Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words
August 23 {1888}
My dear Mrs. Livermore,
I am better and apparently steadily improving. But I am pleased to be asked to lecture and shall not be pleased to accept your invitation.
Just as the Lick Observatory goes up, mine, the smallest in the world, peeps up, above the grass and among the morning glories – It is really intended as a health lift.
I am very glad to see your list of names. I ran a course of similar kind once in Po’keepsie – I had 5 Lectures – and 5 good Lecturers and the whole cost was as small as my observatory – I paid all the bills and no one complained – the sum total was $12! There wasn’t a man asked to speak!
But a better way is co-education.
Yours with love,
Maria Mitchell
While short, this is a rather information packed letter. First off, it underscores yet again, Maria’s connections to those in the abolitionist, women’s rights, temperance and other important and noteworthy movements of the nineteenth century. A journalist, Livermore would help to found a SOROSIS chapter, which Maria was a founding member of, and would serve as the first president of the Association for the Advancement of Woman. Later, Maria would also serve as its president.
This letter also serves to highlight when her observatory in Lynn, Mass. was being built. Designed by her architect nephew, William Mitchell Kendall (a senior architect with McKim, Mead and White and Phebe’s son who I have mentioned before), she notes it is something to motivate her in her poor and declining health. Unfortunately, she utilized it very little – it was not so much about motivation but failing health. Built behind her youngest sister, Kate’s, house in Lynn, it really was covered with morning glories as the image that we have at the MMA illustrates. It had an exterior stair that wound its way to a second floor door – it was not a full two stories – and inside could be found her Alvan Clark telescope.
And finally of note, is her discussion of holding something of a conference or lecture series – I’d like to think maybe similar to our Maria Mitchell Women of Science Symposium (MMWSS). She says men were excluded from speaking however, but notes that she thinks co-education is the way to go. I think she likely, by this point, felt that a purely women’s college/education was not helping with the path towards the equality of women. In order to ensure equality, everyone has to have a seat and a voice at the table to properly problem solve. As a women’s college graduate (Mt. Holyoke forever shall be!), I firmly believe in women’s colleges – however, they are not right for everyone. But I also believe that again, all voices need to be heard – and considered. With the MMWSS, we have tried to have men on our panels but have not found any that want to participate! We continue to seek those interested for future MMWSS events. (Though we do have male attendees.)
JNLF
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