# Professional Self-Identification by the Women Astronomical Computers By Samantha Notick Every ten years when the census comes around, we have to figure out how to define what it is we do. For some, it’s as simple as one word: Nurse, Fisherman, Firefighter. For others, a one-to-three word summary can be quite challenging: Manufacturer of Lightning Rods, Stenographer and Bookkeeper, Ship Chandler. The Women who worked at Harvard College Observatory with the Glass Plates did their best to summarize the complex work that they did on state, census, and vital records. Today, those records are our best first-hand resources in telling the story of women workers in the field of Astronomy, and their complex and changing role therein. Working with those sources, Samantha wanted to answer several key questions: - How did the Women who did astronomy work at the Harvard College Observatory refer to their professions? - Did they use terms like “Computer” or “Assistant”, or were those part of a lexicon that was placed upon them? Possibly after the fact? - Did the titles change over time on a broad scale, or were changes made individually and non-standard? #### **Methodology** Using the Ancestrylibrary Databases, our researcher Samantha searched by full name, and other relevant parameters including gender, city of residence, and birthdate, for all 142 women identified as Women Astronomical Computers by our team. This was in effort to locate census and vital records, federal and local, where the women listed a profession. Most commonly to this endeavor, professions were listed on censuses, city directories, vital records (births, deaths, marriages), and Naturalization or Travel documents like petitions and passenger manifests. Larger questions of preference for one term or another, and the changing popularity of terms necessitated a List of Titles. Several known titles were used as beginning data points: Computer, Assistant, and Astronomer. More terms, like Research Assistant, Technician, and Calculator, were added as they were found. This data was first preserved in a spreadsheet. In this spreadsheet, women's names were arranged in surname-alphabetical order in the first column. Successive columns, after ones for birth year, marriage year (if relevant), and first year of professional publication, went by decade from 1870 to 1950. Under the decades each woman worked at Harvard, titles of profession and their source category (census, directory, etc) were listed within the proper cells. It was then possible to see any changes in any particular woman’s career: if she changed titles, if she used one on one type or record vs another, and if she preferred to use on title before or after marriage, etc. This also stands as a visual guide to see what decade the most women worked (of the women found on record), and to compare within decades the titles that were used. This title information was then transferred into another spreadsheet, a kind of bar graph. Titles listed in the first column, and decades along the top row. Under each decade a term was used, the corresponding cell received a tally, culminating in a visual guide to how common each term was within each decade, by number of users. This provided critical information as to when certain terms came into use, fell out of use, appeared more frequently per decade, were favored/popular, or were unique (for example, ‘calculator’). With data from 76 out of 142 women, we were able to identify the five most common terms found as self-identifiers on census and vital records. This information is important today to honor how the Women Astronomical Computers viewed their work at the time. #### **The Five Most Common Terms** *Assistant* - This term was in use for at least 80 years, most commonly in the decade of the 1910s. While it was the most common, it is also the most general, and we allowed for several variations to fall under this category, like ‘Astronomy Assistant’. *Astronomer* - The first decade this term appeared in our research was the 19-aughts. It was used most commonly in the decade of the 1920s. Several of the women on our list strongly preferred this term, ranking it above assistant and isolating it from ‘computer’ by the type of work they did, and their publications. *Computer* - This term was in use from the beginning of HCO hiring women, the 1870s. However, it was used most commonly in the 1910s. Several women used this term interchangeably with others, displaying no preference on record. Fewer still used it their entire career. *“At Observatory”* - This term began use in the 1890s, and was used most commonly in the 19-aughts and 1910s. This term comes mainly from City Directories and doesn’t specify a job title/rank/position. It was included on Samantha’s belief that while they didn't list a job title, this inclusion meant they likely had their own listing in the directory (not after a man in parenthesis) and it was important to them that the directory reflect that they worked at the Observatory, whether they picked what to call their job or not. They also might have attempted to explain their work to the directory enumerator, and then been relegated to ‘I don’t get what they do, but they work at the Observatory’. *Research Assistant* - This term began use in the 1930s, and appeared most commonly in the 1930s and 1940s. This was separated from the ‘Assistant’ title due to its frequency, and had its own set of allowed variations. ***So Why aren’t we just using Assistant, if it was the most commonly used?*** As stated above, to remove ‘Women’ or ‘Astronomical’ as terms when discussing our group of women, would be to leave off highly explanatory and contextual information about who they were and the work they did. They were welcomed into this field only to perform narrowly defined work that aligned with widespread beliefs at the time about women’s unique ability to focus on tedious tasks. Assistant is not a demeaning term, but it is imprecise and unspecific. To the authors and researcher, ‘Computer’ seems to imply a greater technical skill and better explains their work in the astronomy field. It has also recently been a more accessible and understandable term to folks outside the field, thanks in part to modern media. #### **Fun Discoveries** None of us are truly immune to spelling mistakes. In doing this research, Samantha came across at least four misspellings of “Observatory” in Cambridge City Directories: 1903 entry for Williamina P. Fleming: “Obsorvatory” 1904 entry for Harriet Stevens: “Obsertatory” 1910 entry for Sarah Breslin: “Observattory” 1917 entry for Louisa D. Wells: “Oberseratory” #### **Biggest Challenge** The Biggest Challenge in this research was the primary source [void left by the 1890 Census](https:/www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1996/spring/1890-census-1.html). The 1890 United States Federal Census was almost completely destroyed by a fire in 1921. There were a number of factors involved in this, including no Formal ‘Census Bureau’ until 1902 and no dedicated storage space set aside for Censuses taken up to that point. Because of this, any records of the Women’s job titles and other personal and professional information from this year/decade had to be gleaned from other sources. City Directories were the most commonly used in this project. #### **Important Note about Scope of Research** This project exclusively searched within the Ancestrylibrary databases. Ancestrylibrary, while large, is not an exhaustive genealogical and record-keeping archive. Their scans are also not always legible, and their text-reading software is far from perfect. This survey does not claim to be exhaustive. There was no set cut-off date for who Sam included, or what data she counted. ‘Computer’ fell out of fashion as a term for living people, as the early versions of what we today would consider a ‘computer’ were coming into use in technological fields, including astronomy. Assistant was even dwindling, as more women were either decidedly ‘Astronomers’ or not. Between 1954 and the 1960 was where most of the ‘cutoffs’ lived, either for individual women, or titles. It is also important to note that this research was done with consideration for not only when the women worked at HCO, but the available records dating back to that time. The 1890 census being unavailable meant information that would have otherwise come from that source had to come from other records. The most recent Census publicly available is the 1950 Census because of federal law. There were women employed at HCO who were a key piece of Plate Stacks and HCO history, and who made invaluable contributions during their tenure, but we do not have data for them. Some women on our list were incredibly difficult to find records for, which is why we don’t have Professional Title Data for all of them (75/142 –little over half). Some women stopped appearing in census records, indicating that they may have changed their names or moved. Others didn’t appear in city directories; they might not have been surveyed, or moved before it was taken. Records of humans are records made by humans, and thus are folly to the purview of humans. #### **Future Endeavors with the Women Astronomical Computers** In the ongoing effort to trace the professional history, and write short biographies of our Women Astronomical Computers, Samantha plans to visit the Harvard Archives for their employment records. From these records, she will hopefully be able to glean information such as title used by Harvard, dates of employment for all 142 women, and information such as birth dates and places of residence in Cambridge while they worked at HCO. Folks who are interested should stay tuned to the [Plate Stacks Website](https://platestacks.cfa.harvard.edu/women-at-hco) for additions to the information provided there, and news about our ongoing projects. [Citations and Sources](/terminology-research-citations)