Amy Jackson McKay (ca. 1870-1907)1 worked as a Computer and Assistant at the Harvard College Observatory from 1891-1906.2 During her time at the HCO, McKay assisted in the reductions and other preparations involved for printing observations recorded in the Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College.3
McKay, the daughter of Scottish immigrants, was a lifelong Cantabrigian and faithful member of First Church in Cambridge, Congregational. McKay attended public schools in Cambridge, graduating from the Washington School in June, 18844 and later from Cambridge High School. In September 1887, she entered Salem Normal School5, then a teaching college for women and now Salem State University. When she began her time at Harvard in 1891, McKay lived with her family at 7 Revere Street near Harvard Square.
The McKays purchased and moved into a double house at 7 Shepard Street around 1893.6 Amy McKay spent the remainder of her years in this house and died there on March 1, 1907 after a prolonged illness. Her Return of Death certificate noted the primary cause as “Chronic Nephritis.” At her home, McKay’s funeral was officiated by the Reverend Dr. Alexander McKenzie of First Congregational. McKay was afterwards interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery.7
Written by Meta Partenheimer, 2022
McKay had only two variations of her job title on official records. The first, “Computer”, was used on her death certificate. On the 1900 Federal Census, she uses “Astron. Computer” (presumably Astron. is short for “Astronomy”).
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Citations:
1- The Return of Death certificate for Amy Jackson McKay notes her age upon death as 37 years, 3 months, 20 days, placing her birth date as December 12, 1869. This determination conflicts with census entries and her headstone which note her birth date as November 1870.↩2- Lindsay Smith Zrull, “Women in Glass: Women at the Harvard Observatory during the Era of Astronomical Glass Plate Photography, 1875–1975,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 52, no. 2 (2021): 134. https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286211000470.↩
3- Edward C. Pickering, Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, 44, no. 1 (1899): 1.↩
4- “The Grammar Schools. List of the Classes Graduating This Week,” Cambridge Chronicle, (Cambridge, Mass), June 28, 1884. https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Chronicle18840628-01.2.44&srpo....↩
5- General Catalogue of the Officers, Teachers and Students of the State Normal School, Salem, 1854-1904. Boston: State Printers, 1903, 79. ↩
6- The Cambridge Directory, 1894. Boston: W.A. Greenough & Co., 1893, 79.↩
7- “Miss Amy J. McKay.” Cambridge Chronicle, (Cambridge, Mass), Mar 9, 1907. https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Chronicle19070309-01.2.78&srpo....↩