Exhibition Visionary Female Researchers: Maria Mitchell

Maria Mitchell was born in Nantucket in the U.S. state of Massachusetts on 1 August 1818. 

Maria Mitchell's parents belonged to the Quaker religion, whose members believed that education was desirable for all. Her father, William Mitchell, an amateur astronomer and teacher, taught his scientifically gifted daughter mathematics and astronomy and encouraged her to make her own investigations. While “daughters of the upper classes” in the early 19th century usually only received instruction in household management and the decorative arts, Mitchell was permitted to indulge her thirst for knowledge. Moreover, astronomer’s instruments such as sextants were found in almost every household in Nantucket, which at that time was a centre of the whaling industry. Maria Mitchell therefore found it easier to pursue her interest in astronomy than most women. At the age of just fourteen, she was already able to independently calibrate the timepieces of the sailors who entrusted their instruments to her for this purpose. She later worked as an assistant at the local school, and in 1835 established her own girls’ school at the age of just seventeen.

In 1847, she discovered a new comet from her parents’ observatory; this was later named the Mitchell comet in her honour.

Just one year later, she became the first woman to be admitted to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1850 became a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was in charge of the library in Nantucket, worked on astronomical problems with her father and maintained a prolific scientific correspondence with the great American universities. She was invited to speak at many lectures and conferences, also in Europe, and on her lecture tours met many of the most renowned scientists of her day, including Alexander von Humboldt. 

In 1865, at the age of 47, she became the first woman to be appointed to the post of professor of astronomy at the prestigious Vassar College. In 1869 she became the first woman member of the American Philosophical Society. In 1875, Maria Mitchell became the President of the American Association for the Advancement of Women (AAW), an organisation which she herself had founded in 1873. She was a professor at Vassar College until 1888 and chaired the AAW’s scientific council until shortly before her death on 28 June 1889.

Throughout her life, Maria Mitchell championed women studying the natural sciences. She criticised the mediocrity of most of her male colleagues and repeatedly emphasised that science urgently needed the skills and knowledge of women:

“We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry.”

Along with theoretical analyses, Maria Mitchell set great store by practical experience and empirical evidence. “Did you learn that from a book or did you observe it yourself?” was her most famous question, with which she regularly confronted both her students and her colleagues.