Harriet Williams Bigelow (June 7, 1870 − June 27, 1934) was an American instructor and astronomer. Born in

Fayetteville, New York Fayetteville is a village located in Onondaga County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the village had a population of 4,225. The village is named after the Marquis de Lafayette, a national hero of both France and the United S ...

, Harriet was the daughter of pastor Dana Williams Bigelow and Katherine Huntington. Her family moved to

Pitcher, New York Pitcher is a town in Chenango County, New York, United States. The population was 803 at the 2010 census. The town is named after Nathaniel Pitcher, the eighth governor of New York. The town is on the western border of Chenango County, west of t ...

, then in 1878 to Utica, New York where her father became pastor at the Memorial Presbyterian Church. Harriet attended the local public schools, graduating from

Utica Free Academy Utica Free Academy, whose predecessor, Utica Academy, opened in 1814, was a high school in Utica, New York, which operated from 1840 until 1990, when it was consolidated with Thomas R. Proctor High School. The combined entity operated briefly at U ...

in 1889. She matriculated to

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

, a women's liberal arts college in Massachusetts, where she studied astronomy. After graduating with an A.B. in 1893, she taught at Granger Place school in Canandaigua, New York. In 1896, she was invited back to Smith College as an astronomy assistant under her former instructor, Mary Emma Byrd, a pioneer in the laboratory method of teaching astronomy. She attended the University of Michigan in 1901, where she continued her studies in astronomy. In 1904, she was awarded a Ph.D. under the direction of Asaph Hall with a thesis titled ''Declinations of Certain North Polar Stars Determined with the Meridian Circle''. She became director of the

Observatory in 1906, replacing Mary Byrd, and was made an associate professor at the college. Harriet attained professor status in 1911 and became head of the college's astronomy department. Between 1905 and 1928, she published seven papers in the ''

Astronomical Journal ''The Astronomical Journal'' (often abbreviated ''AJ'' in scientific papers and references) is a peer-reviewed monthly scientific journal owned by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and currently published by IOP Publishing. It is one of the p ...

'', primarily on the topic of comets. In 1923, she joined the

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six month ...

expedition to the

Santa Catalina Island, California Santa Catalina Island ( xgf, Pimuu'nga or ; es, Isla Santa Catalina) is a rocky island off the coast of Southern California in the Gulf of Santa Catalina. The island name is often shortened to Catalina Island or just Catalina. The island is l ...

. During her career, she served as vice president and president of the

American Association of Variable Star Observers The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is an international nonprofit organization, founded in 1911, focused on coordinating, analyzing, publishing, and archiving variable star observations made largely by amateur astronomers. ...

, and was a councilor for the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

during the period 1932−35. In 1934, she took a sabbatical year and traveled with her sister to Manila. She was on her way to visit observatories in South Africa when she died suddenly in Java.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bigelow, Harriet Williams 1870 births 1934 deaths Smith College alumni Smith College faculty Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies alumni People from Fayetteville, New York American women astronomers Scientists from New York (state)