Nettie A. Farrar Harris (1862-?) worked at the Harvard College Observatory from 1881-1885.1 She was the fifth woman computer to work at the HCO,2 and her work primarily involved using the glass plates to calculate relative magnitudes of stars and measure stellar spectra.3
Farrar made the initial calculations for the Henry Draper Memorial project,4 and her work was acknowledged by Edward Pickering in the preface of its publication in 1890.5 When she decided to leave the HCO to be married, Farrar helped to train Williamina Fleming on making measurements so that Fleming could replace her in the Draper Project.6
Farrar married Charles E. Harris in 1887,7 and the two had a daughter named Alice.8 In 1897, she was the first vice-president and one of ten founding members of the South Deerfield Woman’s Club, based in Deerfield, Massachusetts, which aimed to build a community of women to discuss literature, music, history, current events, and other intellectual pursuits.9 She continued to be an active member in the group for at least 30 years.10
Written by Elizabeth Coquillette, 2022
Citations:
1-Lindsay Smith Zrull, “Women in Glass: Women at the Harvard Observatory during the Era of Astronomical Glass Plate Photography, 1875-1975,” Journal of the History of Astronomy, vol. 52, no. 2 (2021).↩2- 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): 5.↩
3- Zrull, “Women in Glass;” Haley, “Williamina Fleming and the Harvard College Observatory;” Dava Sobel, The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took Measure of the Stars (New York: Viking, 2016).↩
4-Bessie Zaban Jones and Lyle Gifford Boyd, The Harvard College Observatory: The First Four Directorships, 1839-1919, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971): 235.↩
5-Edward C. Pickering, “The Draper Catalogue of stellar spectra photographed with the 8-inch Bache telescope as a part of the Henry Draper memorial,” Annals of the Harvard College Observatory vol. 27 (1890): 1-388. Bibcode: 1890AnHar..27….1P ↩
6-Jones and Boyd, The Harvard College Observatory, 235.↩
7- “Marriage Intentions,” The Boston Globe, February 11, 1887, p. 6↩
8- “W. Cummington,” The North Adams Transcript (North Adams, Massachusetts), August 21, 1923, p.7.↩
9- “SD Women Observe Golden Anniversary; Honor Members Present,” The Recorder (Greenfield, Massachusetts), November 10, 1947, p. 6.↩
10- “Program Given for Coming Year by Women’s Club,” Transcript-Telegram (Holyoke, Massachusetts), October 20, 1934, p. 7.↩