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73-500: The women were challenged to make sense of these patterns by devising a scheme for sorting the stars into categories. Annie Jump Cannon's success at this activity made her famous in her own lifetime, and she produced a stellar classification system that is still in use today. Antonia Maury discerned in the spectra a way to assess the relative sizes of stars, and Henrietta Leavitt showed how the cyclic changes of certain variable stars could serve as distance markers in space. Other computers in

146-593: A Federal Depository library for selected U.S. Government documents since 1943 and currently receives approximately 25% of the titles available through the Federal Depository Program. The interior and exterior of the Van Ingen Art Library was renovated from June 2008 – May 2009 in an effort to restore its original design and appearance. This was the library's first major renovation since its construction in 1937. In November 2016,

219-667: A US citizen in 1907. She died of pneumonia in Boston on 21 May 1911, aged 54. The women of the Harvard Computers were famous during their lifetimes but were largely forgotten in the following century. In 2015, Lindsay Smith Zrull, curator of Harvard's Plate Stacks collection, was working to catalog and digitize the astronomical plates for Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard (DASCH)and discovered about 118 boxes, each containing 20 to 30 notebooks, from women computers and early Harvard astronomers. Smith Zrull realized that

292-558: A computer. She was a graduate from Vassar College , and was tasked with reclassifying some of the stars after the publication of the Henry Draper Catalog. Maury decided to go further and improved and redesigned the system of classification, but had other obligations and left the observatory in 1892 then again in 1894. Her work was finished with the help of Pickering and the computing staff and was published in 1897. She returned again in 1908 as an associate researcher. Some of

365-401: A factory worker but less than a clerical one. In describing the dedication and efficiency with which the Harvard Computers, including Florence, undertook this effort, Edward Pickering said, "a loss of one minute in the reduction of each estimate would delay the publication of the entire work by the equivalent of the time of one assistant for two years." The women were often tasked with measuring

438-696: A large green . Most fourth-year students live in groups of four or five in on-campus apartments. Vassar has three apartment complexes: the Terrace Apartments, the Town Houses, and the South Commons. A cooperative house, Ferry House, opened in 1951 and houses 20 students. Vassar guarantees housing to all full-time students. As part of a master plan to renovate all the dormitories, Jewett, Davison, and Josselyn were renovated from 2002 to 2011. The college opted for minor improvements to

511-502: A long-term project to obtain the optical spectra of as many stars as possible and to index and classify stars by spectra. Fleming was placed in charge of the Draper Catalogue project. A disagreement soon developed regarding classifying the stars. The analysis had been started by Nettie Farrar, but she left a few months later to be married. Antonia Maury advocated for a complex classification scheme. Fleming, however, wanted

584-575: A maid in the home of Professor Edward Charles Pickering , the director of the Harvard College Observatory (HCO). Pickering's wife Elizabeth recommended Williamina as having talents beyond custodial and maternal arts, and in 1879, Pickering hired Fleming to conduct part-time administrative work at the observatory. In 1881, Pickering formally invited Fleming to join the HCO and taught her how to analyze stellar spectra. She became one of

657-421: A much more simple, straightforward approach. The latest Harvard College Observatory images contained photographed spectra of stars that extended into the ultraviolet range, which allowed much more accurate classifications than recording spectra by hand through an instrument at night. Fleming devised a system for classifying stars according to the relative amount of hydrogen observed in their spectra , known as

730-436: A residential quadrangle . A nine-story Tudor-style dormitory, Jewett House , was constructed in 1907 on the north end of the quadrangle. The second largest dormitory, Josselyn House , was built in 1912 to Jewett's east. Cushing House was constructed outside of the quadrangle in 1927. In a departure from the architecture of the other dormitories, Noyes House was built in 1958 in a distinct modernist style, curved around

