Maria Mitchell's Attic

Lynn, Ap. 25 1869  My dear President, I am not sure I told you how long I must be away from the College. If I took only the Sunday’s rest, it would be possible for me to reach the Obs. By Tuesday, but I feel the need of more than one day of quiet, before I enter upon the new and incomprehensible life before me . . . William Mitchell died on April 19, 1869 and for the first time, Maria Mitchell was alone. Save for her trip to the southern United States and Europe in 1857 and 1858, her father was always by her side. She did not know much of a day in her life without him nearby and she knows that. It was difficult for her – and her siblings worried about her and this new world she was now in. She had been – expect for that trip – the caregiver for both of her parents. Her mother, Lydia Coleman Mitchell, died in 1861 on Nantucket and Maria had cared for her as well. She was the child who became the caregiver of the family – both in her youth as her siblings sought her out for care, humor, love, and adventures while their mother was busy with younger children and household duties – and then her parents as the only child who did not marry and remained by their sides. JNLF

After having a very dry fall and even early winter, we are now making up for it with a LOT of rain. They say April showers bring May flowers but I am starting to wonder. We have been in a drought – less severe than the rest of our New England friends but still, a drought. I do like rain – particularly when I can be nicely cozied up with a good book and a cup of tea – and oh, a few good cookies or some tea bread makes it even more perfect! Another thing I like is the sound of it. Living in a timber frame home – and working in a timber frame historic house, I get the benefits of hearing the rain on the roof (and hopefully no sounds of drips!). Another unique sound is the one that rain makes on the dome of the Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory that I am sharing with you in this video piece (that’s not heating or some sort of mechanical item running – that’s the rain). Enjoy! JNLF

The concrete floors have been cleaned and stabilized in the Astronomical Study cellar and the Dome Room. The Pillar Room floor will need warmer temperatures as the epoxy we are putting on the floor cannot cure properly. This is because the floor of the Pillar Room sits directly on the ground – there is no cellar beneath– and the pillar for the telescope located in this space goes directly down into the ground. This is done so that if there is any movement in the building, the telescope itself will not move or shake. While we wait for that final treatment of the Pillar Room floor, the electrician has moved in. He has replaced the very old wiring – but kept the original switch knobs for the glass plates built into the bookshelves. These glass plates are from the 1920s – most were taken at the Maria Mitchel Observatory. We have restored push button light switches – they more than likely had those as we had them in our former Science Library – now Research Center – and bronzed switch plates that are more in keeping with the time period. We have removed the 1980 track lighting and placed four larger ceiling lights in their place. The Study never had ceiling lights or sconces – just task lighting – but we do need better lighting than that so we located some lighting that is in-keeping with the period and the use of the building. Other switches and lights are being updated – the wiring in particular. Pen Austin will some come in to make a few small lime plaster repairs from the track lighting – interesting construction that revealed itself upon taking down the track lights. Lime plaster, concrete, chicken wire, wood, and some much older looking nails than I expected for 1922. A thank you to Brian Connor Electric and to Elizabeth Markle for help sourcing the lights. JNLF

I have posted this during Women’s History Month before but because it is March and Women’s History Month, I think it’s worth repeating. It’s clever and helps to tell an important story in women’s history while giving it a bit of a 21 st century twist. It comes via the National Women’s History Project. http://soomopublishing.com/suffrage/ JNLF

March is Women’s History Month (though all months should be women’s history month.) Maria Mitchell was one of the founders of the Association for the Advancement of Women (AAW), was its president (1875), and founded its Science Committee, which she chaired for the remainder of her life. When the fourth Congress of the AAW met in Philadelphia in October 1876, Julia Ward Howe (also a friend of Maria’s) was serving with Maria on the executive committee. Maria presented a paper, “The Need for Women in Science.” In it she stated, Does anyone suppose that any woman in all the ages has had a fair chance to show what she could do in science? . . . The laws of nature are not discovered by accidents; theories do not come by chance, even to the greatest minds; they are not born of the hurry and worry of daily toil; they are diligently sought, they are patiently waited for, they are received with cautious reserve, they are accepted with reverence and awe. And until able women have given their lives to investigation, it is idle to discuss the question of their capacity for original work. She is not saying that women cannot be scientists – she is saying they need to be given the opportunities. Maria was incredibly busy with the AAW – it took up a great deal of her time – and at the next meeting in November of that year some aspects of the meeting were wonderful according to her account –“excellent” papers, “newspapers treated us very well. The institutions opened their doors to us, the Centennial gave us a reception. But – we didn’t have a good time!” It appears there was discord among the women. A few opposed the subject of “Woman Suffrage,” but Lucy Stone was able to present her paper on the subject despite this. And, some women felt that the West was not well represented and was overshadowed by New England thus women representing the western states protested the nomination and election of Julia Ward Howe as president of the AAW. But she won. Whew! It was not always easy and controversies constantly abounded with many schisms over time within the women’s rights movement. I often wonder what Maria might think of the place of women today – how far things have come from her time or would she be surprised that there still can be inequality? In honor of Women’s History Month, take a look at other organizations that represent different women in our history and their legacies. A good place to start is the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites . JNLF

