Antonia Maury

Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Maury (March 21, 1866 - January 8, 1952) was an American astronomer who published an important early catalog of stellar spectra and contributed to our understanding of stars in motion, especially in binary systems. Maury came from a family with a rich pedigree in new astrophysics (her mother was a Draper, whose brother and father had made the first photographs of stellar spectra and the moon, respectively), and she earned a degree from Vassar College in 1887 with honors in physics, astronomy, and philosophy (pictured here in her senior portrait). In 1888, with her family's professional connections to Edward Pickering, she began work at HCO. However, she left in 1891, saying she “was uncomfortable completing her research if her work was unacknowledged.” She returned a few times over the next few years to finish her catalog of bright star spectra. While her relationship with Pickering was tense, he was well aware of her contributions to the observatory's work in both labor hours and scientific imagination. When her catalog was published in 1897, it became the first volume of the Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College (v. 28) credited to a woman astronomer. Through the early twentieth century, she remained loosely connected to the HCO while working as a traveling lecturer in physics, returning for more serious work in the 1920s under director Harlow Shapley. Though astronomers did not adopt her schema for categorizing stars, her work was an early step in understanding how stars evolve as they age. Danish astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung used her data in constructing the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, still in use today as the model of stellar evolution and type.

Read on for a sampling of Maury's science, from her work with binary stars, spectra, red-shifting, to her early theories about stellar type!

Stay tuned for more information in this ongoing project!

Antonia Maury does not have one all-encompassing set of ‘papers’ or collection, rather she appears in the collections of and related to others. Here are some useful archival, and then non-archival, sources to further research:

Substantive Archival Collections At Harvard

Papers of Dorrit Hoffleit, 1906-2005

A Search of “Maury” within this Collection:

Maury, Antonia, 1982, 1994, n.d.

ITEM Identifier: MC 529, 22.3.

Appears to be professional correspondence between Hoffliet and Maury, part of a collection of the former’s papers and correspondence.

Hoffleit, Dorrit: [Tucson astronomical meeting:] Hoffleit on Antonia Maury, 1993

ITEM Identifier: MC 529, 18.14.

Appears to be Hoffleit speaking about Maury in 1993, part of a collection of the former’s papers and correspondence.

Miss Maury letters, 1943, 1949-1950; includes uncataloged photograph.

ITEM Identifier: MC 529, 22.1.

Appears to be a photograph, and professional correspondence between Hoffliet and Maury, part of a collection of the former’s papers and correspondence.

Maury, Antonia: Draper 28-inch mirror [article by Hoffleit], 1952-1953

ITEM Identifier: MC 529, 22.2.

Appears to be an article written by Hoffleit regarding Maury and the 28th inch mirror from the Draper Telescope.

Maury, Antonia: [correspondence, clippings, and notes for article by Hoffleit], 1915-1952 (scattered), 1969, 1977-1993, n.d. Includes photocopied transparencies.

ITEM Identifier: MC 529, 21.9-21.10.

Appears to be notes and clippings about Maury for an article by Hoffliet.

Chronological correspondence, 1924, 1929-1949; includes Antonia Maury et al. and uncataloged photograph.

ITEM — Box: 29 Identifier: MC 529, 29.6-29.8.

Appears to be a photograph, and professional correspondence between Hoffliet and Maury, and others. Part of a collection of the former’s papers and correspondence.

Records of the Harvard College Observatory Director Edward Charles Pickering

A Search of “Maury” within this Collection:

Maury, Antonia C., 1883 - 1903

ITEM — Box: 169, Folder: 10 Identifier: UAV 630.14

Appears to be a collection of Correspondence between Pickering and Maury, part of a collection of the former’s papers and correspondence.

Maury, Antonia, Miss, 1907 - 1918

ITEM — Box: 143, Folder: 9 Identifier: UAV 630.14

Appears to be a collection of Correspondence between Pickering and Maury, part of a collection of the former’s papers and correspondence.

Maury, A.C. (Miss), [circa 1903]

ITEM — Box: 94, Folder: 90 Identifier: UAV 630.14

Appears to be a collection of Correspondence between Pickering and Maury, part of a collection of the former’s papers and correspondence.

Papers of Harlow Shapley, 1906-1966

A Search of “Maury” within this Collection:

Maury, Antonia C.

ITEM — unspecified: HUG 4773.10 Box 98 Identifier: HUG 4773.xxx, HUG 4773.10

Appears to be a collection of Correspondence between Shapley and Maury, part of a collection of the former’s papers and correspondence.

Matthias-Mayall, 1931-1940

ITEM — Box: 42, Folder: 5 Identifier: UAV 630.22

“Contains correspondence with University of Wisconsin engineering professor Lynn H. Matthias, Swiss astronomer Georgette Maulbetsch, Irish astronomer Annie Russell Maunder, astronomer Antonia Maury…”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology-McManus, 1922-1930

ITEM — Box: 12, Folder: 4 Identifier: UAV 630.22

“Contains correspondence with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, J. Materna, Harvard University geology professor Kirtley F. Mather, astronomer Antonia Maury…”

Notebooks, and Phaedra Logbooks at Wolbach Library

Harvard College Observatory observations, logs, instrument readings, and calculations

Antonia C. Maury Notebooks, 1894-1933

FILE Identifier: KG11365-6

Maury’s logbooks can be viewed digitally through Project PHaEDRA.

Substantive Archival Collections At Vassar

Guide to the Vassar College Alumnae/i Biographical Files (AAVC), circa 1865-2015

"Clippings, biographical information forms, correspondence, articles, and other items gathered by the Alumnae and Alumni of Vassar College (AAVC) on women who attended the college from 1865-1923, 1931-1934, and 1951-1958. The collection includes material on graduates, non-graduates, Special Students and Preparatory Students."

Maury Graduated from Vassar in 1887. Her files are in Box 6.