Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals

CHAPTER IV

Southern tour--Chicago--St. Louis--Scientific Academy of St. Louis--Dr. Pope--Dr. Seyffarth--Mississippi river--Sand-bars--Cherry blossoms--Eclipse of sun--Natchez--New Orleans--Slave market--Negro church--The "peculiar institution"--Bible--Judge Smith--Travelling without escort--Savannah--Rice plantations--Negro children--Miss Murray--Charleston--Drive--Condition of slaves--Old buildings--Miss Rutledge--Mr. Capers--Class meeting--Hospitality--Mrs. Holbrook--Miss Pinckney--Manners--Portraits--Miss Pinckney's father--George Washington--Augusta--Nashville--Mrs. Fogg--Mrs. Polk--Charles Sumner--Mammoth cave--Chattanooga

CHAPTER V

First European tour--Liverpool--London--Rev. James Martineau--Mr. John Taylor--Mr. Lassell--Liverpool observatory--The Hawthornes--Shop-keepers and waiters--Greenwich observatory--Sir George Airy--Visits to Greenwich--Herr Struvé's mission to England--Dinner party--General Sabine--Westminster Abbey--Newton's monument--British museum--Four great men--St. Paul's--Dr. Johnson--Opera--Aylesbury--Admiral Smyth's family--Amateur astronomers--Hartwell house--Dr. Lee

CHAPTER VI

Cambridge--Dr. Whewell--Table conversation--Professor Challis--Professor Adams--Customs--Professor Sedgwick--Caste--King's Chapel--Fellows-- Ambleside--Coniston waters--The lakes--Miss Southey--Collingwood--Letter to her father--Herschels--London rout--Professor Stokes--Dr. Arnott--Edinboro'--Observatory--Glasgow observatory--Professor Nichol--Dungeon Ghyll--English language--English and Americans--Boys and beggars

CHAPTER VII

Adams and Leverrier--The discovery of the planet Neptune--Extract from papers--Professor Bond, of Cambridge, Mass.--Paris--Imperial observatory--Mons. and Mme. Leverrier--Reception at Leverrier's--Rooms in observatory--Rome--Impressions--Apartments in Rome and Paris--Customs--Holy week--Vespers at St. Peter's--Women--Frederika Bremer--Paul Akers--Harriet Hosmer--Collegio Romano--Father Secchi--Galileo--Visit to the Roman observatory--Permission from Cardinal Antonelli--Spectroscope

CHAPTER VIII. Mrs. Somerville--Berlin--Humboldt--Mrs. Mitchell's Illness and

Mrs. Somerville--Berlin--Humboldt--Mrs. Mitchell's illness and death--Removal to Lynn, Mass.--Telescope presented to Miss Mitchell by Elizabeth Peabody and others--Letters from Admiral Smyth--Colors of stars--Extract from letter to a friend--San Marino medal--Other extracts

CHAPTER IX

Life at Vassar College--Anxious mammas--Faculty meetings--President Hill--Professor Peirce--Burlington, Ia., and solar eclipse--Classes at Vassar--Professor Mitchell and her pupils--Extracts from diary--Aids --Scholarships--Address to her students--Imagination in science--"I am but a woman"--Maria Mitchell endowment fund--Emperor of Brazil--President Raymond's death--Dome parties--Comet, 1881--The apple-tree--"Honor girls"--Mr. Matthew Arnold

CHAPTER X. Second Visit to Europe--Russia--Extracts From Diary and

Second visit to Europe--Russia--Extracts from diary and letters--Custom-house peculiarities--Russian railways--Domes--Russian thermometers and calendars--The drosky and drivers--Observatory at Pulkova--Herr Struvé--Scientific position of Russia--Language-- Religion--Democracy of the Church--Government--A Russian family--London, 1873--Frances Power Cobbe--Bookstores in London--Glasgow College for Girls

CHAPTER XI

Papers--Science--Eclipse of 1878, Denver, Colorado--Colors of stars

CHAPTER XII

Religious matters--President Taylor's remarks--Sermons--George MacDonald--Rev. Dr. Peabody--Dr. Lyman Abbott--Professor Henry--Meeting of the American Scientific Association at Saratoga--Professor Peirce-- Concord School of Philosophy--Emerson--Miss Peabody--Dr. Harris--Easter flowers--Whittier--Rich days--Cooking schools--Anecdotes

CHAPTER XIII

Letter-writing--Woman suffrage--Membership in various societies.--Women's Congress at Syracuse, N.Y.--Picnic at Medfield, Mass.--Degrees from different colleges--Published papers.--Failure in health--Resigns her position at Vassar College--Letters from various persons--Death--Conclusion

APPENDIX

Introductory note by Hon. Edward Everett

Correspondence relative to the Danish medal

CHAPTER I. 1818-1846

1818-1846

BIRTH--PARENTS--HOME SURROUNDINGS AND EARLY LIFE

Maria Mitchell was born on the island of Nantucket, Mass., Aug. 1, 1818. She was the third child of William and Lydia [Coleman] Mitchell.

Her ancestors, on both sides, were Quakers for many generations; and it was in consequence of the intolerance of the early Puritans that these ancestors had been obliged to flee from the State of Massachusetts, and to settle upon this island, which, at that time, belonged to the State of New York.

