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Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • January 13, 2025

Given our recent weather, I wanted to reblog this from 2014. 



1857 Jan 22. Hard winters are becoming the order of things. Winter before last was hard, last winter was harder and this surpasses all winters known before. We have been frozen in to our Island now since the 6th. No one said much about it for the first two or three days. The sleighing was good and all the world was out trying their horses on Main St. – the race-course of the world. Day after day passed and the thermometer sank to a lower point and the minds rose to a higher, and sleighing became uncomfortable and even the dullest man longed for the cheer of a newspaper. The Inquirer came out for a while, but at length had nothing to tell and nothing to Inquire about and so kept its peace . . . .


           Inside the houses we amuse ourselves in various ways. Frank’s family and ours form a club, meeting three times a week and writing machine poetry in great quantities. Occasionally something very droll puts us in a roar of laughter. Frank, Ellen and Kate I think are rather the smartest, tho’ Mr. Macy has written rather the best of all. 


Some things never change and Maria Mitchell and her family were confronted with a cold and snowy winter, rendering them – and the island – house-bound due to the bitter weather. Maria writes in her journal of the sitting room at the Pacific Bank − where the family lived on the second floor − not getting above forty degrees in the evening, though she implies this was fairly snug which helps you get a better feeling for what winter home interiors were like in those days. With constant clouds, Maria found that she could not observe but it seems she likely got to know her sister-in-law, Ellen, much better (Ellen married Francis “Frank” Macy Mitchell – younger brother of Maria in April 1853), as well as Mr. Macy – Alfred Macy – a lawyer and the head of the Coffin School for several years. Alfred would marry Anne Mitchell (younger sister of Maria) in May of 1857 – perhaps the confined quarters help to kindle the romance all the more! 


JNLF

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By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger February 10, 2025
Feb. 15, 1853. I think Dr. Hall (in his “Life of Mary Ware”) does wrong when he attempts to encourage the use of the needle. It seems to me that the needle is the chain of woman, and has fettered her more than the laws of the country. Once emancipate her from the “stitch, stitch, stitch,” the industry of which would be commendable if it served any purpose except the gratification of her vanity, and she would have time for studies which would engross as the needle never can. I would as soon put a girl alone into a closet to meditate as give her only the society of the needle. The art of sewing, so far as men learn it, is well enough; that is, to enable a person to take the stitches, and, if necessary, to make her own garments in a strong manner; but the dressmaker should no more be a universal character than the carpenter. I believe MM’s words are self-explanatory, no commentary needed on my part. JNLF
February 7, 2025
NANTUCKET, MA—– The Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) and Nantucket Lights are pleased to release the Nantucket Sky Quality Monitoring Project (SQM) report by Dark Sky Consulting , LLC. The joint program, launched in 2022, involves collecting night-sky brightness data from around Nantucket Island from citizen-scientists using handheld Unihedron Sky Quality Meters (SQMs) as measurement devices to study light pollution. Observations were made from June 2022 to November 2024 at eight sites (Nantucket Town; Madaket Beach; Nantucket Elementary School; Nantucket Memorial Airport; Altar Rock; 'Sconset; Wauwinet; and Surfside Beach), a ninth site (Cisco Beach) was added in August 2024, for which only three months of data are available. These efforts establish a baseline for assessing the effectiveness of actions to mitigate light pollution going forward. The distributions separate into two broad populations (high development: Nantucket Town; Nantucket Elementary School; and Nantucket Airport) and low/no development: (Madaket; Sconset; Wauwinet’; Surfside Beach; Cisco Beach; and Altar Rock). The darkest readings among the latter tend to occur in spring and summer. For high-development sites, the width of the distribution increases distinctly in summer and its mean shifts toward brighter values. We interpret this as due to an increased population on the island during the summer season. The group follows the data collection procedure recommended by DarkSky International. Readings are taken under conditions intended to minimize interference from environmental influences. For example, reading does not commence until the end of astronomical twilight, which occurs about 90 minutes after sunset. Observers are encouraged to report only data taken under conditions of clear skies, which is sometimes not possible due to the vagaries of Nantucket weather. Additionally, they avoid obtaining data when the Moon is above the horizon to limit the contaminating effect of its light. Readings are taken after the conclusion of astronomical twilight during the week between the last-quarter and new Moon phases. Analysis of the night-sky brightness measurements since 2022 show that the data are broadly valid and reproducible, and that outlier values can largely be explained by the influence of environmental conditions. Distributions of measurements across various cuts (location, year) are normal as expected for random sampling of the assumed underlying “populations” of night-sky brightness values. And there is not a great deal of night-sky brightness variation from one year to the next, either on a per-site basis or island-wide. From this, we can broadly conclude that light emissions on Nantucket have, in recent years, increased only at a very slow rate. The Nantucket Dark Sky Monitoring Project continues to be monitored, and data is being collected and analyzed. You can find more detailed information on the Nantucket Island Night Sky Quality Report here: Nantucket-Report-FINAL-250123.pdf Nantucket-Annex-FINAL-250123.pdf The Maria Mitchell Association was founded in 1902 to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. After she discovered a comet in 1847, Mitchell’s international fame led to many achievements and awards, including an appointment as the first female professor of astronomy at Vassar College. Maria Mitchell believed in “learning by doing” and today that philosophy is reflected in the MMA’s mission statement, programs, research projects, and other activities. The Maria Mitchell Association operates two observatories, a natural science museum, an aquarium, a research center, and preserves the historic birthplace of Maria Mitchell. A wide variety of science and history-related programming is offered throughout the year for people of all ages ###
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger February 3, 2025
We are still quietly working away. Now that the paint and plaster repairs are done, the woodwork and shelving has been conserved, and the floor has been redone in the Astronomical Study, we have turned to the concrete floors. These are being worked on by Evita Caune of Riptide Finishes – she had done Hinchman House’s cellar floor and those in the Research Center. The Observatory cellar floor is coming along and she is also working on the Pillar Room – so named because tit houses the pillar that supports the telescope in the Dome Room. If there was an original finish on any of the three concrete floors – the Pillar Room, the Dome Room, the cellar under the Astronomical Study – it is gone. They applied many layers of paint that eroded and chipped with time. I do now know why the Pillar Room had a red floor at one point (took me long enough) – probably to match the red tile they put on the original wood floor in the Astronomical Study. Evita is giving us a nice clean coating in the Pillar Room and the cellar and we may have a bit more fun with the floor in the Dome Room – all of this is reversible which comes from a conservation perspective. All the interior conservation work was funded by the Community Preservation Act – as was the exterior conservation. One note – the Astronomical Study’s original floor was a total loss as far as finish is concerned. I may have noted this before. It was truly sad. The original wood floor was covered in multiple layers – tarpaper glued to the wood. Then a layer of red tile (tested and was safe), then another layer of tarpaper and glues. Then foam padding and a 1980s blue wall-to-wall carpet – they liked that carpet so much it used to be in the Astronomer’s Cottage too! We thought the tar paper beneath the tiles would be easily removed from the wood. It was not. It had basically melted and seeped into the floor so we have to lightly sand the floor and then refinish it. That was quite sad – but at least we have the original wood floor intact. JNLF
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