Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin was a British–American astronomer associated with the Women Astronomical Computers, a group of female astronomers and analysts at Harvard College Observatory (HCO). She discovered the chemical composition of stars and, in particular, that hydrogen and helium are the most abundant elements in stars. From star spectra, she determined stellar temperatures and chemical abundances using the thermal ionization equations of Meghnad Saha. Her work was of fundamental importance in the development of the field of stellar atmospheres, and her observations and analyses of variable stars laid the foundation for their use as indicators of galactic structure.
Read on for stories about Cecilia's life, work process, and contributions to science!
Archival Resources
See here for Oral history interviews from four women astronomers at the Harvard College Observatory, including Payne-Gaposchkin.
A Search of “Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin” in Hollis for Archival Discovery:
Papers of Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin, 1924, circa 1950s-1990s, 2000
COLLECTION Identifier: HUGB P182.XX
“Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979), Phillips Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University (1956-1966) was a pioneer in astrophysics and a leading authority on variable stars.”
Papers of Margaret Harwood, 1902-1974
COLLECTION Identifier: 79-M62--2007-M228
Correspondence, family papers, photographs, etc., of Margaret Harwood, astronomer.
Correspondence: Gaposchkin, Cecilia Payne
ITEM — Carton: 2 Identifier: 79-M62--2007-M228, 50.
Correspondence between Harwood and Payne-Gaposchkin.
Papers of Dorrit Hoffleit, 1906-2005
COLLECTION Identifier: MC 529
Papers of Dorrit Hoffleit, astronomer at Harvard and Yale Universities and at the Maria Mitchell Observatory in Nantucket.
Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia H.: articles and correspondence, 1961-1996 (scattered)
ITEM Identifier: MC 529, 22.19.
Correspondence between Hoffleit and Payne-Gaposchkin.
Records of Radcliffe College President Wilbur Kitchener Jordan, 1943-1960
COLLECTION Identifier: RG II, Series 3
“Official Radcliffe correspondence, reports, minutes, etc., of W.K. (Wilbur Kitchener) Jordan, college administrator, educator, and fourth president of Radcliffe College.”
ITEM — Box: 27 Identifier: RG II, Series 3, 288.
“Maria Gallison re: portrait of her husband; Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin's undefined status on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Graduate School Fund Drive.”
ITEM — Box: 60 Identifier: RG II, Series 3, 669.
“Dedication including remarks by Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin; Graduate School Business.”
ITEM — Box: 26 Identifier: RG II, Series 3, 270
Alumnae Association; Anglo-American Historical Conference in England; Appointment Bureau; Astronomy includes correspondence with Fred Whipple re: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin's experimental changes in the content of Astronomy 1 at Radcliffe.
Research note - Please note parts of this collection are restricted and closed to research.
Records of the Harvard College Observatory Director Donald H. Menzel
COLLECTION Identifier: UAV 630.37
Research Note: This collection contains several correspondence items between Menzel and Payne-Gaposchkin and her husband, Segei. Parts of this collection are closed to researchers without special permission.
ITEM — Box: UAV 630.37 Box 22, Folder: 1 Identifier: UAV 630.37, UAV 630.37, UAV 630.37
Includes correspondence with...astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, and astrophysicist Sergei I. Gaposchkin. It also contains a press release announcing the appointment of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin as Professor of Astronomy and includes a photograph of her.
Records of Harvard College Observatory Director Harlow Shapley
COLLECTION Identifier: UAV 630.22
1930-1940 correspondence, 1921-1950
SUB-SERIES Identifier: UAV 630.22
“This subseries contains correspondence between Shapley and a variety of correspondents, including astronomers from the United States and abroad, such as Walter Sydney Adams, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and Sergei Gaposchkin…”
ITEM — Box: 7, Folder: 4 Identifier: UAV 630.22
“Contains correspondence with….astronomer and astrophysicist Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin…”
[Bound volume], July-December 1923
ITEM — Box: 109 Identifier: UAV 630.22
“….Topics of discussion include Observatory equipment, the Annals of the Harvard College Observatory publication, Observatory staff members, Shapley's involvement with the American Association of Variable Star Observers, the employment of Cecilia Payne (Gaposchkin), and news from the Boyden Station Observatory in Arequipa, Peru.”
Gaposchkin, Cecilia Payne- and Sergei, 1931-1941
ITEM — Box: 32, Folder: 6 Identifier: UAV 630.22
Correspondence between Shapley and the Payne-Gaposchkin’s.
ITEM — Box: 27, Folder: 2 Identifier: UAV 630.22
“…and a letter from Shapley recommending the appointment of Annie Jump Cannon to the position of William Cranch Bond Astronomer and Curator of Astronomical Photographs and Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin as Phillips Astronomer.”
Gaposchkin, Cecilia Payne and Sergei, 1942-1950
ITEM — Box: 66, Folder: 8 Identifier: UAV 630.22
Correspondence between Shapley and the Payne-Gaposchkin’s.
Records of the Harvard College Observatory Director Leo Goldberg
Correspondence with staff, faculty, and others, 1960-1969
SERIES Identifier: UAV 630.38.5
“…There are also letters with several of the Observatory’s female astronomers, including Barbara Bell, Helen Spence Federer, Margaret N. Lewis, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Dorothy Weeks, and Frances Woodworth Wright, as well as other female employees, such as Lyle G. Boyd and Thomasine Brooks.”
Records of Harvard College Observatory Boyden Station, Bloemfontein, South Africa
SUB-SERIES Identifier: UAV 630.110.xx
Correspondence from Boyden Station, 1927-1954
SUB-SERIES Identifier: UAV 630.110.xx
“...the letters are written by newly appointed superintendent Henry J. Smith and his wife, astronomer Elske van Panhuys Smith, to a variety of Observatory employees, including Bart J. Bok, Sybil L. Chubb, Donald Menzel, Margaret Olmsted, and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.”
ITEM — Box: UAV 630.110.21 Box 3, Folder: 12 Identifier: UAV 630.110.xx
“...Contains correspondence from Boyden Station superintendent Henry Smith to
employees at the Harvard College Observatory, including Bart J. Bok, Sybil L. Chubb, Margaret Olmsted, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.”
Autobiography, Original
The dyer's hand: an autobiography. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. 1979
HOLLIS number: 990022843360203941
Notebooks, and Phaedra Logbooks at Wolbach Library
Harvard College Observatory observations, logs, instrument readings, and calculations
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Notebooks, 1924-1929
SUB-SERIES Identifier: KG11365-6
Payne-Gaposchkin’s logbooks can be viewed digitally through Project PHaEDRA.
Secondary Sources
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and other Recollections - Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Ed. Katharine Haramundanis
What Stars Are Made Of - Donovan Moore
Portrait of a Binary : The Lives of Cecilia Payne and Sergei Gaposchkin. By Silvia Boyd
The Glass Universe - Dava Sobel
Bibliographic and Encyclopedic sources
Galactic Gazette, Alex McGrath
American Museum of Natural History
Popular Media and Commemoration
Patera on Venus named for her
Minor Planet/Asteroid named for her
Children’s Book:
The Fire of Stars by Kirsten W. Larson, Illustrator: Katherine Roy