For many years the Quakers, or Friends, as they called themselves, formed much the larger part of the inhabitants of Nantucket, and thus were enabled to crystallize, as it were, their own ideas of what family and social life should be; and although in course of time many "world's people" swooped down and helped to swell the number of islanders, they still continued to hold their own methods, and to bring up their children in accordance with their own conceptions of "Divine light."

Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell were married during the war of 1812; the former lacking one week of being twenty-one years old, and the latter being a few months over twenty.

The people of Nantucket by their situation endured many hardships during this period; their ships were upon the sea a prey to privateers, and communication with the mainland was exposed to the same danger, so that it was difficult to obtain such necessaries of life as the island could not furnish. There were still to be seen, a few years ago, the marks left on the moors, where fields of corn and potatoes had been planted in that trying time.

So the young couple began their housekeeping in a very simple way. Mr. Mitchell used to describe it as being very delightful; it was noticed that Mrs. Mitchell never expressed herself on the subject,--it was she, probably, who had the planning to do, to make a little money go a great way, and to have everything smooth and serene when her husband came home.

Mrs. Mitchell was a woman of strong character, very dignified, honest almost to an extreme, and perfectly self-controlled where control was necessary. She possessed very strong affections, but her self-control was such that she was undemonstrative.

She kept a close watch over her children, was clearheaded, knew their every fault and every merit, and was an indefatigable worker. It was she who looked out for the education of the children and saw what their capacities were.

Mr. Mitchell was a man of great suavity and gentleness; if left to himself he would never have denied a single request made to him by one of his children. His first impulse was to gratify every desire of their hearts, and if it had not been for the clear head of the mother, who took care that the household should be managed wisely and economically, the results might have been disastrous. The father had wisdom enough to perceive this, and when a child came to him, and in a very pathetic and winning way proffered some request for an unusual indulgence, he generally replied, "Yes, if mother thinks best."

Mr. Mitchell was very fond of bright colors; as they were excluded from the dress of Friends, he indulged himself wherever it was possible. If he were buying books, and there was a variety of binding, he always chose the copies with red covers. Even the wooden framework of the reflecting telescope which he used was painted a brilliant red. He liked a gay carpet on the floor, and the walls of the family sitting-room in the house on Vestal street were covered with paper resplendent with bunches of pink roses. Suspended by a cord from the ceiling in the centre of this room was a glass ball, filled with water, used by Mr. Mitchell in his experiments on polarization of light, flashing its dancing rainbows about the room.

At the back of this house was a little garden, full of gay flowers: so that if the garb of the young Mitchells was rather sombre, the setting was bright and cheerful, and the life in the home was healthy and wide-awake. When the hilarity became excessive the mother would put in her little check, from time to time, and the father would try to look as he ought to, but he evidently enjoyed the whole.

As Mr. Mitchell was kind and indulgent to his children, so he was the sympathetic friend and counsellor of many in trouble who came to him for help or advice. As he took his daily walk to the little farm about a mile out of town, where, for an hour or two he enjoyed being a farmer, the people would come to their doors to speak to him as he passed, and the little children would run up to him to be patted on the head.

He treated animals in the same way. He generally kept a horse. His children complained that although the horse was good when it was bought, yet as Mr. Mitchell never allowed it to be struck with a whip, nor urged to go at other than a very gentle trot, the horse became thoroughly demoralized, and was no more fit to drive than an old cow!

There was everything in the home which could amuse and instruct children. The eldest daughter was very handy at all sorts of entertaining occupations; she had a delicate sense of the artistic, and was quite skilful with her pencil.

The present kindergarten system in its practice is almost identical with the home as it appeared in the first half of this century, among enlightened people. There is hardly any kind of handiwork done in the kindergarten that was not done in the Mitchell family, and in other families of their acquaintance. The girls learned to sew and cook, just as they learned to read,--as a matter of habit rather than of instruction. They learned how to make their own clothes, by making their dolls' clothes,--and the dolls themselves were frequently home-made, the eldest sister painting the faces much more prettily than those obtained at the shops; and there was a great delight in gratifying the fancy, by dressing the dolls, not in Quaker garb, but in all of the most brilliant colors and stylish shapes worn by the ultra-fashionable.

There were always plenty of books, and besides those in the house there was the Atheneum Library, which, although not a free library, was very inexpensive to the shareholders.

There was another very striking difference between that epoch and the present. The children of that day were taught to value a book and to take excellent care of it; as an instance it may be mentioned that one copy of Colburn's "Algebra" was used by eight children in the Mitchell family, one after the other. The eldest daughter's name was written on the inside of the cover; seven more names followed in the order of their ages, as the book descended.

With regard to their reading, the mother examined every book that came into the house. Of course there were not so many books published then as now, and the same books were read over and over. Miss Edgeworth's stories became part of their very lives, and Young's "Night Thoughts," and the poems of Cowper and Bloomfield were conspicuous objects on the bookshelves of most houses in those days. Mr. Mitchell was very apt, while observing the heavens in the evening, to quote from one or the other of these poets, or from the Bible. "An undevout astronomer is mad" was one of his favorite quotations.

Continue reading Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals free in the Wunder reader →