Dr. Frances Woodworth Wright (April 30, 1897-July 30, 1989) was an American Astronomer, Navigator, and Instructor who worked in the Harvard College Observatory and with the Women Computers of the Plate Stacks for many years.1 She helped develop methods of observation for comets and meteors.
She was also involved in the cultural life of the Observatory–taking over and continuing the Observatory Philharmonic Orchestra (OPO) when Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin “relinquished association” with it.2 In 1930, Dr. Wright undertook a road trip with Payne-Gaposhkin, her coworker and good friend at the Observatory. They were headed for observatories in the west, mainly California. However, their route was “over roads very different from the superhighways of today. Between Kansas and California there were no paved roads.”3
Dr. Wright was born in 1897 in Providence, Rhode Island. She went to Pembroke College for her bachelor’s degree, completed in 1919. At first she was there to study languages and pure mathematics, but took an astronomy course with a friend on a whim. 4 She attended Brown University for her Masters, completed in 1920.5 Following her graduation, she began a position with Elmira College in New York as an instructor in Mathematics, and later Astronomy.6 In 1958, she completed a Doctorate in Astronomy with Radcliffe College.
Beginning in World War II, and through her time at Harvard, Dr. Wright and Dr. Bart Bok taught an intensive course on Celestial Navigation. Dr. Bok lectured, and Dr. Wright handled the laboratory component. In a 1986 news article speaking about her endowment, she is quoted as saying “I just love the looks in some of their faces when they’ve learned something. You feel as though you’ve added to their horizons, just as it adds to mine. It inspires me to think this course gives them a sense of adventure.” In January, 1977, some of Dr. Wright’s students dedicated a Ship’s wheel and plaque, which hangs just down the hall from the Plate Stacks where she worked. Dr. Wright retired in 1971, and upon her death in 1989, she left her estate to an endowment for the continuation of the course, the Frances W. Wright Navigation Fund.7 The course continues to be taught to this day at Harvard, under the name Astronomy 2: The Big Questions of Astronomy.8 Dr. Wright passed away from cancer in 1989 at the age of 92.9 A minor planet, ‘2133 Franceswright’ discovered at the Harvard Observatory on November 20th, 1976, was named after her.10
Written by Samantha Notick, 2022
Selected Publications:
Wright, Frances W, Particularized Navigation: How to Prevent Navigational Emergencies, (1973).
Wright, Frances W, Coastwise Navigation, (1980)
Wright, Frances W, Celestial Navigation, (1982)
Frances W. Wright and Bart J. Bok, Basic Marine Navigation. (1944)
Citations:
1-“Frances Wright, 92, Harvard Astronomer.” The New York Times. ↩2- Payne-Gaposchkin, C., Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: an autobiography and other recollections. P.47↩
3-Payne-Gaposchkin, C., Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: an autobiography and other recollections.PAGE NUMBER↩
4-Woman taught Soldiers How to Sail in War.” The Boston Globe. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/32112722/frances-w-wright-1967/↩
5-Catalogue. Brown University, 1920↩
6- “Elmira College - Iris Yearbook (Elmira, NY), Class of 1923, Page 18 of 188.” Elmira College - Iris Yearbook (Elmira, NY). Accessed April 2022. http://www.e-yearbook.com/yearbooks/Elmira_College_Iris_Yearbook/1923/Pa...↩
7-“Astronomy Prof Funds Course.” North Adams Transcript. ↩
8-“Course Descriptions.” Course Descriptions. Harvard University . Accessed May 2022. https://astronomy.fas.harvard.edu/course-descriptions. ↩
9- Frances Wright, 92, Harvard Astronomer.” The New York Times.↩
10-Schmadel, L. D. In Dictionary of minor planet names.↩