Antonia Maury

Antonia Maury
Born	March 21, 1866 Cold Spring, NY
Died	Dobbs Ferry, NY
Nationality	USA
Fields	Astronomy
Institutions	Harvard College Observatory
Alma mater	Vassar College
Academic advisors	Maria Mitchell
Notable awards	Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy (1943)

Antonia Maury (March 21, 1866–January 8, 1952) was an American astronomer who published an important early catalog of stellar spectra.

Early life

Antonia Coetana de Paiva Pereira Maury was born in Cold Spring, New York in 1866. She was named in honor of her maternal grandmother, Antonia Coetana de Paiva Pereira Gardner Draper, who belonged to a noble family that fled Portugal for Brazil on account of Napoleon Bonaparte's wars. Maury's father was the Reverend Mytton Maury, a direct descendant of the Reverend James Maury and one of the sons of Sarah Mytton Maury. Maury's mother was Virginia Draper, a daughter of Antonia Coetana de Paiva Pereira Gardner and Dr. John William Draper.

Maury was also the granddaughter of John William Draper and a niece of Henry Draper, both pioneering astronomers. As such, young Antonia and her two siblings were exposed to science at a very early age.

Antonia Maury attended Vassar College, graduating in 1887 with honors in physics, astronomy, and philosophy. There, she studied under the tutelage of renowned astronomer Maria Mitchell.

Astronomical work

After completing her undergraduate work, Maury went to work at the Harvard College Observatory as one of the so-called Harvard Computers, highly skilled women who processed astronomical data. In this capacity, Maury observed stellar spectra and published an important catalogue of classifications in 1897.

Edward Charles Pickering, the observatory's director, disagreed with Maury’s system of classification and explanation of differing line widths. In response to this negative reaction to her work, she decided to leave the observatory. However, Danish astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung realized the value of her classifications and used them in his system of identifying giant and dwarf stars.

In 1908, Maury returned to Harvard College Observatory where she remained for many years. Her most famous work there was the spectroscopic analysis of the binary star Beta Lyrae, published in 1933.

Later years

After retirement, Maury pursued interests in nature and conservation. She enjoyed bird-watching, and she fought to save western Sequoia trees from being felled during wartime. For three years, Maury also served as curator of the John William Draper House in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, where her grandfather and uncle had built observatories, and where the first photos of the moon as seen through a telescope were taken.

Maury died on January 8, 1952, in Dobbs Ferry, NY.

Awards

Maury lunar crater

In 1943, Antonia Maury was awarded the Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy by the American Astronomical Society.

The lunar crater Maury and a number of smaller ejecta craters are co-named for Antonia Maury. They were originally named for her cousin, Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, United States Navy and are, perhaps, the only lunar features shared by two cousins.

External Links

• Project Continua: Biography of Antonia Maury Project Continua is a web-based multimedia resource dedicated to the creation and preservation of women’s intellectual history from the earliest surviving evidence into the 21st Century.

Additional Reading

• "Maury Family Tree" by Sue C. West-Teague (former U.S.N.)
• Antonia Maury Vassar alumnae magazine, v.37, March 1952
• Maury, Antonia Coetana De Paiva Pereira (1866–1952), astronomer. American Women In Science. Santa Barbara, Calif. 1994. p. 240-241 by Martha J. Bailey
• Gingerich, Owen. Maury, Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. v.9. New York, C. Scribner's Sons, 1974. p. 194-195.
• Antonia Coetania [sic] Maury, 1866-1952. The Remarkable Lives of 100 Women Healers and Scientists. Holbrook, Mass., B. Adams, 1994. (20th century women series) p. 138-139.
• Hoffleit, Dorrit. Antonia C. Maury. Sky and Telescope, v. 11, March 1952: 106. port.
• Hoffleit, Dorrit. Maury, Antonia Caetana De Paiva Pereira. Notable American Women, the Modern Period. Edited by Barbara Sicherman, Carold Hurd Green, with Ilene Kantrov, Harriette Walker. Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1980. p. 464-466.
• Larsen, Kristine M. Antonia Maury (1866–1952), astronomer. Notable Women in the Physical Sciences, a Biographical Dictionary. Edited by Benjamin F. Shearer and Barbara S. Shearer. Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, 1997. p. 255-259.
• Maury, Antonia Coetana [sic] In Woman's Who's Who of America. 1914-1915. John William Leonard, editor-in-chief. New York, American Commonwealth Co. [1914] p. 550.