Maria Mitchell in Her Own Words
Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • April 18, 2012
April 18. [1855 Nantucket] A young sailor boy came to see me today. It pleases me to have these lads seek me on their return from their first voyage and tell me how much they have learned about navigation. They always say with pride “I can take a lunar, Miss Mitchell, and work it up!” This boy I had known only as a boy but he has suddenly become a man and seems to be full of intelligence. He will go once more as a sailor he says and then try for a second mate position.
Maria had a group of boy helpers at the Atheneum – her “Atheneum boys” as she referred to them. Many of them, and others, came to Maria Mitchell for help with celestial navigation – something that Maria as well as many of her family members were more than adept at.
JNLF
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Sept. 24, 1881. . . . Mr. I. {van Ingen} thinks that not a person on the Board of Trustees would approve of the clause in Mr. Vassar’s will which objected to women as occupants of chairs. Just months before, Maria Mitchell had written a letter describing the controversy surrounding the bequest of Matthew Vassar to the college he founded. The large sum was separated out within his will, including the establishment of department chairs. The bequest for this action, however, did not allow for women professors to have a chair. Quite shocking for a women’s college but then, there were early trustees in the College’s founding who believed that women professors should not exist at Vassar! Maria would be the first professor Vassar hired – male OR female. JNLF
Do you know what these Mitchell House Junior Historians are doing? It is a good old-fashioned round of hoop rolling. And, they had a lot of fun learning how to use them down at the Coffin School one day. Hoop rolling or hoop trundling were popular from very early on and well into the twentieth century. By early on I mean Ancient Greece even. It’s on ancient pottery and was not limited to children! Native Americans, ancient Rome, 16 th century England – it’s been known by different names, taken various formats, played by various ages, and played through various ages. In the nineteenth century, both boys and girls did hoop rolling – and it was likely seen as a more “ladylike” active game that girls could play. I’m assuming that is likely the reason why several women’s colleges still have I tradition of rolling hoops. We use these sometimes in the summer during our weeklong Mitchell House children’s program – Junior Historians. Do not be too surprised if you see me out on the lawn on Vestal Street practicing on warm days this fall, winter, and spring! Got to get up to speed! JNLF
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.” -Edith Andrews