Mary Ackworth Evershed

Background

Mary Acworth Orr was born to Lucy Acworth and Andrew Orr on 1 January 1867. Her father was an officer in the Royal Artillery. Mary grew up in Wimborne and South Stoke in Somerset.

Career

Her work on Dante Alighieri was written under the pen name Master of Arts Orr. In 1890 Orr moved with her family to Australia. She found there was no good guide to the southern stars, so prepared An Easy Guide to the Southern Stars, with the encouragement of John Tebbutt, the leading astronomer in Australia at the time.

In 1895, she moved back to England and joined the British Astronomical Association, which at the time enjoyed membership from many intellectual women barred from the (then) all-male Royal Astronomical Society.

Orr met British fellow astronomer John Evershed when they both participated in an expedition to view a total solar eclipse in Norway in 1896. The two married in 1906.

Up to this time Evershed had worked as an industrial chemist, with solar physics as a hobby, but in 1906 was offered a post as assistant astronomer at Kodaikanal Observatory in India. Mary and John moved to Kodaikanal (visiting notable astronomical locations in the United States on the way) to allow him to take up the post in 1907.

While in India, Mary collected plants from the region, which were ultimately deposited in the British Museum herbarium.

Throughout her life, Evershed traveled to numerous solar eclipses, including Norway in 1896, Algiers in 1900, Western Australia in 1922, Yorkshire in 1927, and Greece/Aegean Sea in 1936. She directed the Historical Section of the British Astronomical Association from 1930 to 1944. Evershed was also greatly interested in poetry, and while she loved Dante"s work, she was worried about his cosmography.

Her 1914 book Dante and the Early Astronomers helped clarify Dante"s science, as accurate as it could be given existing knowledge.

Achievements

• 1924 - Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Dante and the early astronomers

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Dante and the early astronomers FACSIMILE

    (FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION: 1913Dante and the early astronome...)

Membership

Royal Society.