Maria mitchell astronomer biography of christopher columbus for kids

Mitchell was the first internationally known woman to work as both a professional astronomer and a professor of astronomy after accepting a position at Vassar College in Maria Mitchell was born on August 1, , on the island of Nantucket , Massachusetts , to Lydia Coleman Mitchell, a library worker, and William Mitchell, a schoolteacher and amateur astronomer.

Her father taught her to operate a number of astronomical instruments including chronometers , sextants , refracting telescopes , and Dolland telescopes.

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Additionally, Nantucket's importance as a whaling port meant that wives of sailors were left for months, sometimes years, to manage affairs at home while their husbands were at sea, thus fostering an atmosphere of relative independence and equality for the women of the island. After attending Elizabeth Gardner small school as a young child, Mitchell enrolled in the North Grammar school, where her father was the first principal.

When Maria Mitchell was 11 years old, her father founded his own school on Howard Street. There, she was a student and also a teaching assistant to her father. William Mitchell's school closed, and afterwards she attended Unitarian minister Cyrus Peirce 's school for young ladies until she was about the age of Mitchell developed experimental teaching methods, which she later employed during her professorship at Vassar College.

In , Mitchell began working as the first librarian of the Nantucket Atheneum , a position she held for 20 years. In , Mitchell converted to Unitarianism, although she did not physically attend a Unitarian Church until more than twenty years later. Her departure from the Quaker faith did not cause a break with her family, with whom she appears to have remained close.