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Sarah Elizabeth Whitin
Sarah Elizabeth Whitin (born April 18, 1836, died Dec 26, 1917) was sole benefactor of the Whitin Observatory, which she had built on the campus of Wellesley College near Boston. Biography She was born Sarah Elizabeth Pratt, daughter of a physician in Hopkinton, Mass. In her childhood, Sarah Elizabeth was fascinated by the stars and on dark nights, would spread out a blanket in the open and, armed with an atlas, would lie in the dark with friends and identify constellations. On January 20, 1875, when she was almost 39 years old, Sarah became the second wife of the industrialist John Crane Whitin (1807–1882), owner of the Whitin Machine Works in Whitinsville, Massachusetts. John was almost 30 years her senior and died only seven years later. After his passing, Sarah was "left with large means" and traveled extensively. Trustee Sarah Elizabeth Whitin was elected to the Wellesley College Board of Trustees in 1896 and immediately took a keen interest in campus activities, espec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whitin Observatory
Whitin Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Wellesley College. Built in 1900, with additions in 1906, 1967, and 2010, it is located in Wellesley, Massachusetts and named after Wellesley College trustee Mrs. John Crane Whitin ( Sarah Elizabeth Whitin) of Whitinsville, who donated the funds for the observatory. Astronomer Sarah Frances Whiting was the first director of the new Wellesley College Astronomy Department. The facilities include a 0.7m PlaneWave CDK700 reflector, a 12" Fitz/Clark refractor, a 6" Alvan Clark refractor, a Hale Spectrohelioscope, and Meade 8" SCTs. History In 1896, Wellesley College physics professor Sarah Frances Whiting met trustee Sarah Elizabeth Whitin at a traditional college ceremony, "Float Night." The conversation turned to a 12" refracting telescope Whiting had used that was being offered for sale, and as told in Wellesley College 1875–1975: A Century of Women: Whiting used the telescope in teaching her classe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whitin Observatory - Wellesley College - DSC09779
{{disambiguation, surname ...
Whitin can refer to * James Whitin (1814–1902), youngest son of Paul C. Whitin *Paul Whitin (1767–1831), American blacksmith *Sarah Elizabeth Whitin, benefactor of the astronomical observatory owned and operated by Wellesley College *Thomson M. Whitin (born 1923), American management scientist See also *Whitin Machine Works *Whitin Observatory *Whitinsville, Massachusetts *Whiting (other) Whiting is the name of *powdered and washed white chalk (calcium carbonate), used in metal polish, putty, and whitewash, and sometimes added to paint to improve the paint's opacity Fish *''Merlangius merlangus'', the original fish species to r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amateur Astronomers
Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers make contributions in doing citizen science, such as by monitoring variable stars, double stars, sunspots, or occultations of stars by the Moon or asteroids, or by discovering transient astronomical events, such as comets, galactic novae or supernovae in other galaxies. Amateur astronomers do not use the field of astronomy as their primary source of income or support, and usually have no professional degree in astrophysics or advanced academic training in the subject. Most amateurs are hobbyists, while others have a high degree of experience in astronomy and may often assist and work alongside professional astronomers. Many astronomers have studied the sky throughout history in an amateur framework; however, since the beginning of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1917 Deaths
Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's Desert Column. * January 10 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: Seven survivors of the Ross Sea party were rescued after being stranded for several months. * January 11 – Unknown saboteurs set off the Kingsland Explosion at Kingsland (modern-day Lyndhurst, New Jersey), one of the events leading to United States involvement in WWI. * January 16 – The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million. * January 22 – WWI: United States President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Germany. * January 25 ** WWI: British armed merchantman is sunk by mines off Lough Swilly (Ireland), with the loss of 354 of the 475 aboard. ** An anti- prostitution drive in San Francisco occurs, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1836 Births
Events January–March * January 1 – Queen Maria II of Portugal marries Prince Ferdinand Augustus Francis Anthony of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. * January 5 – Davy Crockett arrives in Texas. * January 12 ** , with Charles Darwin on board, reaches Sydney. ** Will County, Illinois, is formed. * February 8 – London and Greenwich Railway opens its first section, the first railway in London, England. * February 16 – A fire at the Lahaman Theatre in Saint Petersburg kills 126 people."Fires, Great", in ''The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance'', Cornelius Walford, ed. (C. and E. Layton, 1876) p76 * February 23 – Texas Revolution: The Battle of the Alamo begins, with an American settler army surrounded by the Mexican Army, under Santa Anna. * February 25 – Samuel Colt receives a United States patent for the Colt revolver, the first revolving barrel multishot firearm. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 census, making it the second- most populous city in New England after Boston. Worcester is approximately west of Boston, east of Springfield and north-northwest of Providence. Due to its location near the geographic center of Massachusetts, Worcester is known as the "Heart of the Commonwealth"; a heart is the official symbol of the city. Worcester developed as an industrial city in the 19th century due to the Blackstone Canal and rail transport, producing machinery, textiles and wire. Large numbers of European immigrants made up the city's growing population. However, the city's manufacturing base waned following World War II. Long-term economic and population decline was not reversed until the 1990s, when higher education, medicine, biotechnology, and new immigrants started to make their mark. The cit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baldwinville, Massachusetts