803-747: A small number of male students on the G.I. Bill . The formal decision to become co-ed came after its trustees declined an offer to merge with Yale University , its sibling institution, in the wave of mergers between the historically all-male colleges of the Ivy League and their Seven Sisters counterparts. In its early years, Vassar was associated with the social elite of the Protestant establishment. E. Digby Baltzell writes that "upper-class WASP families educated their children at colleges such as Harvard , Princeton , Yale , and Vassar." A select and elite few of Vassar's students were allowed entry into

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876-671: Is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York , United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar , it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college became coeducational in 1969. The college offers BA degrees in more than fifty majors. Vassar College's varsity sports teams, known as the Brewers, play in the NCAA Division III as members of

949-539: Is also credited with the discovery of the first white dwarf : The first person who knew of the existence of white dwarfs was Mrs. Fleming; the next two, an hour or two later, Professor E. C. Pickering and I. With characteristic generosity, Pickering had volunteered to have the spectra of the stars which I had observed for parallax looked up on the Harvard plates. All those of faint absolute magnitude turned out to be of class G or later. Moved with curiosity I asked him about

1022-477: Is credited with determining the positions and magnitudes of the stars listed in the 1918 edition of the Henry Draper Catalogue , which featured the spectra of roughly 222,000 stars. Williamina Fleming Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming (15 May 1857 – 21 May 1911) was a Scottish astronomer. She was a single mother hired by the director of the Harvard College Observatory to help in

1095-412: Is the basis of the today's familiar O B A F G K M system. She also categorized the variable stars into tables so they could be identified and compared more easily. These systems connect the color of stars to their temperature. Annie Jump Cannon was the first female scientist to be recognized for many awards and titles in her field of study. She was the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from

1168-657: Is the college's radio station, established in 1971. In March 2016, in a 15–2 vote, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) passed a resolution calling for the support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and the boycott of Israel. In April 2016, the BDS resolution went to a school-wide referendum, where it was defeated 573–503. Vassar teams, known as the Brewers, compete in Division III of

1241-517: Is to enable full-text search of the research: "If you search for Williamina Fleming, you're not going to just find a mention of her in a publication where she wasn't the author of her work. You're going to find her work." In July 2017, the Wolbach Library at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian unveiled a display showcasing Fleming's work, including the log book containing

1314-463: Is used worldwide by many observatories and their researchers. Within a year of Anna Winlock's hiring, three other women joined the staff: Selina Bond, Rhoda Sauders, and a third, who was likely a relative of an assistant astronomer. Pickering hired Annie Jump Cannon , a graduate of Wellesley College , to classify the southern stars. While at Wellesley, she took astronomy courses from one of Pickering's star students, Sarah Frances Whiting . She became

1387-476: The Liberty League . Currently, there are close to 2,500 students. The college is one of the historic Seven Sisters . The Vassar campus comprises over 1,000 acres (400 ha) and more than 100 buildings. A designated arboretum , the campus features more than 200 species of trees, a native plant preserve, and a 530-acre (210 ha) ecological preserve . Vassar was founded as a women's school under

1460-586: The NCAA , as a member of the Liberty League . The nickname originates from the college's founder and namesake Matthew Vassar , whose family ran a brewery in Poughkeepsie and would later amass a sizable fortune in the industry. In 2008, the Vassar men's volleyball team made the school's first appearance in a national championship game, beating UC Santa Cruz 3–0 in the semifinal before falling to Springfield in

1533-483: The Small Magellanic Cloud , she discovered that their apparent brightness was dependent on their period. Since all those stars were approximately the same distance from Earth, that meant their absolute brightness must depend on their period as well, allowing the use of Cepheid variables as a standard candle for determining cosmic distances. That, in turn, led directly to the modern understanding of

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1606-638: The 12th best liberal arts college in the U.S. out of 211 rated. In previous years the college was ranked by U.S. News & World Report as high as tenth. In 2024, U.S. News & World Report ranked Vassar second for "Best Colleges for Veterans", 29th for "Best Value", 15th for "Top Performers on Social Mobility", and tied for 20th in "Best Undergraduate Teaching". It also ranked Vassar tied for fourth among top liberal arts colleges for economic diversity as measured by low-income students receiving federal Pell Grants . In its 2021 edition, Washington Monthly ranked Vassar 11th among 215 liberal arts colleges in

