A demonstration record, compiled from public archives. Williamina Fleming did not write it; the institutions cited here did. Sources and clearance →
1857 to 1911
This record holds the Harvard College Observatory's own account of Williamina Fleming, who entered its staff in 1881 as "a copyist and computer" and was credited, by the time of her death in 1911, with the discovery of ten novae, fifty nine gaseous nebulae, and more than three hundred variable stars.
Williamina Fleming was born in Dundee, Scotland, on May 15, 1857. She was employed as a housemaid in the Cambridge household of Harvard College Observatory director Edward C. Pickering beginning in 1879, and entered the Observatory's own staff in 1881, where her early duties are recorded as "copying and ordinary computing." She was put in charge of the original examination of the observatory's photographic plates and assigned the first general photographic classification of stellar spectra, published as the Draper Catalogue of Stellar Spectra and giving, in the institutional record's own phrase, "the spectra of 10,351 stars, with measures of their photographic light." On a plate exposed at Cambridge on February 6, 1888, she recorded the object later named the Horsehead Nebula. Her own notebook describes it: "A large nebulosity extending nearly south from Zeta Orionis for about 60 minutes. More intense and well marked on the following side, with a semicircular indentation." The finding was first published in 1890 under the director's name with credit to her; when it was folded into J. L. E. Dreyer's Index Catalogue of Nebulae in 1895, the entry credited the discovery to "Pickering" alone. The institutional record credits her with the discovery of ten novae and more than three hundred variable stars, of which two hundred twenty two received measured position and light magnitude sequences in her own "Photographic Study of Variable Stars." In 1899 the Harvard Corporation gave her an official position on the Observatory staff as Curator of Astronomical Photographs; she died in Boston on May 21, 1911, of pneumonia.
Published as Volumes XXVI and XXVII of the Harvard Annals; "gives the spectra of 10,351 stars, with measures of their photographic light," the classification work assigned to Fleming.
Internet Archive, digitized from the copy held by the University of California Libraries. NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT
Volume XLVII of the Harvard Annals; gives measured positions and light magnitude sequences for 222 of the variable stars she discovered.
The plate on which she recorded the object later named the Horsehead Nebula; the DASCH digitization reports no markings on the plate beyond its catalogue number.
J. L. E. Dreyer's addition to Herschel's General Catalogue; the entry folding in the 1890 finding credits the nebula to "Pickering" alone, with no first initial.
Born in Dundee, Scotland, on May 15, 1857.
Employed as a housemaid in the Cambridge household of Harvard College Observatory director Edward C. Pickering.
Entered Harvard College Observatory "as a copyist and computer," duties the record calls "at first of the simplest character, copying and ordinary computing."
Exposed a photographic plate at Cambridge with the 8-inch Bache Doublet on which she recorded the nebula later known as the Horsehead.
The classification work assigned to her was published as the Draper Catalogue of Stellar Spectra, giving the spectra of 10,351 stars.
Dreyer's Index Catalogue of Nebulae, folding in the 1890 finding, recorded the entry under "Pickering," the director's name alone.
The Harvard Corporation gave her an official position on the Observatory staff under this title.
Died in Boston on May 21, 1911, of pneumonia.
10,351 stars
Classified for the Draper Catalogue of Stellar Spectra, published 1890 as Volumes XXVI and XXVII of the Harvard Annals, "with measures of their photographic light."
222 variable stars
Given measured position and light magnitude sequences in her "Photographic Study of Variable Stars," Volume XLVII of the Harvard Annals.
59 gaseous nebulae
Found by the presence of bright lines in their photographic spectra, per the Astrophysical Journal's 1911 record of her work.
10 novae
Discovered by the same method, per the same institutional record.
11 subclasses
The number of subclasses into which she divided the spectral combination she used to flag candidate variable stars.
"In conclusion, while I may be thought to have strayed far afield from the subject on which I was supposed to address you here, the investigations and researches described above are those in which the women in this department are engaged, in which they are thoroughly interested, and in which they are becoming trained and competent assistants." The closing paragraph of the paper she read at Chicago in August 1893, printed in Astronomy and Astro-Physics, Volume 12, pages 683 to 689.
"Labor honestly, conscientiously and steadily, and recognition and success must crown your efforts in the end." Addressed to women entering any branch of science, immediately after a warning that a few will refuse to credit their work. Printed page 684 of the same paper.
The record says yes. On a plate exposed at Cambridge on February 6, 1888, she recorded the object, describing it in her own notebook as a large nebulosity with a semicircular indentation south of Zeta Orionis, the shape now called the Horsehead.
The 1890 publication of the finding named her; when the entry was folded into J. L. E. Dreyer's 1895 Index Catalogue of Nebulae, the credit line read "Pickering," the observatory's director, with no first initial given.
Yes. Before she joined the Harvard College Observatory's own staff in 1881, she was employed as a housemaid in the Cambridge household of director Edward C. Pickering, beginning in 1879.
The catalogue, published in 1890 as Volumes XXVI and XXVII of the Harvard Annals, gives the spectra of 10,351 stars; the institutional record states plainly that the classification work "was assigned to Mrs. Fleming."
In 1899 the Harvard Corporation gave her an official position on the Observatory staff with the title Curator of Astronomical Photographs.