#  Jennie Thayer Rugg 

 



 **Jennie Thayer Rugg** (1869-1949) worked at the Harvard College Observatory from 1887 to 1889.[1](#fn1) She was one of four women to join the HCO in 1887, along with [Annie Masters](/women-at-hco/annie-e-masters), [Nellie Storin](/women-at-hco/nellie-c-storin), and [Louisa Wells](/women-at-hco/louisa-d-wells), bringing the total number of women computers to fourteen.[2](#fn2) While at the HCO, she assisted [Williamina Fleming](/women-at-hco/williamina-fleming) with various aspects of her astronomy work.

 Rugg was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 22, 1869 to Samuel F. Rugg, who worked variously as a coal dealer, an auctioneer, and a real estate speculator, and Mary C. Rugg, who worked as a police matron and a teacher.[3](#fn3) When she was a child, Ruggs’ family moved often within Cambridge and were listed at a new address in nearly every annual issue of the Cambridge Directory.[4](#fn4) Ruggs graduated from the English High School in 1887 as the historian of her graduating class, giving a “bright” and “admirable” farewell address.[5](#fn5) Despite her initial ambitions to be a teacher, she began working at the HCO soon after her high school graduation.[6](#fn6)

 In 1891, Rugg moved to Washington D.C. and took a job as a clerk in the US Treasury Department.[7](#fn7) In November 1903, she married Kirk Holmes, a clerk in the US Navy Department, and changed her name to Jennie Rugg Holmes.[8](#fn8) She continued to live in Washington D.C. until her death on March 4th, 1949.[9](#fn9)

 *Written by Elizabeth Coquillette and Meta Partenheimer, 2022*

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 **Citations:**

[1](#ref1)- 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), 279.[↩](#ref1)  
[2](#ref2)-Dava Sobel, The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars (New York: Viking, 2016), 30.[↩](#ref2)  
[3](#ref3)- “Massachusetts, U.S., Birth Records, 1840-1915” Ancestry.com; Cambridge Chronicle (Cambridge, Mass), Nov 19, 1887.[↩](#ref3)  
[4](#ref4)-The Cambridge Directory, Boston: W.A. Greenough & Co., 1869-1880.[↩](#ref4)  
[5](#ref5)-"The Public Schools," Cambridge Tribune (Cambridge, Mass), May 28, 1887.[↩](#ref5)  
[6](#ref6)-Cambridge Press (Cambridge, Mass), July 2, 1887; Cambridge Chronicle (Cambridge, Mass), Nov 19, 1887.[↩](#ref6)  
[7](#ref7)-Official Register of the United States, Containing List of the Officers and Employees in the Civil, Military, and Naval Service, Together with a List of Vessels Belonging to the United States, vol. 1, July 1, 1895. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1895; Boyd's Directory of the District of Columbia, 1892. William H. Boyd. Washington, D.C., 821.[↩](#ref7)  
[8](#ref8%E2%80%9D%20id=)-District of Columbia, Compiled Marriage Index, 1830-1921.[↩](#ref8)  
[9](#ref9)- “Deaths,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), Mar, 5 1949. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress.[↩](#ref9)