1679-500: The 149 best value liberal arts colleges in the United States. Money magazine ranked Vassar 145th in the country out of 739 schools evaluated for its 2020 "Best Colleges for Your Money" edition. In an article in The Christian Science Monitor , Vassar president emeritus Catharine Bond Hill argued that rankings "will always be limited in what they can tell consumers. Part of higher education's role about

1752-531: The 2,500+ volumes were outside the scope of her work with DASCH but wanted to see the material preserved and made accessible. Smith Zrull contacted librarians at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics . In response, the Wolbach Library launched Project PHaEDRA (Preserving Harvard's Early Data and Research in Astronomy). Daina Bouquin, Wolbach's Head Librarian, explained that the objective

1825-624: The Horsehead Nebula discovery. The library has dozens of volumes of Fleming's work in its PHaEDRA collection. As of August 2017 , about 200 of over 2,500 volumes had been transcribed. The task is expected to take years to complete fully. Some of the notebooks are listed via the Smithsonian Digital Volunteers Web site, which encourages volunteers to transcribe them. Vassar College Vassar College ( / ˈ v æ s ər / VASS -ər )

1898-592: The Noyes Nymphs, who competed against Ivy League teams in the 1960s and 1970s. Vassar is home to one of the largest undergraduate library collections in the U.S. The library collection today – which actually encompasses eight libraries at Vassar – contains about 1 million volumes and 7,500 serial, periodical and newspaper titles, as well as an extensive collection of microfilm and microfiche, with special collections of Ellen Swallow Richards , Albert Einstein , Mary McCarthy , and Elizabeth Bishop . Vassar has been

1971-545: The Observatory until 1937 and died in 1940 at the age of 80. Florence Cushman worked at the Harvard College Observatory from 1918 to 1937. Over the course of her nearly fifty-year career, she employed the objective prism method to analyze, classify, and catalog the optical spectra of hundreds of thousands of stars. In the 19th century, the photographic revolution enabled more detailed analysis of

2044-525: The Pickering-Fleming system. Stars showing hydrogen as the most abundant element were classified A; those of hydrogen as the second-most abundant element, B; and so on. Later, her colleague Annie Jump Cannon reordered the classification system based on the surface temperature of stars, resulting in the Harvard spectral classification , which is still in use today. In 1890, the HCO published

2117-684: The U.S. based on its contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service. In its 2020 edition, The Princeton Review rated Vassar first for "Best Financial Aid" of all colleges and universities in the United States. In its 2018 edition, The Princeton Review rated Vassar second best for financial aid and 41st best for "best value". In 2019, Forbes rated Vassar 27th among liberal arts colleges and 61st overall in its America's Top Colleges ranking, which includes 650 military academies, national universities, and liberal arts colleges. Kiplinger's Personal Finance places Vassar 11th in its 2019 ranking of

2190-767: The University of Oxford and the Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences, and the first female officer in the American Astronomical Society . Cannon went on to establish her own Annie Jump Cannon Award for women in postdoctoral work. Henrietta Swan Leavitt arrived at the observatory in 1893. She had experience through her college studies, traveling abroad, and teaching. In academia, Leavitt excelled in mathematics courses at Cambridge. When she began working at

2263-621: The arduous work of mathematically reducing meridian circle observations, which rescued a decade's worth of numbers that had been left in a useless state. Winlock also worked on a stellar cataloging section called the "Cambridge Zone". Working over twenty years on the project, the work done by her team on the Cambridge Zone contributed significantly to the Astronomische Gesellschaft Katalog , which contains information on more than one-hundred thousand stars and

