Day 4629: Williamina P. S. Fleming & The Avocado?

"Daily": acrylics, photo, digital collage.

 

  

Want music?

    

Click: Michael McDonald, I Keep Forgetting.

2GN2S 

Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming

On a cold morning in 1857, in Dundee, Scotland, a girl was born who would one day light up the universe—not with a telescope, but with brilliance. Her name was Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming.

From an early age, Williamina showed a mind far beyond her years. By 14, she was already teaching. But life took an unexpected turn when she married, moved to the United States, and was abandoned—left alone with her child in a foreign land. With limited options, she took a job as a housekeeper in the home of Edward Pickering, director of the Harvard College Observatory.

Fate works in mysterious ways. Legend has it that, frustrated with his staff, Pickering once shouted, “My Scottish maid could do better!” What began as sarcasm became a spark of destiny. In 1881, he gave Williamina a chance—and she stunned everyone. With no formal scientific education, she began analyzing photographs of the night sky with unmatched precision. She became the first of the Harvard Computers—a group of brilliant women behind some of astronomy’s greatest breakthroughs. Williamina went on to:

• Classify over 10,000 stars

• Discover 10 novas, 59 nebulae, and 310 variable stars

• Create the Harvard Classification System, which laid the foundation for how we categorize stars to this day

• She also became the first American woman to be named an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society—a historic achievement in a male-dominated field.

Her work didn’t just study the stars. She became one. Williamina Fleming proved that greatness can come from the most unexpected places. That brilliance doesn’t need permission—and that a determined woman can change the very way we see the universe. Her story continues to inspire dreamers and trailblazers to this day.

 

  

 

A  5+  minute video, On Your Mark, here

 

 

 

  

 

Just because ...

Turquoise Dacnis

 

Tuesday's Smiles ...