Priscilla Fairfield Bok (April 14, 1896 - November 19, 1975) worked at the Harvard College Observatory from 1923 to 1955. Her work focused on the stars and nebulae in the Milky Way galaxy, particularly those in the Southern Milky Way,1and she specialized in putting data from observations into mathematical form.2
Fairfield Bok started at the HCO in 1923 as a guest lecturer and researcher during her summers off from her position as an astronomy professor at Smith College.3Her work at the time, as described in a letter she wrote to HCO director Harlow Shapley, was “comparing the spectra and proper motions of giant and dwarf stars belonging to Draper class M, in order to more clearly define the line distinctions between them.”4 In July 1928, while still working at both Smith and Harvard, Fairfield Bok attended a meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Holland and met Bart Bok, a Dutch astronomer.5 The two married in September of 1929 after Bok received his own position at the HCO, and they collaborated extensively in their astronomical research at the HCO.6
For a year and a half between 1950 and 1951, Fairfield Bok, with her husband and daughter traveled to South Africa to photograph the Southern Milky Way from Harvard’s Boyden Station in Bloemfontein.7 They left Harvard in 1957 because they were unhappy with the politicized atmosphere in which some of their friends and colleagues were being unfairly suspected of communist leanings.8
After leaving Harvard, Fairfield Bok and her husband worked at the Mount Stromlo Observatory of the Australia National University in Canberra, Australia from 1957-1966 and at the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona in Tucson from 1966-1974.9 They were also involved in the development of Mexico’s national observatory at Tonantzintla.10
Fairfield Bok worked to educate others about astronomy. She and her husband co-wrote a book titled The Milky Way, which was a detailed survey of all of the information known to astronomers about the Milky Way galaxy.11 The first edition was published in 1941, and they continued to update the book with new knowledge and research through the fifth edition published in 1981.12 Fairfield Bok wrote half of the chapters, and her husband wrote the other half.13 While living in Cambridge, Fairfield Bok also led stargazing classes for the public through the local adult education center.14
Fairfield Bok was born on April 14, 1896 in Spokane, Washington to mother Eulalie Guthrie Fairfield and father Oliver J. Fairfield, who was a Unitarian church reverend.15 She had an older brother, an older sister, and a younger sister, and her family moved from Washington to Massachusetts sometime between 1900 and 1910.16 She earned her bachelor’s degree from Boston University in 1917,17 and her doctorate in mathematics and astronomy in 1922 from University of California Berkeley.18 She and her husband had two children, a son John and a daughter Joyce, born in 1931 and 1934, respectively.19
Written by Elizabeth Coquillette, 2023
Selected Publications:
Bok, Bart Jan and Bok, Priscilla Fairfield. The Milky Way. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1981, 5th ed.
Bok, B. J. and Bok, P. F. “Four standard sequences in the southern hemisphere.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 121 (1960): 531. Bibcode: 1960MNRAS.121..531B
Bok, Priscilla Fairfield. “Nova Zwicky and Nova Haro.” Harvard College Observatory Bulletin no. 920 (September 1951): 9-10 Bibcode: 1951BHarO.920….9B
Bok, Priscilla Fairfield and Constance D. Boyd. “Proper Motions of Forty Three Cluster Type Variables.” Harvard College Observatory Bulletin no. 893 (October 1933): 1-6. Bibcode: 1933BHarO.893….1B
Fairfield, Priscilla. “Concerning Dark Nebulosity Surrounding X Cancri.” Harvard College Observatory Bulletin no. 834 (April 1926): 7. Bibcode: 1926BHarO.834….7F
Fairfield, Priscilla. “Proper Motion of N.G.C. 6231 = Dunlop 499.” Harvard College Observatory Bulletin no. 843 (February 1927): 2-3. Bibcode: 1927BHarO.843….2F
Citations:
1-Interview of Bart Bok by David DeVorkin on May 15, 1978, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD, USA. www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4518-1↩
2-“Women Astronomers Working in Tucson Lead Diverse Lives,” Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Arizona), October 18, 1972.↩
3- Dava Sobel, The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took Measure of the Stars (New York: Viking, 2016), 217↩
4- Ibid.↩
5- “Women Astronomers Working in Tucson Lead Diverse Lives.”↩
6-Interview of Bart Bok.↩
7- “Harvard Astronomers to Study So. African Skies,” The Boston Globe, January 16, 1950.↩
8- Interview of Bart Bok.↩
9- “Prof. Bart J. Bok, 77; expert on Milky Way.” The Boston Globe, August 7, 1983.↩
10- “Astronomy Authority Gives Lecture Thursday At Mount Holyoke,” Transcript-Telegram (Holyoke, Massachusetts), September 26, 1944, p. 9.↩
11- “Journey Through Heavens Proves Captivating One,” The Bend Bulletin (Bend, Oregon), April 6, 1957.↩
12- “Prof. Bart J. Bok, 77; expert on Milky Way.”↩
13- Interview of Bart Bok.↩
14- Whit Sawyer, “Cambridge Adults Like to Learn New Tricks,” The Boston Globe, February 29, 1948.↩
15- Washington, U.S., County Birth Records, 1870-1935, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/697445:1209; “Women Astronomers Working in Tucson Lead Diverse Lives.”↩
16- 1900 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/73248050:7602?t... 1910 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/126972467:7884?....↩
17- Boston University school catalog 1918, p. 91, in U.S., School Catalogs, 1765-1935, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/1267858:2203?ti....↩
18- “Priscilla Bok is dead at 79,” Tucson Citizen (Tucson, Arizona), November 20th, 1975.↩
19- Census of the United States, 1940. Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/89730575:2442↩