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2336-466: The brightness, position, and color of stars. The work included such tasks as classifying stars by comparing the photographs to known catalogs and reducing the photographs while accounting for things like atmospheric refraction in order to render the clearest possible image. Fleming herself described the work as "so nearly alike that there will be little to describe outside ordinary routine work of measurement, examination of photographs, and of work involved in

2409-461: The center of campus stands Main Building , one of the best examples of Second Empire architecture in the United States. When it was opened, Main Building was the largest building in the U.S. in terms of floor space. It formerly housed the entire college, including classrooms, dormitories, museum, library, and dining halls. The building was designed by Smithsonian architect James Renwick Jr. and

2482-646: The championship game. In 2007, the Vassar cycling team hosted the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Championship in Poughkeepsie and New Paltz, New York. The competition included a 100-mile (160 km) road race over the Shawangunk Mountains in New Paltz as well as a criterium in Poughkeepsie just blocks from the school's campus. In a controversial move, on November 5, 2009, the athletics department leaders decided

2555-478: The class of 2026 (enrolling fall 2022), Vassar received 11,412 applications and accepted 18.7%. For the class of 2025 (enrolling fall 2021), Vassar received 10,884 applications, a 25% increase over the previous year, and accepted 2,068 (19%). For the class of 2023 (enrolling fall 2019), Vassar received 8,961 applications and accepted 2,127 (23.7%), with 691 enrolling. For the class of 2025 (enrolling fall 2021),the middle 50% range of SAT scores for enrolling freshmen

2628-506: The class of 2027 (enrolling fall 2023), Vassar received 12,145 applications and accepted 17.7%. The combined average SAT scores of those who opted to submit their testing data was 1489 and the ACT composite average was 33. The middle 50% ranges for the SAT were 1450-1530 and 33-35 for the ACT. Of the matriculants whose high schools provided rankings, 79% were in the top ten percent of their class. For

2701-508: The companion of 40 Eridani. Characteristically, again, he telephoned to Mrs. Fleming who reported within an hour or so, that it was of Class A. In 1910, Fleming published her discovery of white dwarf stars . Her other notable publications include A Photographic Study of Variable Stars (1907), a list of 222 variable stars she had discovered; and Spectra and Photographic Magnitudes of Stars in Standard Regions (1911). She became

2774-413: The discovery. The first Dreyer Index Catalogue omitted Fleming's name from the list of contributors, having then discovered sky objects at Harvard, attributing the entire work merely to "Pickering". However, by the time the second Dreyer Index Catalogue was published in 1908, Fleming and her female colleagues at the HCO were sufficiently well-known and received proper credit for their discoveries. Fleming

2847-444: The doctorate degree or its equivalent. The student-faculty ratio is 8:1, average class size, 17. In recent freshman classes, students of color constituted 32–38% of matriculants. International students from over 60 countries make up 8-10% of the student body. In May 2007, Vassar returned to a need-blind admissions policy without regard to a student's financial status. Vassar president Catharine Bond Hill departed in 2016. She

2920-452: The first Henry Draper Catalogue due to years of work by their female computer team, a catalog with more than 10,000 stars classified according to their spectrum. Fleming did the majority of these classifications. Fleming also made it possible to go back and compare recorded plates by organizing thousands of photographs by telescope along with other identifying factors. In 1898, she was appointed Curator of Astronomical Photographs at Harvard,

2993-496: The first female assistant to study variable stars at night. She studied the light curve of variable stars which could help suggest the type and causation of variation. Cannon, adding to work done by fellow computer Antonia Maury , greatly simplified [Pickering and Fleming 's star classification based on temperature] system, and in 1922, the International Astronomical Union adopted [Cannon's] as

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3066-555: The first woman to hold the position. At the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, Fleming openly advocated for other women in the sciences in her talk "A Field for Woman's Work in Astronomy", where she openly promoted hiring female assistants in astronomy. Her speech suggested she agreed with the prevailing idea that women were inferior but felt that, if given more significant opportunities, they would be able to become equals; in other words,

