how much hydrogen could be observed in their spectra. 'A' had the most hydrogen, 'B' the next most, and so on. Later, another woman - Annie Jump Cannon - would improve and simplify the system, using temperature as the criteria.

In nine years, Fleming catalogued some 10,351 stars which went on to be published as the Henry Draper Catalogue. During her work she discovered 59 gaseous nebulae, more than 310 variable stars, and 10 novae, by noting the presence of bright lines within their spectra. In 1907, she published a list of 222 variable stars which had been discovered in the course of her work.

In 1888, She discovered the Horsehead Nebula on Harvard plate B2312, describing the bright nebula (later known as IC 434) as having "a semicircular indentation 5 minutes in diameter 30 minutes south of Zeta [Orionis]." William Henry Pickering (Edward's brother), who had taken the photograph, speculated that the spot was dark obscuring matter.

But, all subsequent articles and books seem to have denied both Fleming and WH Pickering the credit for the discovery. Fleming's name was absent from the list of objects which were then discovered by Harvard, and JLE Dreyer, who compiled first Index Catalogue, merely attribute the entry to "Pickering", which most readers of the time would have assumed to mean EC Pickering, then director of Harvard College Observatory.

However, by the time the second Index Catalogue was issued by Dreyer in 1908, Fleming (and others at Harvard) had become famous enough to receive proper credit for later object discoveries... but not for her earlier observation of IC 434 and the Horsehead Nebula.

Recognition

In 1899, Fleming was given the title of Curator of Astronomical Photographs.

In 1906, she was made an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society of London, the first American woman to be so elected, and was soon after appointed honorary fellow in astronomy of Wellesley College.

She was also a member of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, and the Société astronomique de France.

Shortly before her death, the Astronomical Society of Mexico awarded her the Guadalupe Almendaro medal for her discovery of new stars.

Personal life

Although dedicated to her work, Williamina Fleming enjoyed a full domestic life at home as well, and had a son, Edward P Fleming, who graduated as a mining engineer from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1901, and was employed as the chief metallurgist of a large copper company in Chile. She as also an ardent supporter of the Harvard eleven, and followed their games to the stadium.

Publications

Her publications included A Photographic Study of Variable Stars (1907), and Spectra and Photographic Magnitudes of Stars in Standard Regions (1911).

Brief illness and death

She had suffered poor health for a number of years, but her enthusiasm for her work had maintained her. However, feeling unwell at the start of May 1911, she went into hospital to rest, where her condition was found to be critical. She developed pneumonia, which proved fatal, and she died in Boston on May 21, 1911.

References

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⚠ (:gma-point lat=42.3815547 lon=-71.1283797 text='Harvard College Observatory' :) ⚠ (:gma-map view=hybrid zoom=17:)

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