The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association to Mark the 205th Birthday of Maria Mitchell

July 17, 2023

Nantucket, MA – Join the Maria Mitchell Association as it hosts Maria Mitchell’s 205th birthday on August 1 on Vestal Street. Maria Mitchell’s birthday celebration is a free event with astronomy and natural science activities, live animal displays, research demonstrations, face painting, live music by Susan Berman and Ray Saunders, and free admission to the Maria Mitchell Association Vestal Street Museums! This afternoon of Maria Mitchell themed activities will be held Tuesday, August 1st from 1pm – 4pm on Vestal Street, with the lower portion of the street closed to traffic.



The Maria Mitchell Association is named after America’s first female astronomer, Maria Mitchell. She is known for discovering a comet over Nantucket in October 1847. She went on to become the first female professor at Vassar College, where she was an inspiration to her students. She believed in learning by doing and in the capacity of women to achieve what their male counterparts could. “Miss Mitchell” was beloved by her students whom she taught until her retirement, due to failing health, in 1888. She died in 1889 and was buried next to her parents in the family plot at Nantucket’s Prospect Hill Cemetery. 


The Maria Mitchell Association was founded in 1902 to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. After she discovered a comet in 1847, Mitchell’s international fame led to many achievements and awards, including an appointment as the first female professor of astronomy at Vassar College. Maria Mitchell believed in “learning by doing” and today that philosophy is reflected in the MMA’s mission statement, programs, research projects, and other activities. The Maria Mitchell Association operates two observatories, a natural science museum, an aquarium, a research center, and preserves the historic birthplace of Maria Mitchell. A wide variety of science and history-related programming is offered throughout the year for people of all ages.


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For Immediate Release

July 17, 2023

Contact: Grace Baisley

marketinginterns@mariamitchell.org

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By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger July 6, 2026
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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“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.” -Edith Andrews
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