Williamina Fleming
Williamina Paton (Stevens) Fleming (known often as “Mina”) (1857-1911) was a Scottish Astronomer and was the first Curator of the Astronomical Photographic Glass Plate Collection. She was born on May 15, 1857, in Dundee, Scotland. Fleming became the one of the most prominent female astronomers of her time and received numerous awards and honors for her work studying the stars. She was invited to participate in the Congress of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. In 1898, the Harvard Corporation named her the observatory’s first Curator of Astronomical Photographs. In 1906, the British Royal Astronomical Society elected her as an honorary member, making her the first American woman and sixth woman ever to be given this honor. Wellesley College elected her an Honorary Fellow in Astronomy, and she won the gold medal of the Astronomical Society of Mexico posthumously. Throughout her career, Fleming discovered 10 novae, 52 nebulae, and 310 new variable stars. She is also credited with being the first person to see the Horsehead nebula while examining one of Harvard’s glass plate photographs from 1888.
Insterested in Fleming's work at the observatory? Read more about her work with variable stars and nebula, or about her administration of the Harvard Computers!
Williamina Fleming does not have one all-encompassing set of ‘papers’ or collection, rather she appears in the collections of and related to others. Here are some useful archival, and then non-archival, sources to further research.
Harvard Archive Searches of Substantive Result
Records of the Harvard College Observatory Director Edward Charles Pickering
COLLECTION Identifier: UAV 630.14
A Search of “Fleming” within this collection:
Letterbook D4, 1894 June 2-1897 June 1
ITEM — Box: 29 Identifier: UAV 630.14
Includes letters signed by Fleming, a draft of an article written by Pickering in 1894, drafts of Harvard College Observatory Circulars announcing the results of research, particularly the detection of variable stars.
1894 June 2-1897 June 1
ITEM — Box: 132, Folder: 49 Identifier: UAV 630.14,
Correspondence, Letters between Pickering and Fleming illustrate her role in the administration of the Observatory and the supervision of staff, letters report on the discoveries made at the Observatory by the staff, the progress of work on the Draper Catalogue, and the arrangement of research results for publication. Fleming informs Pickering on the arrival of photographic plates from Peru, the examination of plates for variable stars, and continued work on the classification of the spectra of stars.”
1891 - 1908
Letterbook D3, 1890 December 18-1894 June 2
ITEM — Box: 28 Identifier: UAV 630.14
“Letter detail the spectral classification of stars undertaken at the Observatory through the examination of photographic plates. Included is a list of variable stars, bright-line stars, and spectroscopic binary stars discovered by Williamina Fleming up to 1892. Drafts of technical papers by Pickering or, in some cases, Fleming. A draft paper written by Fleming titled A Field for Women's Work in Astronomy..."
1890 December 18-1894 June 2
Correspondence, File II, Group II, incoming and outgoing, 1879-1922, bulk dates 1911-1921
SUB-GROUP Identifier: UAV 630.14
“… Letters between Pickering and Williamina Paton Fleming illustrate her role in the administration of the Observatory and the supervision of staff, particularly when Pickering was absent...”
1879-1922, bulk dates 1911-1921
Letterbooks, outgoing letters, Series A, 1875-1912
SUB-SERIES Identifier: UAV 630.14
“…Of interest are statements, memoranda, and communications in the letterbooks describing the scientific work of Williamina Paton Fleming, including her study of peculiar spectra, detecting variable stars, and the photographic discovery of Nova Aquilae…”
1875-1912
Papers of Dorrit Hoffleit, 1906-2005
COLLECTION Identifier: MC 529
A search of “Fleming” within this collection:
Fleming, Williamina Paton Stevens: background, 1904, 1911-1912, n.d.
ITEM Identifier: MC 529, 16.5.
Item found within Alphabetical correspondence and papers collection. Likely notes on her background, compiled for biographical purposes.
Fleming, Williamina Paton Stevens: for American National Biography, 1965, 1995-1997
ITEM Identifier: MC 529, 16.6.
Item found within Alphabetical correspondence and papers collection. Likely a piece written for American National Biography on Fleming, by Leavitt.
Important: Please Note parts of this collection are restricted.
PHaEDRA Notebooks at Wolbach Collection
Harvard College Observatory observations, logs, instrument readings, and calculations
Williamina P. Fleming Notebooks, 1886-1924
SUB-SERIES Identifier: KG11365-6
Fleming’s scientific notebooks can be viewed as part of project PHaEDRA
Photographs of her
Section in Progress
COLLECTION Identifier: HUGFP 125
Should auld acquantance be forgot! : photographs, [ca. 1900-ca. 1920]
ITEM — Box: HUGFP 125.80, Box 2 Identifier: HUGFP 125,
“Light gray pages with photographs glued in; dark gray paper cover. The album contains 15 photographs, including cyanotypes and silver gelatin prints. Photographs include depictions of the Harvard College Observatory and environs and Harvard College Observatory staff, including womenastronomers. Some people depicted are Annie Jump Cannon, Williamina Fleming, Florence Cushman, and Johann Mackie.”
circa 1880s-1930s
Records of the Harvard College Observatory : Photographs, 1887-approximately 1930? and undated
[Williamina Fleming at Harvard College Observatory plate stacks, approximately 1900]
ITEM — unspecified: UAV 630.271 Box 33 Identifier: UAV 630.271, Image Number 388
(Portrait of Fleming in front of Wooden Plate Cabinets.)
Photographic views of the Harvard College Observatory
Group Photograph - 1910
ITEM — Box: 2, Folder: 26 Identifier: HUV 1210
*Also present/notable in photograph - Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Margaret Harwood, Florence Cushman, Mollie O’Reilly, Sarah F. Whiting, Solon Bailey, E.C. Pickering, Edward Skinner King.
Photographic views of the Harvard College Observatory, 1860-1964.
COLLECTION Identifier: HUV 1210
ITEM --- Box: 1, Folder: 11 of 28, [1885-1901]
“This folder contains ten photographs of the interior of the Harvard College Observatory... Included in the photographs are Mary Palmer Draper, Antonia Maury, Williamina Fleming, and Director Edward Charles Pickering... All photographs are albumen prints.”
This folder contains the “Computer Room” set of photographs with Anna Palmer Draper, and one with Edward Charles Pickering.
Ca. 1900 - Several women and members of the crew of the S.S. Mina.
Secondary Sources
The Glass Universe by Dava Sobel:
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin An Autobiography and Other Recollections - Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Ed. Katharine Haramundanis
She Caught the Light by Kathryn Lasky, Illus. Julianna Swaney
Miss Leavitt’s Stars by George Johnson:
Notable Women In the Physical Sciences - Barbara Smith Shearer, Benjamin F Shearer
The Harvard College Observatory, The First Four Directorships, 1839-1919 - Bessie Zaban Jones and Lyle Gifford Boyd
Catchers of Light: An Astrophotographer’s Family History by Stefan Hughes
Biographic and Encyclopedic sources
Smithsonian Learning Lab Biographical and Digital Resources
“Williamina Paton Fleming.” Project Continua. Lindsay Smith-Zrull
"The First Computer: Williamina Fleming and the Horsehead Nebula." Galactic Gazette (July 3, 2017) Alex McGrath.:
Paul Haley. “Williamina Fleming and the Harvard College Observatory,” no. 11. The Antiquarian Astronomer (June 2017): 2–32.
“Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming (1857–1911).” Open Collections Program: Women Working, Harvard University,
New England Historical Society
Popular Media and Commemoration
Fleming1, a Nebula named in her honor. She discovered it in 1910.
Moon Crater, shared with Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin.