Francis Preserved Leavenworth was an American astronomer and teacher. He was a director of the observatory at Haverford College from 1887 to 1892 and a professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at the University of Minnesota from 1892 to 1927.
Background
Francis Preserved Leavenworth was born at Mount Vernon, Indiana, the son of Seth Marshall and Sarah (Nettleton) Leavenworth. He was a descendant of Thomas Leavenworth who emigrated from England to America after 1664 and died at Woodbury, Connecticut, August 3, 1683.
Education
Francis had a public-school education, and entered the University of Indiana in 1876, graduating in 1880 with the degree of B. A. At the university Leavenworth came into contact with Prof. Daniel Kirkwood, the astronomer, and after graduation he spent a year of study under Ormond Stone at the Cincinnati Observatory.
Career
In 1881, when Stone became director of the new Leander McCormick Observatory of the University of Virginia, he took Leavenworth with him as assistant. Leavenworth held this position from 1881 to 1887, doing also some graduate work in the university.
In 1887 he was called to Haverford College as director of the observatory, for which a 10-inch telescope had been recently acquired. From Haverford, he was called in 1892 to the University of Minnesota as professor of astronomy and director of the new observatory, which was to have, as its chief instrument, a 101/2-inch telescope. Here he remained until his retirement in 1927. During the second semester of 1918 he was in Duluth on leave of absence to teach navigation in the Shipping Board's nautical school.
His main career was in teaching, for which profession he was well suited. Several of his many students went on to do graduate work in other institutions and became professional astronomers. He found time, however, for some valuable research. The observation of double stars was evidently his chief interest, and this he carried on at Cincinnati, McCormick, Haverford, and Minnesota observatories, as well as at Goodsell and Yerkes, where he spent several summers. His other observations include the discovery and measurement of 250 nebulae; the visual observation of four double stars for relative parallax; photographic observation of the asteroid Eros in the 1901 campaign to determine the parallax of the sun; the observation of brightness of Nova Aquilae No. 3, and of many variable stars. He was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a member of the American Astronomical Society.
Achievements
Membership
Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
Member of the American Astronomical Society
Connections
On October 11, 1883, Leavenworth married Jennie Campbell of Louisville, Kentucky. They had three children.