Margaret Harwood, 1885-1979

Margaret Harwood, astronomer, was born in Littleton, Mass. in 1885 and received her AB from Radcliffe College in 1907 and her AM from the University of California in 1916. Employed at the Harvard Observatory after graduation, she also taught in private schools in Boston, Cambridge and Dedham. In 1912, MH was awarded the astronomical fellowship of the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Observatory, a small observatory built as a memorial to the first woman astronomer in America. In 1916, MH was appointed Director of the Observatory, eventually retiring in 1957. Her particular field was photometry, measuring variation in the light of stars and asteroids, especially that of the small planet Eros. A member of the American Astronomical Society and Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, MH corresponded with fellow astronomers and travelled widely in Europe and the United States. MH was a devoted Unitarian and worked in a voluntary capacity for the Nantucket Cottage Hospital, the Nantucket School Committee and the Red Cross of Nantucket.

For full biographical details, see folders 1 and 2.