#  Mary Miller 

 



 **Mary Louise Miller Thorndike** (c. 1908-?) worked at the Harvard College Observatory from approximately 1926-1931 and 1934-1941.

 Miller Thorndike did volunteer computing work at the HCO under the supervision of [Cecilia Payne](/women-at-hco/cecilia-payne-gaposchkin) (later Payne-Gaposchkin) while she was an undergraduate studying astronomy at Mount Holyoke.[1](#fn1) After graduating in 1931, she was appointed as an assistant at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton in California,[2](#fn2) where she helped to calculate the orbit of the Ryves Comet.[3](#fn3) In approximately 1934, she returned to the HCO, where she worked for several years on surveying and counting variable stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud.[4](#fn4)

 Miller Thorndike was born to Mr. and Mrs. Fred R. Miller.[5](#fn5) In 1933, she married Samuel Lothrop Thorndike,[6](#fn6) a fellow astronomer who worked as a doctoral student at the Lick Observatory and a research associate at the HCO, respectively, at the same time that his wife worked at those institutions.[7](#fn7) The couple had two children, Samuel L. Thorndike Jr. and Janet Thorndike.[8](#fn8)

 *Written by Elizabeth Coquillette, 2022*

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 **Selected Publications:**

 Bower, Ernest C. and Mary L. Miller. “Comet 1931c (Ryves).” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific vol. 43, no. 555 (October 1931), p. 357. Bitcode: 1931PASP…43..357B

 Bower, Ernest C. and Mary L. Miller “Elements and ephemeris of Comet 1931c (Ryves).” Lick Observatory Bulletin no. 438 (1931), p. 179-180. Bibcode: 1931LicOB..15..179B

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 **Citations:**

[1](#ref1)- Mary L. Miller and Cecilia H. Payne, Various Plate measures logbook, 1926, Cambridge, MA: John G. Wolbach Library, Harvard College Observatory, Project PHaEDRA \[1926phae.proj.1131M\] (accessed August 16, 2022).[↩](#ref1)  
[2](#ref2)- R. G. Aitken, “Fellows and Assistants at the Lick Observatory for the Year 1931-1932,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific vol. 43, no. 253 (1931), p. 223. Bibcode:1931PASP…43..223A[↩](#ref2)  
[3](#ref3)- Ernest C. Bower and Mary L. Miller, “Comet 1931c (Ryves),” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific vol. 43, no. 555 (October 1931), p. 357. Bibcode: 1931PASP…43..357B[↩](#ref3)  
[4](#ref4)- Mary L. Miller logbooks 1935-1941: Star Counts on the LMC \[1935phae.proj.2494M\]; Bright Variable Star Survey, Field 8 \[1935phae.proj.2495M\]; Variables in LMC, 33 \[1941phae.proj.2452M\], Cambridge, MA: John G. Wolbach Library, Harvard College Observatory, Project PHaEDRA (accessed August 16, 2022).[↩](#ref4)  
[5](#ref5)- “Mary Louise Miller Mt. Holyoke 1931 To Wed S. L. Thorndike,” Transcript-Telegram (Holyoke, Massachusetts), September 29, 1933.[↩](#ref5)  
[6](#ref6)- Ibid.[↩](#ref6)  
[7](#ref7)- “Register: University of California 1932-33, volume 2,” Berkeley: University of California Press, 1933: 77; Samuel L. Thorndike, “Variable Stars in Milky Way Field 377,” Harvard College Observatory Bulletin 916 (October 1941): 4-5.[↩](#ref7)  
[8](#ref8)- “Thorndike-Eames Bridal Solemnized Saturday Afternoon,” The Bridgeport Post (Bridgeport, Connecticut), June 11, 1961.[↩](#ref8)