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The glass universe : the hidden history of the women who took the measure of the stars / Dava Sobel.

The glass universe : the hidden history of the women who took the measure of the stars / Dava Sobel.
Catalogue Information
Field name Details
ISBN 9780007548187
0007548184
Author Sobel, Dava (author.)
Title The glass universe : the hidden history of the women who took the measure of the stars / Dava Sobel.
Publisher and/or associated date/s London : 4th Estate, 2016.
Description xii, 324 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some colour) ; 24 cm.
Note Includes index.
Bibliography Bibliography: pages 299-305.
Contents Part one: The colors of starlight. Mrs. Draper's intent ; What Miss Maury saw ; Miss Bruce's largesse ; Stella nova ; Bailey's pictures from Peru -- Part two: Oh, be a fine girl, kiss me!. Mrs. Fleming's title ; Pickering's "harem" ; Lingua franca ; Miss Leavitt's relationship ; The Pickering fellows -- Part three: In the depths above. Shapley's "kilo-girl" hours ; Miss Payne's thesis ; The Observatory Pinafore ; Miss Cannon's prize ; The lifetimes of stars -- Some highlights in the history of the Harvard College Observatory -- A catalogue of Harvard astronomers, assistants, and associates.
Summary "Before they even had the right to vote, a group of remarkable women were employed by Harvard College Observatory as 'Human Computers' to interpret the observations made via telescope by their male counterparts each night. A Scottish woman came to the observatory as a maid, pregnant and alone, but went on to identify ten novae and more than three hundred variable stars. A partially deaf young woman found astronomy a solace after the death of her beloved mother and designed a stellar classification system that was adopted the world over. After a lecture about an eclipse, a Cambridge student wrote down its every word from memory and didn't sleep for three nights; her passion was lifelong and she eventually became Harvard's first female professor of astronomy. The Glass Universe shines light on the hidden history of these extraordinary women who entered the burgeoning field of astronomy, changed our understanding of the stars and helped define our place in the universe." -- Jacket.
Subjects Harvard College Observatory
Astronomy
Women in astronomy
Women mathematicians
Astronomy -- History
Call number 2019.362
Catalogue Information 100075170 Beginning of record . Catalogue Information 100075170 Top of page .
Item Information
Barcode Shelf Location Collection Volume Ref. Status Due Date
A00930303 2019.362
General Collection   . Available to Museum Staff .  
. Catalogue Record 100075170 ItemInfo Beginning of record . Catalogue Record 100075170 ItemInfo Top of page .