After her graduation, during
her travels, Annie had a bout of scarlet fever, losing some of her hearing. “She experienced a progressive loss of hearing that became
very severe by middle age.”1
Annie was
not happy with her life after her travels were over. “I am sometimes very
dissatisfied with my life here. I do want to accomplish something, so badly.
There are so many things that I could do if I only had the money. And when I
think that I might be reaching and making money, and still all the time
improving myself it makes me feel unhappy and as if I were not doing all that I
can.”2
Annie did
not settle for doing nothing. In 1894, after her mother’s death, Annie returned
to the physics department at Wellesley to work as an assistant. At the same
time, she took advanced astronomy classes at Radcliffe.
This led to her being
hiring by Pickering to be one of his “computers.”
In 1916,
The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association presented to Pickering a fellowship of
which the income was to be awarded to a graduate of a woman’s college, who
planned on working in astronomical research. The holder of the fellowship
worked under the direction of Annie, “one of the only two women, outside of
England, who have ever been made members of the Royal Society.”3
In 1932,
Annie won the Ellen Richards Prize of the Association to Aid Scientific
Research by Women. This prize emphasized “the best thesis, written by a woman,
on a scientific subject – a thesis embodying new observations and new
conclusions based on independent laboratory research.” She donated this prize
of $1,000 to the American Astronomical Society to support women astronomers.
While
working as a “computer” researcher, Annie traveled frequently charming audiences
with her enthusiastic lectures on the field astronomy. Her enthusiasm inspired
many to pursue careers in astronomy.
Next we’ll look at the
discrimination she faced and overcame.
1Harry G. Lang, Bonnie Meath-Lang. Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences: A
Biographical Dictionary. (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1995),
63.
3The Journal of the Association of Collegiate
Alumnae, Volume X, September, 1916-June 1917. (Ithaca, N.Y.: The Association of
Collegiate Alumnae, 1917) 341
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