“Science Needs Women”

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • September 28, 2020

The Maria Mitchell (Virtual) Women of Science Symposium October 2, 2020 1-4PM


In my younger days when I was pained by half educated, loose and inaccurate ways which we all had, I used to say, ‘How much women need exact science.’ But since I have known some workers in science who were not always true to the teaching of nature, who have loved self  more than science, I have said, ‘How much science needs women.’ – Maria Mitchell


In 2018, in part to honor Maria Mitchell’s 200 th birthday’s anniversary, the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association hosted its first Maria Mitchell Women of Science Symposium in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It was a fabulous success with a sold out crowd – and a wait list. We welcomed women and men from around the country and at all levels of their STEM path – from undergraduates to early and mid-career to late-career and retirees. All were active in STEM whether it be as a mathematician, a professor, a middle school teacher, an engineer, or an undergraduate student – all came together to discuss the place of and difficulties for women in STEM. We heard from women leaders in STEM at all stages of their careers and met in small salon discussion groups to developed real-word solutions to bring back to our places of work and education. It was an exhilarating and rewarding experience and one that was incredibly well-received.

While we had intended to meet for a two-day event again this year, the COVID-19/Coronavirus Pandemic brought that plan to a halt (And, we all need to be safe and cautious so it’s a good halt!). Happily, we were able to create a mini-online version which we will be hosting on October 2 from 1-4PM. It is FREE but registration is required at www.mmwiss.org . While it will be different, not meeting and working together in-person, we hope this will give people an idea of what the MMWSS is all about. Our focus for this shortened event will be on diversity, inclusion, and intersectionality with a keynote and one panel discussion. More information about these incredible women in STEM who will be joining us can be found at the MMWSS website – where you can also register to join us and what is already well over 200 attendees!


I’d like to share with you two anonymous testimonials from two undergraduate women in STEM who joined us at the first MMWSS in 2018 – they are in the early stages of their STEM path and their words give you a sense of what everyone in attendance was feeling and what they gained:


The Maria Mitchell Women of Science Symposium (MMWSS) was an incredible, empowering experience . . . . during the salons I had the opportunity to interact with the symposium attendees on a more intimate level and discuss these issues in detail. The salons were the highlight of the entire event for me; this unique format allowed me to learn about the specific experiences of other women in STEM and brainstorm ideas for solutions to problems. It was also very empowering for me, a young graduate student, to be able to contribute to discussions in this small group setting and have my input valued by the other, more senior members of the group. This symposium provided me with a wonderful opportunity to network with female mentors and also to be a mentor to younger, undergraduate students.


Attending the Maria Mitchell Women of Science Symposium was a truly transformative experience for me. To be in a space filled with women and allies for women in the STEM field was honestly overwhelming at first. As an undergraduate, I am a beginner and I used to think that I needed to have more experience or education before I could help facilitate change within the STEM community. After being a part of this conference, I am now in touch with my personal power and I was shown that advocates need to be at every level. I no longer feel the need to wait to start doing outreach, and I have already started working with a science teacher (remotely).

Many of 2018’s attendees, speakers, and panelists will be with us in attendance so we hope you can join us for this important and ongoing conversation as we make sure we support and find ways to bring everyone to the STEM table!


