How Harvard’s female “computers” made great strides in astonomy
More than 40 years before women gained the right to vote, female “computers” at Harvard College Observatory were making major astronomical discoveries.
Between 1885 and 1927, the observatory employed about 80 women who studied glass plate photographs of the stars. They found galaxies and nebulas and created methods to measure distance in space.
They were famous – newspapers wrote about them, they published scientific papers under their own names. But they were virtually forgotten during the next century.
Source: Unearthing the legacy of Harvard’s female ‘computers’ – BBC News
Fascinating research, reminds me a lot of the movie Hidden Figures.
