Harriet Williams Bigelow
{{short description|American instructor and astronomer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Harriet Williams Bigelow
| image = HarrietWilliamsBigelow1925.png
| image_size = 200px
| alt = A middle-aged white woman wearing a collared jacket with lace trim
| caption = Harriet Williams Bigelow, from the 1925 Smith College yearbook
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1870|6|7|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Fayetteville, New York, US
| death_date = {{death date and age|1934|6|27|1870|6|7}}
| death_place = Soerabaja, Java
| other_names =
| known_for =
| education =
| alma_mater = Smith College
University of Michigan
| credits =
| occupation = Instructor, astronomer
| party =
| boards =
| spouse =
| children =
| parents = Dana Williams Bigelow
Katherine Huntington
| website =
}}
Harriet Williams Bigelow (June 7, 1870 − June 27, 1934) was an American instructor and astronomer.
Born in Fayetteville, New York, Harriet was the daughter of pastor Dana Williams Bigelow and Katherine Huntington. Her family moved to Pitcher, New York, then in 1878 to Utica, New York where her father became pastor at the Memorial Presbyterian Church. Harriet attended the local public schools, graduating from Utica Free Academy in 1889. She matriculated to Smith College, a women's liberal arts college in Massachusetts, where she studied astronomy.
After graduating with an A.B. in 1893, she taught at Granger Place school in Canandaigua, New York. In 1896, she was invited back to Smith College as an astronomy assistant under her former instructor, Mary Emma Byrd, a pioneer in the laboratory method of teaching astronomy. She attended the University of Michigan in 1901, where she continued her studies in astronomy. In 1904, she was awarded a Ph.D. under the direction of Asaph Hall with a thesis titled Declinations of Certain North Polar Stars Determined with the Meridian Circle.
She became director of the Smith College Observatory in 1906, replacing Mary Byrd, and was made an associate professor at the college. Harriet attained professor status in 1911 and became head of the college's astronomy department. Between 1905 and 1928, she published seven papers in the Astronomical Journal, primarily on the topic of comets. In 1923, she joined the solar eclipse expedition to the Santa Catalina Island, California. During her career, she served as vice president and president of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, and was a councilor for the American Astronomical Society during the period 1932−35.
In 1934, she took a sabbatical year and traveled with her sister to Manila. She was on her way to visit observatories in South Africa when she died suddenly in Java.
References
{{reflist|refs=
| title=Harriet W. Bigelow
| last1=Williams | first1=Marjorie
| journal=Popular Astronomy
| volume=42 | pages=434 | year=1934
| bibcode=1934PA.....42..434W | postscript=. }}
{{citation | date=July 12, 2017
| title=Officers of the AAVSO since 1911
| publisher=American Association of Variable Star Observers
| url=https://www.aavso.org/officers-aavso-1911-2014
| accessdate=2017-11-01 | postscript=. }}
| title=The Fifty-second Meeting of the American Astronomical Society
| last1=Chant | first1=C. A.
| journal=Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
| volume=28 | pages=373 | date=October 1934
| bibcode=1934JRASC..28..373C | postscript=. }}
| title=Harriet Williams Bigelow | year=1929 | postscript=.
| publisher=American Association of Variable Star Observers
| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pt02AQAAIAAJ }}
| first1=John William | last1=Leonard
| title=Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada
| page=99 | volume=1 | year=1914 | postscript=.
| publisher=American Commonwealth Company
| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=COsLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA99 }}
| title=American Women Scientists: 23 Inspiring Biographies, 1900-2000
| chapter=Straying from their Orbits: Women in Astronomy in America
| first1=Pamela E. | last1=Mack | postscript=.
| editor1-first=Gabriele | editor1-last=Kass-Simon
| editor2-first=Patricia | editor2-last=Farnes
| editor3-first=Deborah | editor3-last=Nash
| publisher=Indiana University Press
| year=1993 | pages=82−84 | isbn=0253208130
| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ez7DCJM57esC&pg=PA84 }}
| title=Death Notices, September, 1937 − September, 1938
| publisher=University of Michigan Libraries | date=May 6, 1939
| location=Ann Arbor, Michigan | page=7
| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F3CfAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA58 }}
| title=Men of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries
| editor1-first=John William | editor1-last=Leonard
| page=219 | publisher=L.R. Hamersly | year=1908
| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FDhMAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA219 }}
| title=Annual Report of the Librarian for 1905−1906
| publisher=University of Michigan Library | page=60 | year=1907
| location=Ann Arbor, Michigan
| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2_AAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA60 }}
| title=1923 Solar Eclipse Expedition
| work=The University of Chicago Photographic Archive
| url=http://photoarchive.lib.uchicago.edu/db.xqy?one=apf6-03446-042.xml
| accessdate=2017-10-31 | postscript=. }}
}}
External links
- {{citation
| title=Query Results from the Astronomy Database
| publisher=SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
| url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-abs_connect?author=Bigelow,%20Harriet%20W.&db_key=AST
| accessdate=2017-10-31 | postscript=. }}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bigelow, Harriet Williams}}
Category:Smith College faculty
Category:Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies alumni
Category:People from Fayetteville, New York