Women in Astrophysics The Harvard Computers Three Glass plat

Sale 2576 - Lot 101

Price Realized: $ 688

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 300 - $ 500

Women in Astrophysics, The Harvard Computers.
Three Glass-plate Astronomical Photographs [together with] New England Magazine, 1892.

Glass-plate photographs circa 1889; all separately mounted and framed in oak, each image plate sandwiched between a sheet of clear and a sheet of milk glass to facilitate viewing and scrutiny; labeled 22: Spectrum of B[eta] Aurigae; 23: Peculiar Spectra, and 41: untitled, photographic plates measure 8 x 10 in., 15 1/4 x 12 1/4 in. overall; [and] the April 1892 issue of New England Magazine, Boston: New England Magazine Corporation, 1892, containing the illustrated article, "Women's Work at the Harvard Observatory," by Helen Leah Reed, in original publisher's printed paper wrappers, edges chipped, some toning, contents generally good, 10 x 7 in.

Mary Anna Draper (1839-1914) established and endowed the Draper Memorial after the death of her husband, pioneering astronomical photographer Henry Draper. She had worked alongside him for more than fifteen years and sought to continue his work in the spectral analysis of stars based on photographs taken through telescopes. Because of her influence, women were included on the immense Draper project. Although Reed claims in her article that the female scientists who worked under the auspices of the Harvard Observatory were paid the same wages as their male counterparts, it is now known that they were paid half the hourly rate of men and one of the institution's motivations for hiring them.

Antonia Maury (1866-1952) was the first astronomer to detect and calculate the orbit of a spectroscopic binary. Maury also discovered Beta Aurigae, the second spectroscopic binary star to be identified through spectral analysis. Beta Aurigae, whose glass-plate photograph is included in this lot, appears as a single star in the night sky, but is actually a binary star system. Williamina Fleming (1857-1911), head of the Henry Draper Catalogue, developed a classification of stars based on their hydrogen content, and discovered the Horsehead Nebula in 1888. Anna Winlock (1857-1904), who worked at the Harvard College Observatory for thirty-five years, began by reducing and computing meridian circle observations (a potentially useless set of numbers left behind after her father's death) and spent twenty years making significant contributions to the Astronomische Gesellschaft Katalog.

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