3139-549: The first women who were hired to work as computers had familial connections to the Harvard Observatory’s male staff. For instance, Anna Winlock , one of the first of the Harvard Computers, was the daughter of Joseph Winlock , the third director of the observatory and Pickering’s immediate predecessor. Anna Winlock joined the observatory in 1875 to assist in supporting her family after her father's unexpected passing. She tackled her father's unfinished data analysis, performing

3212-543: The founding members of the Harvard Computers , an all-women cadre of human computers hired by Pickering to compute mathematical classifications and edit the observatory's publications. In 1886, Mary Anna Draper , the wealthy widow of astronomer Henry Draper , started the Henry Draper Memorial to fund the HCO's research. In response, the HCO began work on the first Henry Draper Catalogue ,

3285-544: The gallery opened the Hoene Hoy Photography gallery on the second floor, named after Anne Hoene Hoy from the class of 1963. In 2011, Vassar embarked on a $ 120 million project to improve science facilities at the college, centering on the construction of a new Bridge for Laboratory Sciences . The majority of students in their first three years live on campus in the nine residence halls . Main House occupies

3358-455: The men's and women's rowing team would transition over a two-year period from a varsity to a club sport as a cost-saving measure. In 1940, 1941 and 1942, Vassar athletes won national intercollegiate women's tennis championships each year in both singles ( Katharine Hubbell ) and doubles (Hubbell, Carolyn "Lonny" Myers). In 2018, the Vassar women's rugby team won the school's first team national championship, beating Winona State 50–13 in

3431-508: The name Vassar Female College in 1861. Its first president was Milo P. Jewett, who had previously been first president of another women's school, Judson College ; he led a staff of ten professors and twenty-one instructors. After one year, its founder, Matthew Vassar , had the word Female removed from the name, prompting some local residents of Poughkeepsie, New York , to quip that its founder believed it might one day admit male students. The college became coeducational in 1969. Vassar

3504-413: The night sky than had been possible with solely eye-based observations. In order to obtain optical spectra for measurement, male astronomers at the Harvard College Observatory expose glass plates on which the astronomical images were captured at night. During the daytime, female assistants like Florence analyzed the resultant spectra by reducing values, computing magnitudes, and cataloging their findings. She

3577-516: The observatory she was tasked with measuring star brightness through photometry . She found hundreds of new variable stars after starting to analyze the Great Nebula in Orion and her work was expanded to study the variables of the entire sky with Annie Jump Cannon and Evelyn Leland . With skills gained in photometry, Leavitt compared stars in different exposures. Studying Cepheid variables in

3650-793: The official classification system for stars....During Pickering’s 42-year tenure at the Harvard Observatory, which ended only a year before he died, in 1919, he received many awards, including the Bruce Medal , the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s highest honor. Craters on the moon and on Mars are named after him. And Annie Jump Cannon’s enduring achievement was dubbed the Harvard —not the Cannon—system of spectral classification. Cannon's Harvard Classification Scheme

3723-473: The photographic classification of stellar spectra. She helped develop a common designation system for stars and cataloged more than ten thousand stars, 59 gaseous nebulae , over 310 variable stars , and 10 novae and other astronomical phenomena. Among several career achievements that advanced astronomy, Fleming is noted for her discovery of the Horsehead Nebula in 1888. Williamina Paton Stevens

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3796-441: The rankings should be to remind students and their families that these are only one piece of information that they should take into account in deciding where to go to college. Intangibles will and should play a role in these decisions, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't also look at the tangibles". Over half of Vassar graduates pursue advanced study within five years of graduation, including one-fifth immediately post-graduation. Of

3869-721: The realization that there are even more galaxies than previously thought. Florence Cushman (1860-1940) was an American astronomer at the Harvard College Observatory who worked on the Henry Draper Catalogue . Florence was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1860 and received her early education at Charlestown High School , where she graduated in 1877. In 1888, she began work at the Harvard College Observatory as an employee of Edward Pickering . Her classifications of stellar spectra contributed to Henry Draper Catalogue between 1918 and 1934. She stayed as an astronomer at