Baldwinville is an unincorporated village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Templeton in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 2,028 at the 2010 census. The name also refers to the local post office or railroad station. Geography Baldwinville is located at (42.610167, -72.075239). According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 6.5 km (2.5 mi²), of which 6.4 km (2.5 mi²) is land and 0.1 km (0.04 mi²) (0.80%) is water. Demographics At the 2000 census there were 1,852 people, 677 households, and 465 families in the CDP. The population density was 288.3/km (748.1/mi²). There were 700 housing units at an average density of 109.0/km (282.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 97.84% White, 0.16% Black or African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.49% Asian, 0.81% from other races, and 0.54% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.78%. Of the 677 h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alvan Clark & Sons
Alvan Clark & Sons was an American maker of optics that became famous for crafting lenses for some of the largest refracting telescopes of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1846 in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, by Alvan Clark (1804–1887, a descendant of Cape Cod whalers who started as a portrait painter), and his sons George Bassett Clark (1827–1891) and Alvan Graham Clark (1832–1897). Five times, the firm built the largest refracting telescopes in the world. The Clark firm gained "worldwide fame and distribution", wrote one author on astronomy in 1899. The Dearborn telescope (housed successively at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and Adler Planetarium) was commissioned in 1856 by the University of Mississippi. The outbreak of the Civil War prevented them from ever taking ownership. As a result, it was being tested in Cambridgeport when Alvan Graham observed Sirius B in 1862. In 1873 they built the objective lens for the refra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Fitz
Henry Fitz Jr. (December 31, 1808 - November 7, 1863) was an American engineer, scientist, locksmith, optician, inventor and a pioneer of photography in the United States. Personal life Fitz was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts on December 31, 1808. He married Julia Ann Wells of Southold, Long Island in June 1844. Career and death After returning from a trip in Europe in December 1839, he entered partnership with Alexander Wolcott and John Johnson to solve the problem of making daguerreotype portraits. Johnson fell ill, however, and work only resumed in January 1840. These experiments led Wolcott to patent a special mirror camera. Wolcott and Johnson opened the first photo studio in the world in March 1840. Fitz opened his own daguerreotype studio in Baltimore in June 1840. A group of daguerreotypes, from the early experimentation with Wolcott and Johnson as well as later studio portraits, were discovered and sold at auction in 2021. Fitz’s telescope business was high ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Women Astronomers
The following is a list of astronomers, astrophysicists and other notable women who have made contributions to the field of astronomy. __NOTOC__ A * Madge Adam (1912–2001), English solar astronomer * Maggie Aderin-Pocock (born 1968), English space scientist * Conny Aerts (born 1966), Belgian astrophysicist specializing in asteroseismology * Aglaonike (c. 1st or 2nd Century BCE), ancient Greek astronomer and thaumaturge * María Luisa Aguilar Hurtado (1938–2015), Peruvian astronomer * Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs (1912–1954), German variable star astronomer * Elizabeth Alexander (1908–1958), English geologist and physicist * Leah Allen (1884–1973), American astronomer and educator * Adelaide Ames (1900 - 1932), American astronomer * Anja Cetti Andersen (born 1965), Danish astronomer focused on cosmic dust * Necia H. Apfel (born 1930), American astronomer and educator * Alice Archenhold (1874–1943), German astronomer * Anne Archibald, Canadian astronomer and educator B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial grouping of elite current and former women's colleges in the northeastern United States. Wellesley's endowment of $3.226 billion is the largest out of all women's colleges and the 49th largest among all colleges and universities in the United States in 2019. Wellesley is frequently considered to be one of the best liberal arts colleges in the United States. The college is currently ranked #5 on the National Liberal Arts College list produced by ''U.S. News & World Report''. Wellesley is home to 56 departmental and interdepartmental majors spanning the liberal arts, as well as over 150 student clubs and organizations. Wellesley athletes compete in the NCAA Division III New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference. Its 500-ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warner & Swasey Company
The Warner & Swasey Company was an American manufacturer of machine tools, instruments, and special machinery. It operated as an independent business firm, based in Cleveland, from its founding in 1880 until its acquisition in 1980. It was founded as a partnership in 1880 by Worcester Reed Warner (1846–1929) and Ambrose Swasey (1846–1937). The company was best known for two general types of products: astronomical telescopes and turret lathes. It also did a large amount of instrument work, such as equipment for astronomical observatories and military instruments (rangefinders, optical gunsights, etc.) The themes that united these various lines of business were the crafts of toolmaking and instrument-making, which have often overlapped technologically. In the decades after World War II, it also entered the heavy equipment industry with its acquisition of the Gradall brand. History In 1866, Swasey and Warner met as fellow apprentices at the Exeter Machine Works in Exet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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