Agnes Mary Clerke (10 February 1842 – 20 January 1907) was an Irish
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...
and writer, mainly in the field of
astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...
. She was born in
Skibbereen
Skibbereen (; ) is a town in County Cork, Ireland. It is located in West Cork
West Cork ( ga, Iarthar Chorcaí) is a tourist region and municipal district in County Cork, Ireland. As a municipal district, West Cork falls within the administr ...
,
County Cork
County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...
, Ireland, and died in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
[For details of the life and work of Agnes Clerk, see ]
Family
Agnes Clerke was the daughter of John William Clerke (c. 1814–1890) who was, at the time, a bank manager in Skibbereen,
and his wife Catherine Mary Deasy (born circa 1819) whose father was a judge's registrar.
She had two siblings; her older sister,
Ellen Mary (1840-1906) and her younger brother, Aubrey St. John (1843-1923).
Her elder sister Ellen also wrote about astronomy. All of the Clerke children were entirely home schooled.
Catherine Clerke had been educated at the Ursuline Convent, and therefore placed a great deal of importance on the education of young girls.
Life and work
Following in her father's footsteps — while studying classics, he had also taken courses in astronomy
— she developed an interest in astronomy from an early age, using her father's 4-inch telescope in her observations and had begun to write a history of astronomy at the age of 15.
In 1861, aged 19, her family moved to
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, and in 1863 to
Queenstown (present-day
Cobh
Cobh ( ,), known from 1849 until 1920 as Queenstown, is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. With a population of around 13,000 inhabitants, Cobh is on the south side of Great Island in Cork Harbour and home to Ireland's ...
). At the age of 25, partly for health reasons together with her elder sister Ellen, she went to Italy where she stayed until 1877, chiefly at
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, studying science, languages, and other subjects that would be useful in their later lives. In 1877, she settled in London.
Upon her return, she was able to get two articles, "Brigandage in Sicily" and "Copernicus in Italy", written while she had been in Italy, published in the ''
Edinburgh Review
The ''Edinburgh Review'' is the title of four distinct intellectual and cultural magazines. The best known, longest-lasting, and most influential of the four was the third, which was published regularly from 1802 to 1929.
''Edinburgh Review'', ...
'' of October 1877. This led to her being asked by
Adam and Charles Black
A & C Black is a British book publishing company, owned since 2002 by Bloomsbury Publishing. The company is noted for publishing '' Who's Who'' since 1849. It also published popular travel guides and novels.
History
The firm was founded in 1 ...
, publishers of the ''Review'', who also published the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', to write biographies of a number of famous scientists for the ninth edition of the encyclopedia.
[Important Contributors to the ''Britannica'', 9th and 10th Editions Important Contributors to the Britannica, 9th and 10th Editions](_blank)
1902encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
This led to a number of other commissions, including the publication of the article on astronomy for the ''Catholic Encyclopedia''.
During her career she wrote reviews of many books, including some written in French, German, Greek, or Italian.
In 1885, she published her best known work, ''A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century''.
This book became commonly used for its discussion of the spectroscope.
In 1888 she spent three months at the observatory at the Cape of Good Hope.
In the autumn of 1890, Clerke and her brother Aubrey were founding members of the
British Astronomical Association
The British Astronomical Association (BAA) was formed in 1890 as a national body to support the UK's amateur astronomers.
Throughout its history, the BAA has encouraged observers to make scientifically valuable observations, often in collaborati ...
.
In 1893, Clerke was awarded the
Actonian Prize The Actonian Prize was established by the Royal Institution as a septennial award for the "person who in the judgement of the committee of managers for the time being of the Institution, should have been the author of the best essay illustrative of ...
of 100 guineas by the
Royal Institution
The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...
. As a member of the British Astronomical Association she attended its meetings regularly, as well as those of the
Royal Astronomical Society
(Whatever shines should be observed)
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, successor =
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. In 1903, with
Margaret Lindsay Huggins
Margaret Lindsay, Lady Huggins (14 August 1848, in Dublin – 24 March 1915, in London),
born Margaret Lindsay Murray, was an Irish-English scientific investigator and astronomer.
With her husband William Huggins she was a pioneer in the field o ...