3942-453: The reduction of these observations". At times women offered to work at the observatory for free in order to gain experience in a field that was difficult to get into. Mary Anna Draper was the widow of Dr. Henry Draper , an astronomer who died before completing his work on the chemical composition of stars. She was very involved in her husband's work and wanted to finish his classification of stars after he died. Mary Draper quickly realized

4015-646: The rest of the dorms due to cost. Vassar maintains housing for faculty; the current complex opened in 2023. The previous faculty housing facility, Williams House , was to be demolished after 2020. School-age dependents living on the Vassar faculty complex, as well as other areas in the Vassar College CDP, are within the Arlington Central School District , which operates Arlington High School . The most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were: For

4088-580: The school's secret society Delta Sigma Rho, founded in 1922. Before becoming President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a Trustee. Approximately 2,450 students attend Vassar, and 98% live on campus. About 60% come from public high schools, and 40% come from private schools (both independent and religious). Vassar is currently 56% women and 44% men, at national average for national liberal arts colleges. Students are taught by more than 336 faculty members, virtually all holding

4161-442: The seniors who applied to medical school in 2017, 76% were accepted; to law school, 96% were accepted. Founder's Day is an annual campus festival at Vassar College that usually takes place in late April or early May. It started as a surprise birthday party for college founder Matthew Vassar 's seventy-fourth birthday and evolved into an annual celebration. Originally, Founder's Day was a spontaneous event consisting of lectures, but

4234-616: The sex differences in this regard were more culturally constructed than biologically grounded. During her career, Fleming discovered a total of 59 gaseous nebulae , over 310 variable stars , and 10 novae . Most notably, in 1888, Fleming discovered the Horsehead Nebula on a telescope- photogrammetry plate made by astronomer W. H. Pickering , brother of E.C. Pickering. She described the bright nebula (later known as IC 434 ) as having "a semicircular indentation 5 minutes in diameter 30 minutes south of Zeta Orionis ". Subsequent professional publications neglected to give credit to Fleming for

4307-486: The spectra of stars. She had decided this would be the best way to continue her husband's work and erect his legacy in astronomy. She was very insistent on funding the memorial project with her own inheritance, as it would carry on her husband's legacy. She was a dedicated follower of the observatory and a great friend of Pickering's. In 1900 she funded an expedition to see the total solar eclipse occurring that year. Williamina Fleming had no prior relation to Harvard, as she

4380-445: The task facing her was far too daunting for one person. She had received correspondence from Mr. Pickering, a close friend of hers and her husband's. Pickering offered to help finish her husband's work, and encouraged her to publish his findings up to the time of his death. After some deliberation and much consideration, Draper decided in 1886 to donate money and a telescope of her husband's to the Harvard Observatory in order to photograph

4453-437: The team included Williamina Fleming and Florence Cushman . Although these women started primarily as calculators, they made significant contributions to astronomy, much of which they published in research articles. Although Pickering believed that gathering data at astronomical observatories was not the most appropriate work, it seems that several factors contributed to his decision to hire women instead of men. Among them

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4526-521: The true size of the universe, and Cepheid variables are still an essential rung in the cosmic distance ladder . Pickering published her work with his name as co-author. The legacy she left allowed future scientists to make further discoveries in space. Astronomer Edwin Hubble used Leavitt's method to calculate the distance of the nearest galaxy to the earth, the Andromeda Galaxy. This led to

4599-427: The upper floors of Main Building, constructed at the college's founding. To accommodate a growing student body, Strong House was constructed in 1893. Strong was made all-women's housing after the college went coeducational in 1969; the house now also accepts nonbinary and other gender-nonconforming students. Similar Elizabethan -style houses— Raymond , Lathrop , and Davison —were built from 1897 to 1902 to form

