Frances Woodworth Wright (April 30, 1897 – July 30, 1989) was an American astronomer based at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, she taught celestial navigation to military officers and engineers.

Early life

Frances Woodworth Wright was born in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

, the daughter of George William Wright and Nellie Woodworth Wright. As a child in 1907, Wright wrote a short essay titled "My Favorite Poem", for the popular national children's magazine ''

St. Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-day Demre ...

''. She earned a bachelor's degree at Brown University in 1920. She was granted a Ph.D. in astronomy from Radcliffe College in 1958, as a student of

Fred Whipple Fred Lawrence Whipple (November 5, 1906 – August 30, 2004) was an American astronomer, who worked at the Harvard College Observatory for more than 70 years. Amongst his achievements were asteroid and comet discoveries, the " dirty snowball" h ...

Frances Wright examining a planetary exhibit

Career

Wright taught astronomy and mathematics at

Elmira College Elmira College is a private college in Elmira, New York. Founded as a college for women in 1855, it is the oldest existing college granting degrees to women that were the equivalent of those given to men. Elmira College became coeducational in a ...

before she was hired to be a computer at

Harvard College Observatory The Harvard College Observatory (HCO) is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United St ...

. There she became a close friend of astronomer

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (born Cecilia Helena Payne; – ) was a British-born American astronomer and astrophysicist who proposed in her 1925 doctoral thesis that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Her groundbreaking conclus ...

. The two women traveled across the United States by car together in 1930, to visit observatories in the American west, camping along the way. During World War II, Wright taught celestial navigation to military officers and engineers; for many years afterward, she taught navigation classes to Harvard students and local sailors. "I just love the looks in some of their faces when they've learned something," she said in 1986. "You feel as if you've added to their horizons, just as it adds to mine. It inspires me to think this course gives them a sense of adventure." She wrote three books on navigation techniques, all published by

Cornell Maritime Press Schiffer Publishing Ltd. (also known for its imprints Schiffer, Schiffer Craft, Schiffer Military History, Schiffer Kids, REDFeather MBS, Cornell Maritime Press, Tidewater Publishers, Thrums Books, Geared Up Publications ) is a family-owned publi ...

: ''Celestial Navigation'' (1969, revised 1982), ''Coastwise Navigation'' (1980), and ''Particularized Navigation: How to Prevent Navigational Emergencies'' (1973). She was also co-author of ''Basic Marine Navigation'' (1944, with

Bart Bok Bartholomeus Jan "Bart" Bok (April 28, 1906 – August 5, 1983) was a Dutch-American astronomer, teacher, and lecturer. He is best known for his work on the structure and evolution of the Milky Way galaxy, and for the discovery of Bok globules, ...

) and ''The Large Magellanic Cloud'' (1967, with Paul W. Hodge). Her published research included several studies of meteoritic particles. Wright continued working at the observatory until 1971, and taught undergraduate courses in navigation for many years after that.

Personal life and legacy

She was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1961. In 1976, the minor planet 2133 Franceswright was named in her honor, after its discovery at the Harvard College Observatory. Frances Woodworth Wright died from cancer in 1989 in Cambridge, aged 92 years. Her small telescope is in the collection of historical scientific instruments at Harvard University, and Wright created and endowed the Frances W. Wright Navigation Fund, ensure the course's continued availability.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Frances Woodworth 1897 births 1989 deaths American women astronomers Barnard College alumni Brown University alumni Deaths from cancer in Massachusetts Elmira College faculty Radcliffe College alumni Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science