, she was elected an honorary member of the
Royal Astronomical Society
(Whatever shines should be observed)
, predecessor =
, successor =
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, founder =
, extinction =
, merger =
, merged =
, type = NGO ...
, a rank previously held only by three other women,
Caroline Herschel
Caroline Lucretia Herschel (; 16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848) was a German born British astronomer, whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigolle ...
and
Mary Somerville
Mary Somerville (; , formerly Greig; 26 December 1780 – 29 November 1872) was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy, and in 1835 she and Caroline Herschel were elected as the first female Honorary ...
(in 1835), and
Anne Sheepshanks
Anne Sheepshanks (1789–1876) was a British astronomical benefactor.
Life
Sheepshanks was born in Leeds in 1794. She was the daughter of Joseph and Ann Sheepshanks. Her mother was from Kendal and her father was a cloth manufacturer. Her broth ...
(in 1862).
She died of pneumonia in 1907 at her home in South Kensington.
Personal life
Agnes and Ellen were devout Catholics all their lives. Neither ever married.
Legacy
The
lunar crater
Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated.
History
The wor ...
Clerke is named after her.
In 2002,
Mary Brück
Mary Teresa Brück (née Conway; 1925-2008) was an Irish astronomer, astrophysicist and historian of science, whose career was spent at Dunsink Observatory in Dublin and the Royal Observatory Edinburgh in Scotland.
Early life
Mary Teresa Conwa ...
wrote ''Agnes Mary Clerke and the Rise of Astrophysics''.
In 2017, the Royal Astronomical Society established the Agnes Clerke Medal for the History of Astronomy or Geophysics, which is awarded to individuals who have achieved outstanding research into the history of astronomy or geophysics. The first recipient was
Clive Ruggles.
In 2022 Jessie Kennedy and the Celestial Quartet performed a concert in Skibbereen in honour of Clerke. The performance included songs specially composed by Jessie Kennedy and by Tess Leak, using words of Agnes and her sister, Ellen, and a cello trio, the Agnes Clerke Cello Trio, composed by Diana Llewellyn.
Selected writings
''A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century'' Edinburgh, 1885 (4th rev. ed. London, 1902)
''The System of the Stars'' London, 1890 (2nd ed. London, 1905)
''The Herschels and Modern Astronomy'' London, 1895
''The Concise Knowledge Astronomy''(co-authored with
John Ellard Gore
John Ellard Gore (1845–1910) was an Irish amateur astronomer and prolific author, and a founding member of the British Astronomical Association. He was mainly interested in variable stars of which he discovered several, most notably W Cygni ...
and
Alfred Fowler
Alfred Fowler, CBE FRS (22 March 1868, in Yorkshire – 24 June 1940) was an English astronomer.
Early life and career
He was born in Wilsden on the outskirts of Bradford, Yorkshire and educated at London's Normal School of Science, wh ...
). London, 1898
''Problems in Astrophysics'' London, 1903
She also wrote 55 articles for the ''
Edinburgh Review
The ''Edinburgh Review'' is the title of four distinct intellectual and cultural magazines. The best known, longest-lasting, and most influential of the four was the third, which was published regularly from 1802 to 1929.
''Edinburgh Review'', ...
'', mainly on subjects connected with astrophysics, and articles for the ''
Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', the ''
Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...
'' and the ''
Catholic Encyclopedia
The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...
'', and several other periodicals. Her articles in the ninth edition (1875–89) of the ''Britannica'' included
Galileo Galilei
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...
,
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, p ...
,
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws ...
,
Antoine Lavoisier
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( , ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794), When reduced without charcoal, it gave off an air which supported respiration and combustion in an enhanced way. He concluded that this was just a pure form of common air and th ...
and the
zodiac
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the Sun path, apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. ...
.
References
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Further reading
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External links
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* Bibliography of writings about Agnes Mary Clerke.
Biographical materialfrom the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
*
Irish Examiner article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clerke, Agnes Mary
1842 births
1907 deaths
People from Skibbereen
Irish non-fiction writers
Irish women non-fiction writers
Irish astronomers
Women astronomers
19th-century women scientists
Irish women mathematicians
19th-century astronomers
19th-century Irish writers
Women science writers
19th-century Irish women writers
Historians of astronomy
Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia