Mary Acworth Evershed

{{short description|British astronomer, Dante scholar and plant collector}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Mary Acworth Evershed

| honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|FRAS|size=100%}}

| image =

| birth_name = Mary Acworth Orr

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1867|01|01}}

| birth_place = Plymouth Hoe, Devon, England

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1949|10|25|1867|01|01}}

| death_place = Ewhurst, Surrey, England

| other_names = M.A. Orr

| spouse = John Evershed{{Cite journal | last1 = Stratton | first1 = F. J. M. | authorlink1 = F. J. M. Stratton| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1957.0004 | title = John Evershed 1864–1956 | journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 3 | pages = 40–51| year = 1957 | jstor = 769351| title-link = John Evershed | doi-access = free }}

| known_for = Astronomy and scholarship of Dante

| awards =

}}

Mary Acworth Evershed {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|FRAS}} ({{Nee|Orr}}; 1 January 1867 – 25 October 1949) was a British astronomer and scholar. Her work on Dante Alighieri was written under the pen name M.A. Orr.

Early life

Mary Acworth Orr was born to Lucy Erskine Acworth (1841–1904) and Andrew Orr (ca. 1830–1870) on 1 January 1867 at Plymouth Hoe.{{cite journal|author=A.D. Thackeray|bibcode= 1950MNRAS.110..128.|title=Obituary Notices: Evershed, Mary Acworth|journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |volume=110|issue= 2|pages=128–129|year=1950|doi=10.1093/mnras/110.2.128|doi-access=free}} Her father was an officer in the Royal Artillery, who married in 1859. Mary grew up in Wimborne and South Stoke in Somerset. Mary’s youngest brother was the colonial administrator Charles William James Orr.{{Cite web |title=FreeCEN - UK Census Records (England, Scotland, Wales) |url=https://www.freecen.org.uk/search_records/5fdcc161f4040bf5bc2d54e1/mary-a-orr-1871-dorset-wimborne-1867-?locale=en |access-date=2022-04-02 |website=www.freecen.org.uk}}

When she was 20, Orr travelled abroad with her sisters and, when in Florence (1888–1890) began a study of the works of Dante, which led to her lifelong interest in astronomical references in Dante's poems.{{cite book | last=Brück | first=Mary | author-link=Mary Brück | title=Women in Early British and Irish Astronomy | url=https://archive.org/details/womenearlybritis00brck_595 | url-access=limited | chapter = Mountain Paradise | pages = [https://archive.org/details/womenearlybritis00brck_595/page/n241 235]–247 | date=2009 | publisher=Springer | isbn=978-90-481-2473-2}}

Astronomical career

In 1890, Orr moved with her family to Australia. She found there was no good guide to the southern stars, so wrote An Easy Guide to the Southern Stars, with the encouragement of John Tebbutt, the leading astronomer in Australia at the time.

In 1895, she moved back to England and met fellow British astronomer John Evershed when they both participated in an expedition to view a total solar eclipse of 9 August 1896 in Norway{{Cite web|title=1898MmBAA...6...12E Page 15|url=http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/seri/MmBAA/0006//0000021,000.html|access-date=2020-07-25|website=articles.adsabs.harvard.edu}}{{Cite journal|title=1898MmBAA...6R..27M Page 28|bibcode=1898MmBAA...6R..27M|last1=Mellor|first1=T. K.|journal=Memoirs of the British Astronomical Association|year=1898|volume=6|page=27}} Orr subsequently joined the British Astronomical Association (BAA).{{Cite journal|title=1896JBAA....7...28. Page 28|journal=Journal of the British Astronomical Association|year=1896|volume=7|page=28|bibcode=1896JBAA....7...28.}}{{Cite journal|title=1896JBAA....6..455. Page 455|journal=Journal of the British Astronomical Association|year=1896|volume=6|page=455|bibcode=1896JBAA....6..455.}} At this time, the BAA enjoyed the membership of intellectual women barred from the (then) all-male Royal Astronomical Society. During this time, she became friends with Agnes Clerke and Annie Scott Dill Maunder, both notable for their contributions to historical astronomy.{{Cite web|title=1950JBAA...60...86. Page 86|url=http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-journal_query?volume=60&plate_select=NO&page=86&plate=&cover=&journal=JBAA.|access-date=2020-07-25|website=articles.adsabs.harvard.edu}}

Orr married Evershed in 1906. Up to this time, he had worked as an industrial chemist with solar physics as a hobby but, in 1906, was offered a post as assistant astronomer at Kodaikanal Observatory in India. Mary and John moved to Kodaikanal (visiting notable astronomical locations in the United States on the way) to allow him to take up the post in 1907.Tracy Daugherty, [http://oregonstate.edu/dept/humanities/passion-poetry-amp-stars-drove-039dante039s-astronomer039 "Passion for Poetry and Stars Drove 'Dante's Astronomer'"], Oregon State University, Spring 2009. While in India, Mary collected plants from the region, which were ultimately deposited in the British Museum herbarium.[http://plants.jstor.org/person/bm000400347 "Mary Acworth Evershed (1867–1949)"], JStor Plant Science. Retrieved 22 March 2015. While at Kodaikanal, Mary completed an index to the library at the observatory.{{Cite book |last=Madras Obsrvastory |url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.177451 |title=Kodaikanal And Madras Observatories Report From 1905-1921 |date=1906}} In 1909, she is recorded as measuring the position angles and heights of solar prominences from photographs taken at the observatory’s spectroheliograph.{{Cite book |last=Madras Obsrvastory |url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.177451 |title=Kodaikanal And Madras Observatories Report From 1905-1921 |date=1906}} In 1915, she accompanied her husband on an astronomical expedition to Srinagar in Kashmir.{{Cite book |last=Madras Obsrvastory |url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.177451 |title=Kodaikanal And Madras Observatories Report From 1905-1921 |date=1906}}

In 1916, Mary was elected to the membership of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.{{Cite journal|title=1916PASP...28....1. Page 4|journal=Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific|year=1916|volume=28|issue=162|page=1|doi=10.1086/122468 |bibcode=1916PASP...28....1.|doi-access=free}} On the 9 May 1924 as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.{{citation |title=[Society Business: Candidates proposed; Presents announced; Fellows elected ] |date=1924 |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |volume=84 |issue=7 |pages=469–470 |bibcode=1924MNRAS..84..469. |doi=10.1093/mnras/84.7.469 |doi-access=free}} Lastly, she directed the BAA’s Historical Section from its inception in 1930 to 1944. Throughout her life, Evershed travelled to numerous solar eclipses, including Norway in 1896, Algiers in 1900, Western Australia in 1922, Yorkshire in 1927, and Greece/Aegean Sea in 1936.

Dante scholarship

Evershed was also greatly interested in poetry, and while she loved Dante's work, she was worried about his cosmography. Her 1914 book Dante and the Early Astronomers helped clarify Dante's science, as accurate as it could be given existing knowledge.

Bibliography

Two Letters Addressed to the Bishop of Ripon, on Secularism, the Holy Scriptures, and the Geographical Position of the Garden of Eden (1876)
Easy Guide to Southern Stars (1896)
Southern Stars: A Guide to the Constellations Visible in the Southern Hemisphere, preface by John Tebbutt, with a miniature star atlas (London, 1896)
Black Star-Lore. Journal of the British Astronomical Association, vol. 9 (1898), pp.68-70{{Cite journal|title=1898JBAA....9...68O Page 68|bibcode=1898JBAA....9...68O|last1=Orr|first1=M. A.|journal=Journal of the British Astronomical Association|year=1898|volume=9|page=68}}
Variable Stars of Long Period. Journal of the British Astronomical Association, vol. 15 (1905), pp.129-132{{Cite journal|title=1905JBAA...15..129O Page 129|bibcode=1905JBAA...15..129O|last1=Orr|first1=M. A.|journal=Journal of the British Astronomical Association|year=1905|volume=15|page=129}}
Dante and Mediaeval Astronomy. The Observatory vol. 34 (1911), p. 440 (as Mr. and Mrs. Evershed){{Cite journal|title=1911Obs....34..440E Page 440|bibcode=1911Obs....34..440E|last1=Evershed|first1=M. A.|last2=Evershed|first2=J.|journal=The Observatory|year=1911|volume=34|page=440}}
Some Types of Prominences Associated with Sun-Spots. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 73 (1913), p. 422{{Cite journal|title=1913MNRAS..73..422E Page 422|bibcode=1913MNRAS..73..422E|last1=Evershed|first1=M. A.|journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society|year=1913|volume=73|page=422|doi=10.1093/mnras/73.6.422|doi-access=free}}
The Origin of the Constellations. The Observatory vol. 36 (1913), p. 179{{Cite journal|title=1913Obs....36..179E Page 179|bibcode=1913Obs....36..179E|last1=Evershed|first1=M. A.|journal=The Observatory|year=1913|volume=36|page=179}}
Dante and the Early Astronomers. Gall & Inglis (1914){{Cite web|title=Dante and the early astronomers : Orr, M. A. (Mary Acworth) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming|url=https://archive.org/details/danteearlyastron00orrm|access-date=2020-07-26|website=Internet Archive|language=en}}
The Sea-goat. The Observatory vol. 37 (1914), p. 322{{Cite journal|title=1914Obs....37..322E Page 322|bibcode=1914Obs....37..322E|last1=Evershed|first1=M. A.|journal=The Observatory|year=1914|volume=37|page=322}}
Stars of the Southern Skies. Longmans, Green & Co. (1915){{Cite web|title=Stars of the southern skies : Orr, M. A. (Mary Acworth) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming|url=https://archive.org/details/starsofsoutherns00orrm|access-date=2020-07-26|website=Internet Archive|language=en}}
Results of Prominence Observations. Memoirs of the Kodaikanal Observatory, vol. 1, pt. 2 (1917), (as J and M A Evershed){{Cite book |last=Madras Obsrvastory |url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.177451 |title=Kodaikanal And Madras Observatories Report From 1905-1921 |date=1906}}
Recent Work at Arcetri. The Observatory vol. 58 (1932), p. 254 (as Mr. and Mrs. Evershed){{Cite journal|title=1932Obs....55..254E Page 254|bibcode=1932Obs....55..254E|last1=Evershed|first1=M. A.|last2=Evershed|first2=J.|journal=The Observatory|year=1932|volume=55|page=254}}
Arab Astronomy. The Observatory vol. 58 (1935), p. 237{{Cite journal|title=1935Obs....58..237E Page 237|bibcode=1935Obs....58..237E|last1=Evershed|first1=M. A.|journal=The Observatory|year=1935|volume=58|page=237}}
Who's Who in the Moon. Memoirs of the British Astronomical Association vol. 34 (1938), pt. 1, pp. 1-130. (an index to named lunar craters){{Cite journal|title=1943MmBAA..34B...3. Page 3|journal=Memoirs of the British Astronomical Association|year=1943|volume=34|page=3|bibcode=1943MmBAA..34B...3.}}

Awards and honours

1924 – Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
1971 - The minor planet 12628 Acworthorr is discovered and named after Evershed.{{cite book |last1=Schmadel |first1=Lutz D |title=Dictionary of Minor Planet Names |date=10 June 2012 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783642297175 |page=824 |edition=Sixth |volume=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aeAg1X7afOoC&pg=PA824 |accessdate=2 June 2019}}