# Evelyn Leland **Evelyn Frances Leland** (1867-1931) worked at the Harvard observatory for 36 years between 1889-1925. She calculated stellar spectra and became an expert on variable stars. Leland assisted [Williamina Fleming](/women-at-hco/williamina-fleming) with measuring the brightness and period of tens of thousands of variable stars in clusters such as Omega Centauri, Alpha Centauri, M5, and Epsilon Aurigae.[1](#fn1)[ 2](#fn2) In 1903, she and Miss Fleming investigated a new possible nova in Gemini that was discovered by an English astronomer.[3](#fn3)[ 4](#fn4) Beginning in 1906, Leland partnered with [Annie Jump Cannon](/women-at-hco/annie-jump-cannon) and [Henrietta Swan Leavitt](/women-at-hco/henrietta-swan-leavitt) to use Harvard’s plate collection to systematically search for variable stars throughout the whole sky. Each of the three women were assigned one third of the sky, and they used a search method developed by Leavitt that involved visually comparing five time-lapsed images of each area of the sky.[5](#fn5)[ 6](#fn6) Leland also made measurements of brightness and/or position for astronomical bodies such as stars Nova Sagittarii and Mu Serpentis, asteroid Eros, and Saturn’s moon Phoebe.[7](#fn7) Because Leland spent so much of her career working with plates made by Solon Bailey at the observatory in Arequipa, Peru, she built a particularly strong familiarity with the southern skies.[8](#fn8) She became such a reliable resource for Bailey that he would sometimes ship his plates from Peru to Cambridge with instructions specifically addressed to her.[9](#fn9) Leland can be seen in many of the most prominent historical photographs of the Harvard observatory women computers, including standing second from the left in the famous “Paper Doll” photo.[1](#fn10)0 *Written by Elizabeth Coquillette, 2022* --- **Selected Publications:** Bailey, Solon I. and Evelyn F. Leland. (1899). “The periods of variable stars in the cluster Messier 5.” Astrophysical Journal, 10 (November): 255-260. doi: 10.1086/140643 Leland, Evelyn F. (1906). “The Algol Variable, 41° 851. 041342.” Harvard College Observatory Circular, vol. 114 (March): 1-3. Leland, Evelyn F. and Edward C. Pickering. (1907). “Standard Stellar Magnitudes.” Harvard College Observatory Circular, vol. 125 (February): 1-3. Leland, Evelyn F. and Edward C. Pickering. (1910). “20 New Variable Stars in Harvard Map, Nos. 2, 5, 32, 44, and 53.” Harvard College Observatory Circular, vol. 152 (January): 1-3. Pickering, Edward C., Williamina P. Fleming, and Evelyn F. Leland (1903). “Nova Geminorum before its discovery.” Astrophysical Journal, 17 (May): 305-308. doi: 10.1086/141030 --- **Citations:** [1](#ref1)- Paul A. Haley, “Williamina Fleming and the Harvard College Observatory.” The Antiquarian Astronomer: Journal of the Society for the History of Astronomy, no. 17 (June 2017): 13.[↩](#ref1) [Evelyn F. Leland, Assorted logbooks, 1893-1923, (Cambridge, MA: John G. Wolbach Library, Harvard College Observatory). Project PHaEDRA. Harvard College Observatory observations, logs, instrument readings, and calculations, (accessed May 10, 2022).](#ref2)[↩](#ref2) [3](#ref3)Haley, “Williamina Fleming and the Harvard College Observatory,” 19-20. [↩](#ref3) [4](#ref4)-Edward C. Pickering, Williamina P. Fleming, and Evelyn F. Leland, “Nova Geminorum before its discovery,” Astrophysical Journal, 17 (May 1903), 305-308. [↩](#ref4) [5](#ref5) Dava Sobel, The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took Measure of the Stars (New York: Viking, 2016), 123-124.[↩](#ref5) [6](#ref6)Solon I. Bailey, The History and Work of Harvard Observatory, 1839 to 1927; an outline of the origin, development, and researches of the Astronomical observatory of Harvard College together with brief biographies of its leading members (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1931), 180-181.[↩](#ref6) [7](#ref7) Leland, Assorted logbooks, 1893-1923, Project PHaEDRA.[↩](#ref7) [8](#ref8) Sobel, The Glass Universe, p. 123.[↩](#ref8) [9](#ref9)Evelyn F. Leland, Measures of Eros #26, 1902 (Cambridge, MA: John G. Wolbach Library, Harvard College Observatory). Project PHaEDRA. Harvard College Observatory observations, logs, instrument readings, and calculations, (accessed May 10, 2022).[↩](#ref9) [10](#ref10)“Harvard College Observatory History in Images,” Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, accessed May 12, 2022. [↩](#ref10) ![Image of a woman looking to the left of the camera, Evelyn Leland, wearing a dark dress with coat over her shoulders, and a hat with many flowers. Around her are other people, their shoulders visible. One person is blurry behind her, looking to the right.](/sites/g/files/omnuum1806/files/wolbachlibrary/files/leland.jpg) *Evelyn Leland in \[Women on-board S.S. Minia, approximately 1900\]. Digital Object. Harvard University Archives*