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In her own words, America's first woman professor of astronomy tells of her meetings with the great and good of the nineteenth century. Maria Mitchell's (1818-1889) sister Phebe collected excerpts from journals and letters to present a pot pourri of Maria's life, ideas and work.

Maria Mitchell - in Her Own Words

Maria Mitchell had a particular disdain for needlework, saying "It seems to me that the needle is the chain of woman, and has fettered her more than the laws of the country."

She also wonders how it is the women were all required to be good at needlework, but somehow astronomy was too difficult for them.

"The eye that directs a needle in the delicate meshes of embroidery will equally well bisect a star with the spider web of the micrometer. Routine observations, too, dull as they are, are less dull than the endless repetition of the same pattern in crochet work. . . . The girl who can stitch from morning to night would find two or three hours in the observatory a relief."