Antonia Maury
 |
This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2011) |
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011) |
Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Maury (March 21, 1866–January 8, 1952) was an American astronomer who published an important early catalog of stellar spectra.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Antonia Maury was born in Cold Spring, New York. She was named in honor of her direct ancestress, Antonia Caetana de Pravia Pereia of a noble family that had to flee Portugal to Brazil because of Napoleon Bonaparte's wars. Some of that royal family was imprisoned by Napoleon.
(a source "America Is People and Ideas" by Dorothy Myers Peed) (a source Henry Draper and John William Draper Wikipedia articles.
Antonia's father was the Reverend Mytton Maury, a direct descendant of the Reverend James Maury (who fathered 13 children) and one of the sons of Sarah Mytton Maury who married William Maury and had 11 children and was also the authoress of "Statesmen of America". Antonia Maury's mother was Virginia Draper, a daughter of Antonia Coetana de Pravia Pereia and Dr. John William Draper.
(a source "America Is People and Ideas" by Dorothy Myers Peed)
Reverend Mytton Maury is a descendant of Reverend James Maury who fathered 13 children and a kinsman of Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury of the United States Naval Observatory who is a grandson of the Reverend James Maury.
Rev. Mytton Maury, minister and naturalist, married Virginia Draper and had three children,
- John William Draper Maury who became a doctor
- Antonia Caetana de Pravia Pereia Maury
- Carlotta Jaquina Maury (gained prominence in Palentology -- [1]- "Carlotta Jaquina Maury - American Palentologist"
Antonia Maury was the granddaughter of John William Draper and niece of Henry Draper, both pioneering astronomers.
[edit] Astronomical work
Antonia Maury was educated at Vassar College, graduating in 1887. She was employed at Harvard College Observatory, where she observed stellar spectra and published a catalogue of classifications in 1897 (Spectra of Bright Stars Photographed with the 11-inch Draper Telescope as part of the Henry Draper Memorial, Annals of Harvard College Observatory, vol. 28, pp. 1–128).
When the director of HCO at the time, Edward Charles Pickering, disagreed with Maury’s system of classification and explanation of differing line widths, she left Harvard College Observatory. However, Ejnar Hertzsprung realized the value of her classifications and used them in his system of identifying giant and dwarf stars.
In 1908, Antonia Maury returned to Harvard College Observatory where she remained for many years. Her most famous work there was the spectroscopic analysis of the binary star Beta Lyrae, published in 1933 (The Spectral Changes of Beta Lyrae, Annals of Harvard College Observatory, vol. 84, no. 8).
[edit] Awards
In 1943, Antonia Maury was awarded the Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy by the American Astronomical Society. The lunar crater Maury is shared with and was co-named for Antonia Maury with it having previously been named only for her cousin, Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, United States Navy. It is, perhaps, the only lunar crater shared by two cousins.
[edit] Sources
- "America Is People and Ideas" by Dorothy Myers Peed
- "Maury Family Tree" by Sue C. West-Teague (former U.S.N.)
- Antonia Maury Vassar alumnae magazine, v.37, March 1952
- Maury, Antonia Caetana De Paiva Pereira (1866–1952), astronomer. American Women In Science. Santa Barbara, Calif. 1994. p. 240-241 by Martha J. Bailey
- Gingerich, Owen. Maury, Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. v.9. New York, C. Scribner's Sons, 1974. p. 194-195.
- Antonia Caetania [sic] Maury, 1866-1952. The Remarkable Lives of 100 Women Healers and Scientists. Holbrook, Mass., B. Adams, 1994. (20th century women series) p. 138-139.
- Hoffleit, Dorrit. Antonia C. Maury. Sky and Telescope, v. 11, Mar. 1952: 106. port.
- Hoffleit, Dorrit. Maury, Antonia Caetana De Paiva Pereira. Notable American Women, the Modern Period. Edited by Barbara Sicherman, Carold Hurd Green, with Ilene Kantrov, Harriette Walker. Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1980. p. 464-466.
- Larsen, Kristine M. Antonia Maury (1866–1952), astronomer. Notable Women in the Physical Sciences, a Biographical Dictionary. Edited by Benjamin F. Shearer and Barbara S. Shearer. Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, 1997. p. 255-259.
- Maury, Antonia Coetana [sic] In Woman's Who's Who of America. 1914-1915. John William Leonard, editor-in-chief. New York, American Commonwealth Co. [1914] p. 550.
