Women's History - Meet Annie Jump Cannon
A Brilliant Astronomer Who Helped Bring Order to the Universe
Annie Jump Cannon examines a photographic plate of the night sky.
In his SPI recording, Track 8, “The History of the Harvard Observatory,” Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell introduces listeners to the “Harvard Computers” and, perhaps, the best known “computer” of all, Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941). Known is as the “census taker of the sky,” Annie was one of a team of brilliant women employed by the Harvard Observatory to map the night sky. Their contribution to our understanding of the universe and their laying out of fundamental assumptions of astronomy still hold today. Annie classified 400,000 stars and discovered 300 variable stars, five novas, and a double star during her lifetime. She became the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Oxford University, and in 1931 she became the first woman to be awarded the Henry Draper Medal of honor from the National Academy of Sciences.
The team was directed by Edward Charles Pickering (1877-1919) and, following his death, by Annie Jump Cannon.
The Harvard Computers and Edward Pickering, 1913.
Although initially uncertain that women were appropriate for the work for which they were hired, Pickering never-the-less assembled this “stellar” team of women based on the simple fact that they were less expensive to employ than men.
The women worked six days a week and were paid between 25 cents and 50 cents an hour - significantly less than what a man would have been paid. The women were referred to as “Pickering’s Harem,” a derogatory term that certainly would not fly today.
Learn more about the Harvard Computers read Smithsonian Magazine’s article “The Women Who Mapped the Universe and Still Couldn’t Get Any Respect” by clicking here.
For an abbreviated Wikipedia listing of other women in “Pickering’s Harem,” click here.
Space.com offers additional information, found here.
Jonathan’s recording can be found in SPI’s 4-12 Learning Lab, Science/ Space & Flight.
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