Background

Williamina P. Fleming was born on May 15, 1857, in Dundee, Scotland, the daughter of Robert Stevens and Mary Walker.

Education

Fleming was educated in the public schools of Dundee, Scotland.

Career

For a time Fleming was a teacher in Dundee, and in December 1878, she came to America and settled in Boston. A position accepted apparently as a means of livelihood led to a distinguished astronomical career.

Fleming entered Harvard College Observatory in 1879, as a temporary employee, and two years later was given a permanent position, with duties of copying and ordinary computing. At this time photography, after years of experimenting, was being adapted as a means of systematic astronomical research. Short-focus cameras, to take a plate covering a large area of the sky, were soon accumulating a permanent record of celestial phenomena; a large prism placed in front of an object glass made it possible to photograph on one plate the spectra of a great number of stars.

Mrs. Fleming was put in charge of the ever-growing photographic library, with responsibility for indexing and examining the plates. This was a new field with few precedents. No one could tell her what she would find.

Her most important work was done with the objective-prism plates. While the stellar spectra could be classified in a general way in Secchi’s four types, it was soon found in the course of this work that many of the spectra have intermediate characteristics and that there is no definite break in the transition from one type to the next. The number of types was very considerably increased. Each spectrum on each plate was examined with a magnifying glass. The resulting classification of 10, 351 stars is published in the "Draper Catalogue of Stellar Spectra". Spectra which did not fit into the classification were marked on the plate as "peculiar. "

Mrs. Fleming was at work on a "Memoir on Peculiar Spectra" when she was stricken with her last illness. Her suspicions aroused by the peculiarities she observed, she discovered ten nova and over two hundred variable stars. She found that stars with banded spectra and bright lines were practically sure to be variables, a generalization which has been amply substantiated. She was not content, however, with discovery alone, but in order to facilitate the determination of the characteristics of their light- variation, she undertook the very laborious work of measuring the positions and magnitudes of sequences of comparison stars for each of 222 of the variable stars she had discovered. Williamina P. Fleming died on May 21, 1911, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Achievements

• Her career achievements made a major contribution in the advancement of astronomy and, in addition to being noted for her discovery of the Horsehead Nebula in 1888, Williamina Paton Fleming helped develop a common designation system for stars and cataloging thousands of stars and other astronomical phenomena. The lunar crater Fleming was jointly named after her and (not closely related) Alexander Fleming.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Stars having peculiar spectra
  • A photographic study of variable stars forming a part of the Henry Draper memorial
  • Spectra and photographic magnitudes of stars in standard regions

Membership

Williamina P. Fleming was made an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society of London.

Personality

Williamina Fleming was gifted with keenness of vision, a clear and logical mind, courage and independence.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Mrs. Fleming was possessed of an extremely magnetic personality and an attractive countenance, enlivened by remarkably bright eyes. .. Her bright face, her attractive manner, and her cheery greeting with its charming Scotch accent will long be remembered". (Doctor Annie J. Cannon)

Connections

In 1877 Williamina P. Stevens married James Orr Fleming. The couple had one son.

Father:

Robert Stevens

Mother:

Mary Stevens (Walker)

Son:

Edward P. Fleming

husband:

James Orr Fleming