Maria Mitchell

(1818 - 1889)

In October 1847, at the age of twenty-nine, Maria Mitchell discovered a comet, becoming the first American woman to do so; the following year she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, becoming its first female member. When Vassar College opened in 1865, Mitchell accepted an appointment as director of the observatory and professor of astronomy, positions she held until a year before her death. Her two favorite planets, according to her successor, were Jupiter and Saturn.