In the late nineteenth century, 1881 to be exact, Nantucket erected a monument at the burial site of some of the first English settlers on the island. But, given the times, they forgot the ladies – more than a century after Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable (sic.) to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar (sic.) care and attention is not paid to the Laidies (sic.) we are determined to foment a Rebelion (sic.), and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation. (March 31, 1776) Now, given the time, this is not at all surprising. I will not now go into the history of this site – that can be for a later post – but suffice it to say that it then took almost a century more for the “ladies” to be remembered. The woman who toiled next to their husbands, worked together as two heads and four hands, who gave birth to eighty English children on the shores of an island twenty-eight-miles at sea. In 2008, I was asked to be part of a group that created a monument to the first female English settlers of the island. It stands next to the earlier stone from 1881 overlooking what was once the original settlement site, as well as Washing, Maxcy, and Capaum Ponds (once a harbor), and out into the sound. JNLF

Thursday, Mch. 4 {1869} My dear Sally, Father seems better again today and the Doctor thinks it merely a “flurry.” But he is so feeble that any “flurry” is a serious thing. He has been up an hour today, has eaten a little dinner in bed. I slept in his room last night and shall whenever it is necessary. MM. William Mitchell died a little over a month later on April 19, 1869. He had lived with Maria at Vassar College from the day she began her tenure – he was the one who encouraged her to take the job – the one who told her they really wanted to hire her and that they were not just looking for her opinion of a new women’s college. He had in fact lived with her in Lynn, Massachusetts as well. The two of them left Nantucket after Lydia Coleman Mitchell’s death in 1861. Maria gave the only bedroom in the Observatory to her father for his use – feeling it was more appropriate that way and in deference to her father, her elder. This did cause some issues – Maria was forced to make-do with by using a settee in one of the sitting areas off the dome making for a cold and non-private space. She also found that if her father needed her, she could not hear him since he was on the ground floor – on the other side of the Observatory. JNLF

Good neighbors seem hard to come by these days. And, by these days, I mean the last thirty or more years. There are still good neighbors out there but many neighborhoods are not what they once were. People tend to be more insular, inside more often on devices, not outside tending to their yards or just sitting on the front porch. Children do not run rampant over yards and fences, multiple ages playing outside until the last gasp of daylight. Grown-ups are not inviting one another over for dinner or giving each other a hand as they once did. In elementary school, my best friend’s family moved in across the street (how lucky was I?!). Our bedrooms were directly opposite one another and we developed a flashlight signal to share from our windows. After Hurricane Gloria, without power for days, our two families gathered to clean out the refrigerators and freezers before things spoiled. Our father’s grilled it all on charcoal grills so we could have a hot feast – and save the food. Does that happen anymore? We are all more focused on ourselves than one another. The MMA recently lost a good neighbor. Nancy lived on Vestal Street for twenty-five or more years with her husband in a house that was once occupied by another good neighbor. I think a little osmosis might have been at work but also, simply, Nancy was a good neighbor. I would liken her to the “Mayor of Vestal Street.” She looked out for people, paid attention, invited her neighbors for dinner, and helped them out. She certainly helped the MMA out. She offered to garden – and re-did our Astronomer’s Cottage garden and side yard. She painted window boxes. She donated an old door she had so we could replace a rotting door we had. She donated a refrigerator – still humming along nicely in one of our dorms. She welcomed a Mitchell House intern into her home to look at the grain painting in her home from the nineteenth century as the intern worked to study the grain painting in the Mitchell House’s 1825 Kitchen. She attended our events. She was a member. She helped out in other areas of the MMA with advice and support. She swept at least weekly – if not more – the stones from our driveway that constantly tumbled into the street. She gave us plants, kept her eye on things, and looked out for our staff and interns, too. She even gave me a few dresses she could not wear and a baby gift when we brought our son home. She was a mensch. Finding out about her death knocked me down. I keep expecting her to be outside sweeping or walking her beloved dog or putting a new flower arrangement in her front window. She loved her historic home and she and her husband worked very hard to preserve it and also restore details that were lost over the last 100 or more years. She was an incredibly talented and smart person and had a whole other life in Boston where she worked for many years in human resources. I could not think of a better person to have such an occupation. She always had a smile on her face and was ready with support. Good neighbors are hard to come by. I hope that Nancy and her memory inspire a few more people to be good neighbors in this world. The step, however small, which is in advance of the world, shows the greatness of the person, whether that step be taken with brain, with heart, or with hands. – Maria Mitchell JNLF