JNLF

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By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger June 30, 2025
As we are now complete with the conservation of the historic Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory (MMO), I thought it would be good to post a series of blogs concerning it history and activities, as well as some of the amazing people who have made it what it is over the last 100 plus years. Therefore, over the next few weeks, the focus will be on the MMO. And it is now open for tours – Monday through Saturday 11-1PM. Founded in 1902, the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) had its beginnings in the Mitchell House where Maria Mitchell was born. Over the first few years, the preservation of the Mitchell House, family artifacts, and the collection and display of Nantucket’s native flora and fauna, as well as a small library, were the key components of the MMA. Special “Moon Evenings” were held on the lawn and people observed Nantucket’s night skies using several small telescopes, including William and Maria Mitchell’s two-and-three-quarter-inch Dollond telescope. The popular evenings led to the inevitable – a desire and need to expand based on the demands of the visitors to, and members of, the MMA. In 1906, Lydia Hinchman, a founder of the MMA and a family member, purchased the house and lot adjacent to the Mitchell House. The house – once the home of William Mitchell’s father and mother – was taken down. The MMA began a dialogue with the Harvard College Observatory and its director, Edward Pickering, Ph.D. The connection to Harvard was to become essential to the success of the beginning years of the Maria Mitchell Observatory and continued a legacy of friendship and work – Maria Mitchell and her father worked with the Bonds who once ran the observatory at Harvard and the families were close friends. Besides his assistance, Pickering asked a member of his staff, Annie Jump Cannon, to assist the MMA. This “provided an indispensable collaboration for Nantucket astronomy,” with Cannon spending two weeks on the island in 1906 and 1907 lecturing and teaching. While back at Harvard, she continued to teach the students on Nantucket by mail. Cannon would go on to be recognized as the leading woman astronomer of her generation and as the founder of the MMA’s Astronomy Department. JNLF
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger June 23, 2025
An older term, that we seem to not use that much anymore but maybe that’s in part because not many people “put things by” anymore. It is having a bit of a resurgence as people try to return to the garden and focus on local produce. My in-laws used to spend a lot of time – before I knew them – canning and preserving many different things – from jellies to string beans that became “dilly beans.” I, on the other hand, do not can produce. Frankly, I fear messing up the process and making my family sick. So, for now, I stick to making refrigerator jams and pickles. I have made some chive vinegar – that is frankly, amazing, and a brilliant shade of pink! But in any case, Bartlett’s Farm opened for pick-your-own strawberries on June 7 and I made my way over on June 8. My son has been asking for strawberry jam since about February – I told him I wait for fresh and local but he wanted some so badly he was begging for store bought. I almost caved but then I told him – out of season and they taste like cardboard – and also made a LONG journey to get to us. Once people ate with the seasons – now we do not have to with trains, planes, and ships crossing all over. It is also, why, oftentimes, fruit has no flavor. Produce is picked often before it ripens and “ripens” as it ships – or with sprays – and since many varieties have been crossed with others or engineered, we have lost the taste. I remember tasting a peach a few years back from North Carolina – fresh off the tree. After rubbing it to get all the “fur” off, I bit into an exquisite peach that tasted like a peach of my youth. So, Maria was not eating a strawberry in January but she was eating them in June – local and full of flavor. And likely, putting some by as well. JNLF
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger June 16, 2025
June 1851 My Dear Sister . . . . Mrs. Dassel has painted me kneeling at my telescope. It looks like Adeline Coffin and is of course not handsome. If thee was here thee would have Mitchell’s {William Mitchell Barney, son of Sally and Matthew Barney} painted at once. She has a head of a child N. P. Willis that is very lovely. She has taken a room at the Atheneum and put up about a dozen pictures – very beautiful – Isabel is lovely. She has not tried to make a portrait, but a very pretty picture . . . . She is now engaged on Abra’m Quary – he is much flattered by it and it will be a fine portrait. I think we shall buy it or a copy for the Atheneum . . . . She will paint father also for herself – having made a pencil sketch . . . .We like her very much . . . . The above is from a letter sent by Maria Mitchell to her eldest sister, Sally Mitchell Barney. In it, Maria details what everyone in the Mitchell family is up to. She includes some details about Herminia B. Dassel, an artist who came to Nantucket to paint the last Native Americans and also took an interest in the famous Mitchell family. This was of course four years after Maria’s discovery of the comet. At the time of this letter, Maria was still the librarian for the Atheneum and the portrait of Quary that she mentions possibly buying for the Atheneum, she did buy as it hangs in the Atheneum by the front door today. Another Dassel portrait of Quary is in the collection of the Nantucket Historical Association and the portrait of Isabel Draper is currently on display at the NHA’s Whaling Museum – on loan from a museum in Rhode Island. The portrait Maria states she posed for at the start of the letter is in the collection of the MMA. It was given to us in the early 1990s by Sally’s great granddaughter – the granddaughter of Mitchell whom she mentions above as well. Maria and Dassel would become good friends – Maria was named the godmother of Dassel’s daughter. And the sketch of William made by Dassel that Maria states would become a portrait? It likely did come to fruition. It made its way down a side of the family but was unfortunately lost, likely sold as part of a family estate though we do have a photograph of it and one can tell it is the brush work of Dassel. JNLF
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