Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • March 21, 2022

1882, Mch. 20. I had five teeth taken out yesterday. I never felt better than I do today. I stay away from Faculty because I can’t talk plainly.


So, this is maybe not how you want to think about Maria Mitchell – and maybe she isn’t pleased with me. But, I think it’s important to not always put someone on a pedestal and to remember they are or were a human being. Maria had several health issues including a sudden deafness at one point – it seems to have been fleeting – ringing in her ears and other issues. Perhaps some of what ailed her they felt could be remedied by tooth removal. In any case, four days later she was lecturing to her sophomores and by April 30, she had new teeth though she complained they annoyed her as did her old ones!



JNLF



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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
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