4672-450: Was 710-760 for evidence-based reading and writing, 710-780 for math, and 1420-1540 for the composite. The middle 50% ACT score range was 28-33 for math, 32-34 for English, and 32-34 for the composite. Students of color (including non-citizens) made up 45.5% of the incoming class; international students were 8.8% of enrolling freshmen. The 2025 edition of U.S. News & World Report ' s "Best Colleges" ranked Vassar as tied for

4745-455: Was a Scottish immigrant working as Pickering's housemaid. Her first assignment was to improve an existing catalog of stellar spectra, which later led to her appointment as head of the ‘’ Henry Draper Catalogue ’’ project. Fleming went on to help develop a classification of stars based on their hydrogen content, as well as play a major role in discovering the strange nature of white dwarf stars . Williamina continued her career in astronomy when she

4818-555: Was appointed Harvard's Curator of Astronomical Photographs in 1899, also known as Curator of the Photographic Plates. She remained the only woman curator until the 1950s. Her work also led to her becoming the first female American citizen to be elected to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1907. Antonia Maury was the niece of Henry Draper, and after recommendation from Mrs. Draper, was hired as

4891-641: Was born in Dundee , Scotland, at 86 Nethergate, on 15 May 1857 to Mary Walker and Robert Stevens, a carver and gilder. She was one of six children. Her younger sister, Johanna Stevens, would also later work at Harvard College Observatory. Starting at the age of fourteen, she went to work as a pupil-teacher . In 1877, she married James Orr Fleming, an accountant and widower, also of Dundee. The couple had one son, Edward P. Fleming. In 1878, aged 21, she and her husband emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, US. After her husband abandoned her and her young son, she worked as

4964-558: Was completed in 1865. It was preceded on campus by the original observatory . Both buildings are National Historic Landmarks . Rombout House was purchased by the college in 1915 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Eero Saarinen made designs for several Vassar dormitories, but only one, the Emma Hartman Noyes House, was completed in 1958. Built for roughly 160 students, it

5037-570: Was soon replaced with plays, pageants, and more recreational activities. Circus and fair activities followed, with the eventual addition of the modern day music events over the course of two days. More recently themes have been added, including Alice in Wonderland , Dinosaurs, Vintage 1800s Vassar, Nickelodeon , Nintendo , and Candyland . Recent artists at Founder's Day have included The Walkmen , Edan , DJ /rupture , Odd Nosdam , Jel , Toro y Moi , and Odesza . WVKR-FM , 91.3 FM,

5110-625: Was succeeded by Elizabeth Howe Bradley in 2017. The college was listed as a census-designated place (Vassar College CDP) in 2019. The campus is in Poughkeepsie Town , adjacent to Poughkeepsie City . The area around the campus appeared as a census-designated place (CDP) in the 2020 U.S. Census , with a population of 2,472. Vassar's campus, also an arboretum , is 1,000 acres (400 ha) and has more than 100 buildings, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International , with several buildings of architectural interest. At

5183-507: Was that men were paid much more than women, so he could employ more staff with the same budget. This was relevant in a time when the amount of astronomical data was surpassing the capacity of the Observatories to process it. Although some of Pickering's female staff were astronomy graduates, their wages were similar to those of unskilled workers . They usually earned between 25 and 50 cents per hour (between $ 8 and $ 15 in 2023), more than

5256-401: Was the first part of a circular construction that was to be continued in "Noyes II." The starkly modernist building's high cost and structural difficulties with the windows, however, led administrators to leave it at one. The dorm's common area is famous for its futuristic design; readings and concerts are held there regularly. The Noyes building was also the home of an all-female football team,

5329-634: Was the second of the Seven Sisters colleges, higher education schools that were strictly for women, and historically sister institutions to the all-male Ivy League colleges. It was chartered by its namesake, brewer Matthew Vassar , in 1861 in the Hudson Valley , about 70 miles (110 km) north of New York City . The first person appointed to the Vassar faculty was astronomer Maria Mitchell , in 1865. Vassar adopted coeducation in 1969. Immediately following World War II , Vassar accepted

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