Dorrit Hoffleit (b. Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit) (March 12, 1907 – April 9, 2007) was an American astronomer, researcher, and observatory director.
Hoffleit began working at the Harvard College Observatory in 1928 as a research assistant, after completing her Bachelor's degree in Mathematics with honors from Radcliffe.1 While with the Observatory she was part of the project to search for, identify periods of, and determine the light curves of variable stars. She compared photographic plates and she alone discovered “about 1,000 new southern-sky variable stars."2 Her research also included stellar spectra and meteors.3 While at Harvard, Hoffleit completed a Masters degree from Radcliffe with a thesis related to meteors. In 1938, she completed a Ph.D from Radcliffe with a thesis on “spectroscopic absolute magnitudes of stars”.4 The Ph.D. earned her a new title at Harvard, Research Associate, but no new benefits. In 1948, after working for the army during WWII, Hoffleit returned to Harvard (accepting a pay cut from her position with the Army). Her work consisted of determining spectroscopic parallaxes of stars. In 1956, Hoffleit decided to leave the Harvard College Observatory. She and the newest director, Donald H. Menzel, did not see eye to eye on the usefulness of the Plates, and projects being conducted therein.5
Afterwards, She took up two posts simultaneously; working as director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory on Nantucket, continuing programs that Margaret Harwood had begun during her tenure, and Senior research Astronomer with Yale University, continued the astrometric work of Ida Barney.6 Hoffleit was elected to the American Association of Variable Star Observers Council five times, and served as officer three times (including as president and vice president). Forty articles of hers appeared in the Journal of the A.A.V.S.O., and she and her students presented papers at every meeting of the AAVSO she attended. 7 She wrote hundreds of short news articles, and around 450 longer articles for the brand new Sky & Telescope magazine.8 In 1987, Hoffleit had a minor planet named for her: “Dorrit” (3416).9
Hoffleit was born in Florence Alabama, but moved to Pennsylvania, then Massachusetts.10 Her parents were German-Immigrant parents, and the family faced xenophobia when international politics pitted the United States against Germany.11 Hoffleit was remembered well by both Harvard and AAVSO friends and coworkers. She was a visitor in the Payne-Gaposchkin home, their daughter remembering that, “No one, my mother said, understood spectra as well as Dorrit” and that Hoffleit was “an astronomer for whom my mother had the very greatest respect.”.12
Written by Samantha Notick, 2022
Archival Resources:
Significant archival holdings of Dorrit Hoffleit are housed at the Shelsinger Library, Harvard's Radcliffe Institute, and Yale University's Manuscripts and Archives. Shelsinger's holdings include 15.47 Linear feet of papers given by Hoffleit in 1979, and further donations made in 1982, 1998, and 2005. These papers cover her life and career as an astronomer at Harvard, Yale, and the Maria Mitchell Observatory. Yale's holdings are the papers and materials removed from Hoffleit's office upon her death in 2007. They encompass 8.5 linear feet.
Thirty-nine scientific notebooks of Hoffleit's time at the Harvard College Observatory can be viewed as part of project PHaEDRA.
Selected Publications:
Hoffleit published an autobiography:
Misfortunes as Blessings in Disguise: The Story of My Life, American Association of Variable Star Observers, Cambridge, Mass. 2002.
She was the author, and then co-author, of editions three13 and four14, respectively, of The Bright Star Catalog (occasionally known as the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars or the Yale Bright Star Catalogue)
Print editions of the Journal of the AAVSO can be found at the Wolbach Library, and online with the AAVSO website
Citations:
1-E. Horch, “Hoffleit, Ellen Dorrit,” In: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, ed. Hockey T. et al. (Springer, New York, NY, 2007)↩
2- Marilyn Ogilvie and Joy Harvey, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century (London: Routledge, 2000), 607-608.↩
3- “(3416) Dorrit = 1931 VP = 1984 UB,” Minor Planet Center, The International Astronomical Union, Accessed June 2022, https://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?utf8=%E2%9C%93&objec... ↩
4-Ogilvie and Harvey, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science, 607-608.↩
5-E. Horch, “Hoffleit, Ellen Dorrit,” In: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, ed. Hockey T. et al. (Springer, New York, NY, 2007)↩
6- E. Horch, “Hoffleit, Ellen Dorrit,” In: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, ed. Hockey T. et al. (Springer, New York, NY, 2007)↩
7-Michael Saladyga, Elizabeth Waagen, “Dorrit Hoffleit,” “Dorrit Hoffleit.” In Memoriam: Dorrit Hoffleit. AAVSO, American Association of Variable Star Observers. June 2022. https://www.aavso.org/memoriam-dorrit-hoffleit↩
8-8-E. Horch, “Hoffleit, Ellen Dorrit,” In: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, ed. Hockey T. et al. (Springer, New York, NY, 2007) ↩
9-“(3416) Dorrit = 1931 VP = 1984 UB.” Minor Planet Center. The International Astronomical Union, Accessed June 2022. https://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?utf8=%E2%9C%93&objec... ↩
10-Jeremy Pearce, “E Dorrit Hoffleit, Scientist, Dies at 100,” The New York Times (New York, NY), April 23, 2007↩
11- Virginia Trimble, “Obituary: E. Dorrit Hoffleit, 1907-2007” Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society v.39, no. 4 (2007): 1067-1069.↩
12-Katherine Haramundanis, introduction to Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections, by Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin, edited by Katherine Haramundanis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 48.↩
13-Hoffleit, Dorrit., and Yale University. Observatory. 1964. Catalogue of Bright Stars, Containing Data Compiled through 1962, with Appendices Giving Indices to Constellation Designations and Named Stars. 3d rev. ed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Observatory.↩
14-Hoffleit, Dorrit., Carlos Jaschek, and Yale University. Observatory. 1982. The Bright Star Catalogue. 4th rev. ed., containing data compiled through 1979. New Haven, Conn., U.S.A.: Yale University Observatory.↩