Project PHaEDRA - Williamina P. Fleming - Reductions of Photographic Observations #39

About the Project

At Harvard College Observatory (now the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), women computers studied glass plate photographs of the night sky. Here they catalogued stars, identifying variables, interpreting stellar spectra, counting galaxies, and measuring the vast distances in space. Several of them made game-changing discoveries in astronomy and astrophysics. Interested in historical women? Love astronomy? Help us transcribe the work of the Harvard Observatory's women computers and see which stars shine the brightest. You can sign up for our Project PHaEDRA newsletter here. Have questions? Want to start a discussion? Head over to our blog posts to make comments about notebooks and ask questions. PLEASE NOTE: The Project PHaEDRA Instructions for Women Computers Notebooks were heavily revised and republished on August 18, 2023. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the new instructions.

At Harvard College Observatory (now the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), women computers studied glass plate photographs of the night sky, cataloguing stars, identifying variables, interpreting stellar spectra, counting galaxies, and measuring the vast distances in space. Several of them made game-changing discoveries in astronomy and astrophysics. In these books, follow the work of Williamina Fleming who discovered over 310 variable stars as well as discovering the first white dwarf. Interested in historical women? Love astronomy? Help us transcribe the work of the Harvard Observatory's women computers and see which stars shine the brightest. You can sign up for our Project PHaEDRA newsletter here. Have questions? Want to start a discussion? Head over to our blog posts to make comments about notebooks and ask questions about transcribing. Recently, research material originally produced during the mid-to-late 19th and early 20th centuries by researchers at the Harvard College Observatory was re-discovered in the HCO Plate Stacks holdings. These early notebooks and other materials are absolutely irreplaceable. The material represents the history of the Harvard College Observatory and comprises remarkable examples of primary source material showing the evolution of observation methods, along with early astronomy as a whole. The documents are also relevant to the history of women in science as the collection contains material produced by the Harvard Computers. Women like Williamina Fleming, Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and Antonia Maury made their mark in astronomy (and history!) here by studying these glass plates and publishing their findings in their own name. To learn more about the impact of the women computers, listen to an interview with Dava Sobel about her recently released book "Glass Universe" describing their legacy. See an interesting bit, note, or image in the margins? Tell us about it on Twitter or Instagram @ProjectPHaEDRA ! For more information about this collection, check out the Plate Stacks website (platestacks.cfa.harvard.edu) or contact the John G. Wolbach Library and ask about Project PHaEDRA. If you're a teacher or student, check out our resources about the Harvard Computers and other female astronomers on the Smithsonian Learning Lab.

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Completed!

Project Progress (details)

134 pages completed

Difficulty

5 out of 5

(details)

About Project Difficulty

Level 1 - BEGINNER

Content: all typed
Language: English
Format: letters, diaries, flyers, pamphlets, and one-page documents
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: none required

Level 2

Content: mostly typed, handwritten in print, or otherwise very clearly written/readable
Language: English
Format: memorabilia, advertisements, image captions, telegrams, diaries, letters, notes
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: none required

Level 3 - INTERMEDIATE

Content: typed and handwritten materials in cursive or print
Language: English
Format: newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, letters/diaries/notes that may include annotations or margin notes
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: experience reading cursive writing may be useful

Level 4

Content: handwritten materials, primarily in cursive or somewhat difficult to read (predominantly from the 19th and 20th centuries) , audio recordings that are relatively easy to hear/decipher, and scientific materials
Language: English and/or other languages that use Roman script but may require the use of diacritics (French, Spanish, German, Italian, etc.)
Format: audio recordings, letters, diaries, notes and other written materials, projects with templated fields and special instructions
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: some knowledge of non-English Roman-character/script languages and diacritics may be useful, as well as experience reading cursive handwriting. A general knowledge or familiarity with scientific terminology.

Level 5 - ADVANCED

Content: handwritten materials in cursive (from the 19th century or earlier) or in a non-Roman script language, audio recordings that are difficult to hear or are not in English, specialty materials/projects such as numismatics projects and the Project Phaedra notebooks
Language: foreign languages that use non-Roman characters (Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Greek/Cyrillic, Native American and Indigenous languages, etc.) and English
Format: audio recordings, columned data/tables, manuscripts, letters, diaries, notes, currency sheets, coins
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: knowledge of a specific language and access to a keyboard with the characters in that language may be required for certain projects. Experience reading cursive handwriting and familiarity with 19th century (or prior) handwriting and conventions/abbreviations may be useful, as well as knowledge of scientific terminology, astrophysics data, or linguistics.

Contributing
members

134

Total
pages

Complete