Project PHaEDRA
Wolbach Library
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Middle School (13 to 15 years old), High School (16 to 18 years old)
Science, Social Studies, Visual Arts, Arts
Smithsonian Staff
Project PHaEDRA is an initiative by the Wolbach Library at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in collaboration with many partners, to catalog, digitize, transcribe, and enrich the metadata of over 2500 logbooks and notebooks produced by the Harvard Computers and early Harvard astronomers. Our goal is to ensure that this remarkable set of items, created by a remarkable group of people, is as accessible and useful as possible.
Interested in getting our Project PHaEDRA newsletter? You can sign up here!
Questions about our collections? Feedback about educational materials? Email: library@cfa.harvard.edu
Materials Compiled by: Sam Correia and Peggy Wargelin
Project PHaEDRA's collections
Williamina Fleming: Discoveries and Biographical Resources
<p><strong>This collection highlights the work of astronomer Williamina Fleming, who worked at the Harvard College Obervatory. </strong><strong>Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming</strong> (May 15, 1857 – May 21, 1911) was a Scottish-American astronomer. During her career, she helped develop a common designation system for stars and cataloged thousands of stars and other astronomical phenomena. Among several career achievements that advanced astronomy Fleming is noted for her discovery of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsehead_Nebula" title="Horsehead Nebula">Horsehead Nebula</a> in 1888.</p>
<p></p>
<p><br><br>These online resources include biographies, videos, images, research, and articles. These resources can be used as an introduction into the life of Fleming and her work. We hope that these materials will paint a portrait of a woman who was instrumental to the field of astronomy. For more information, <a href="https://library.cfa.harvard.edu/phaedra/fleming">view her biography </a>at the Wolbach Library, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics website. </p>
<p></p>
<p>keywords: <br>Harvard Computers, astronomy, female astronomers, history of science, women in STEM, Project PHaEDRA, John G. Wolbach Library, Center for Astrophysics<br><br><br><br></p>
Project PHaEDRA
37
The Science of Henrietta Swan Leavitt
<p>This collection explores the discoveries and methods of American astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt. She worked at the Harvard College Observatory (HCO) as a “computer”, examining glass photographic plates in order to measure and catalog the brightness of stars. This work led her to discover the relationship between the luminosity (brightness) and the period of brightening/dimming of Cepheid variables (stars that have a distinct brightness and dimming period). Her discovery provided astronomers with the first “standard candle” with which to measure the distance to faraway galaxies and paved the way for modern astronomy's understanding of the structure and size of the universe. <br><br>Follow the steps throughout the collection to determine the ways that Leavitt and the other Harvard Computers identified variable stars. In these resources, you'll find images of glass plate photographs that the Computers used for their calculations, as well as videos, quiz questions, and images of Henrietta Leavitt. For more information about Leavitt's life, view the information tab on the first three resources. <br></p>
<p></p>
<p>For more web resources, check out our other collection: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/qqXikk5s1yijR91U#r/21038">Henrietta Swan Leavitt Web Resources</a>. </p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>Keywords: Harvard Computers, astronomy, female astronomers, history of science, women in STEM, Project PHaEDRA, John G. Wolbach Library, Center for Astrophysics<br></p>
Project PHaEDRA
20
Henrietta Swan Leavitt Web Resources
<p>In this collection, you will find links to resources about the astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt. Leavitt was an American astronomer and graduate of Radcliffe College. She worked at the Harvard College Observatory (HCO) as a “computer”, examining glass photographic plates in order to measure and catalog the brightness, or magnitude, of stars. This work led her to discover the relation between the luminosity and the period of brightening/dimming of Cepheid variables. Leavitt’s discovery provided astronomers with the first “standard candle” with which to measure the distance to faraway galaxies.<br><br>These online resources include biographies, videos, images, research, and articles. These resources can be used as an introduction into the life of Leavitt and her work. </p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>Keywords: Harvard Computers, astronomy, women in STEM, Project PHaEDRA, John G. Wolbach Library, Center for Astrophysics<br><br></p>
<p></p>
Project PHaEDRA
41
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and the Components of Stars
<p>Cecilia Payne-Gapsochkin who worked with spectroscopic slides from the Plate Stacks to study the chemical make-up of giant stars, thus discovering that they are made of mainly Hydrogen/Helium and not, as Henry Norris Russell, then the acknowledged "expert" thought, made of the same materials as Earth. Her submitted thesis became the very first in Astronomy at Harvard and, since the then-director of the Physics Department, Theodore Lyman, would not accept such a work from a woman, the Department of Astronomy at Harvard came into being. Despite Norris's original lack of acceptance of Cecilia's findings, the Director of the Yerkes Observatory, Otto Struve, declared the thesis to be "the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy."</p>
<p><br><br>These online resources include biographies, videos, images, research, and articles. These resources can be used as an introduction into the life of Payne-Gaposchkin and her work. You can even find her entire thesis in these collections. <br><br></p>
<p><br><br>keywords: Harvard Computers, astronomy, female astronomers, history of science, women in STEM, Project PHaEDRA, John G. Wolbach Library, Center for Astrophysics<br><br></p>
Project PHaEDRA
40
Astronomical Observational Images: The Naked Eye through Current Observations
<p>Humans' view of the universe has changed as our observational tools have changed. Noticing that groups of stars travel in constellations, some stars appear only during certain seasons, and the Pole Star always points North in the northern hemisphere was possible with the naked eye. Through gradually improving telescopes and lenses, observers made drawings of what they saw until photography through telescopes made it possible to collect light over a long period and thus see stars invisible to the naked eye. Ever greater magnification and new instruments let scientists see that not all objects in the sky were stars - some were clouds of gas and "smeared out" objects which turned out to be other galaxies. Today we collect unprecedented imagery from spacecraft and earth-based telescopes in incredible resolution and varying wavelengths, allowing us an ever-better understanding of the universe around us.</p>
<p></p>
<p>These resources can be used to better understand the history of astronomy, as well as the different ways in which people have used art and science to make observations of the sky. </p>
<p></p>
<p>keywords: astronomy, astrophysics, Harvard Computers, women in STEM, art, technology, Project PHaEDRA, John G. Wolbach Library, Center for Astrophysics<br><br></p>
Project PHaEDRA
55
Annie Jump Cannon: Biographical Digital Resources
<p><strong>In this collection, you will find links to resources about the astronomer Annie Jump Cannon. Annie Jump Cannon</strong> (December 11, 1863 – April 13, 1941) was an American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of star classification. Cannon worked at the Harvard College Observatory from 1896-1940. She attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she studied physics and astronomy. She became a computer at the Harvard College Observatory. She developed a star classification system that is still used today. According to her classification system, stars can be either O, B, A, F, G, K or M, with O being the hottest stars and M being the coolest. In 1911 she was named Curator of Astronomical Photographs at at the Harvard College Observatory. During her career, she had also discovered 300 variable stars, five new stars, and one spectroscopic binary. She was the first female recipient of an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.<br><br><br></p>
<p>These online resources include biographies, videos, images, research, and articles. These resources can be used as an introduction into the life of Cannon and her work. We hope that these materials will paint a portrait of a woman who was instrumental to the field of astronomy. <br><br></p>
<p></p>
<p>Keywords: Harvard Computers, astronomy, female astronomers, history of science, women in STEM, Project PHaEDRA, John G. Wolbach Library, Center for Astrophysics<br><br><br></p>
<p></p>
Project PHaEDRA
37
