MITCHELL, Maria, American astronomer: b. Nantucket, Mass., 1 Aug. 1818; d. Lynn, Mass., 28 June 1889. She was the daughter of William Mitchell (q.v.), an astronomer of some note, and when a girl frequently assisted him in his observations. She taught for a time in a private school, and was for 20 years librarian of the Nantucket Athenaeum, but continued to carry on her astronomical studies and obser vations. She first became known as an astron omer by her discovery of a comet in 1847, and for this discovery she received a medal from the king of Denmark She later discovered several nebulae and was engaged in computa tions for the 'Nautical Almanac' and on work for the Coast Survey for several years. In 1848 she was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the first woman to receive this honor, and in 1857 went to Europe, visited the principal ob servatories and was received with honor by Herschel, Humboldt and other noted scientists. In 1865 she was appointed professor of astron omy and director of the observatory at Vassar College. She went to Burlington, Iowa, with some of her students to observe the total eclipse of the sun in 1869 and on other eclipse expedi tions; but for the most part she gave up her research and observation work to devote her self to teaching and building up her department.
She was an inspiring and original teacher and deeply interested in the advancement of the interests of the college; during her later years there she endeavored to raise a fund to endow the chair of astronomy; this fund ($50,000) was completed after her death and was named in her honor the Maria Mitchell Endowment Fund. She resigned from her position at Vas sar in 1888 and was made professor emeritus. She was a member of the American Associa tion for the Advancement of Science and was given the degree of LL.D by Hanover in 1852 and by Columbia in 1887. She was a believer in woman's suffrage, but not active in the suffragist movement ; she was, however, a mem ber and for several years president of the American Association for the Advancement of Women. In 1908 the Maria Mitchell Obser vatory was dedicated at Nantucket. The Maria Mitchell Astronomical Society was named in her honor. Consult Babbitt, M. K, 'Maria Mitchell as Her Students Knew Her) (Pough keepsie 1912) ; Kendall, P. M., 'Life, Letters, and Journals of Maria Mitchell' (Boston 1896) ; Mitchell, Henry, in 'Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' (Vol. XXV, Boston 1889-90) ; Whitney, M. W., 'In Memoriam' (Poughkeepsie 1889).