Antonia Maury

Rania Shafie Shafie 1

Period 00 Astronomy

Mr. Percival

26th, February 2010

Antonia Maury was born March 21st, 1866 in Cold Spring New York. Her family alone is a picture of creative scientific history and achievements. She was the granddaughter of pioneering astronomer Henry Draper. Her father was Reverand Mytton Maury and mother was Virginia Draper. To add to her family history of scientific careers, Maury's sister became a paleontologist.
Maury attended the college Vassar and graduated in 1887 at the age of 31. She then took a job at the Harvard College Observatory where she observed stellar spectra. Her job was to study the stellar spectra of stars in the northern hemisphere. She cataloged a large amount of spectra but when disagreements over validity of her methods arose between her and her advisor, Edward Charles Pickering, she left the Harvard College Observatory. She was trying to create variations in the recording of stellar spectra depending on the temperature of the spectral lines of stars. Maury was different than other female astronomers of the time because she demanded to be recognized for work that was in fact her own. The new cataloging system she created served as a stepping stone for discoveries that have become the basis of modern stellar astrophysics. Maury devised a system in which normal spectral lines are classified under “a”, hazy lines under “b”, and sharp lines under “c”. This has been considered the first step to recording the luminosity of stars. From 1899 to 1908 she went around lecturing at Eastern colleges, and



Shafie 2

this is the only time she didn’t hold a position at the Harvard College Observatory.


Maury’s accomplishments include having her classification of over six hundred and eighty stars published in Harvard’s Annals in 1896. Also, in 1943 Antonia was awarded the Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy by the American Astronomical Society. Adding to her fame, a lunar crater was co-named after Antonia, “Maury.” Antonia died at the age of eighty six in New York. Antonia once stated regarding the vastness of the universe, “but the human brain is greater yet, because it can comprehend it all.”









Bibliography

Antonia C. Maury, Spectra of Bright Stars Photographed with the 11-inch Draper Telescope as a part of the Henry Draper Memorial, Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, 28/pt.1 (1897)

Antonia Maury. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. .

Antonia Maury. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. .