Answer to Where is This?

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 1, 2012

This is an observatory and to be exact it is Maria Mitchell’s Observatory at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. It is now a National Historic Landmark. What you see in the niche is the bust of Maria Mitchell that was sculpted by Emma Brigham as a gift from the Vassar College Class of 1877 to the College. The MMA now has a copy (only the second one ever made from the original – the first is at the Hall of Fame which Maria Mitchell was inducted into) of the bust thanks to a generous gift from Mr. James Storrow.


When Vassar College was built, there were only two buildings on campus when it opened in 1865 – Main Building and the Observatory. Everything happened in Main – students lived there, went to classes, dined there, professors were housed – and then you had the quieter Observatory a bit away from Main where Maria Mitchell lived with her father, conducted classes, observed, and welcomed the luminaries (authors, royalty, scientists, women’s rights advocates, and others) of the day into her home.


And congrats to Monica Flegg who guessed what this was last week!


JNLF

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July 15. {1863} My dear Sally . . . I think Mitchell is all right in his algebra. He can’t stand an examination in Trig but I don’t believe he will have a rigorous one. Father has seen the Prof. and will give him a letter to them.  If you can’t be honest with your sibling, who can you be honest with? Apparently, Sally Mitchell Barney’s son, William Mitchell Barney – known as Mitchell as his cousin William Mitchell Barney was known as Willie (how is that for honoring your father?!) – was visiting his aunt Maria and his grandfather, William Mitchell, at their home in Lynn, MA. Sally still lived on Nantucket and I suspect Mitchell was not only visiting but getting some much needed help with his mathematics by his aunt Maria. As always, she is brutally honest – he won’t pass a test in trigonometry (but, neither would I!). JNLF
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