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Dava Sobel

The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars Hardcover – December 6, 2016

by Dava Sobel (Author)

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From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dava Sobel, the "inspiring" (People), little-known true story of women's landmark contributions to astronomy

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book

Named one of the best books of the year by NPR, The Economist, Smithsonian, Nature, and NPR's Science Friday

Nominated for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

"A joy to read.” —The Wall Street Journal

In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or “human computers,” to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. At the outset this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of the resident astronomers, but soon the female corps included graduates of the new women's colleges—Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the ladies turned from computation to studying the stars captured nightly on glass photographic plates.

The “glass universe” of half a million plates that Harvard amassed over the ensuing decades—through the generous support of Mrs. Anna Palmer Draper, the widow of a pioneer in stellar photography—enabled the women to make extraordinary discoveries that attracted worldwide acclaim. They helped discern what stars were made of, divided the stars into meaningful categories for further research, and found a way to measure distances across space by starlight. Their ranks included Williamina Fleming, a Scottish woman originally hired as a maid who went on to identify ten novae and more than three hundred variable stars; Annie Jump Cannon, who designed a stellar classification system that was adopted by astronomers the world over and is still in use; and Dr. Cecilia Helena Payne, who in 1956 became the first ever woman professor of astronomy at Harvard—and Harvard’s first female department chair.

Elegantly written and enriched by excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, The Glass Universe is the hidden history of the women whose contributions to the burgeoning field of astronomy forever changed our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Viking
Publication date

December 6, 2016
Dimensions

6.31 x 1.14 x 9.31 inches
ISBN-10

0670016950
ISBN-13

978-0670016952
Lexile measure

1330L
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Railroad heiress Anna Draper was introduced to a love of the stars by her husband, Dr. Henry Draper, whose stellar photography was recognized throughout the United States. After his death, Anna Draper wished to continue his work photographing stars and reached out to one of his many prominent scientific colleagues, Edward Pickering, a professor at the Harvard College Observatory. Henry Draper's work reflected the changes in the late 1800s in the field of astronomy as advancements in photography improved the quality of stellar images. As technology progressed, more people were needed to analyze and preserve the images. The Harvard College Observatory expanded their staff (previously only men) to include the wives and other family members of the astronomers working at Harvard; eventually graduates of women's colleges such as Vassar, Radcliffe, and Wellesley were employed as well. The women were originally hired as human calculators, but their roles grew to encompass cataloging the images as well as participating in the astronomical studies conducted by the male astronomers. Over time, the women's contributions to the field of astronomy ranged from identifying new stars to developing a stellar classification system that is still in use today. Relying on primary source materials such as letters and memoirs, Sobel crafts a story that illuminates the crucial role women played in the scientific community. VERDICT Teens interested in astronomy and the recent Hidden Figures will be fascinated by the work and discoveries made by these ambitious and talented women.—Lynn Rashid, Marriotts Ridge High School, Marriottsville, MD

Review

Named one of the best books of the month by Flavorwire, Bustle, Harper’s Bazaar, Real Simple, Refinery29, Men’s Journal, BBC, and The National Book Review

“Ms. Sobel writes with an eye for a telling detail and an ear for an elegant turn of phrase. . . . [The Glass Universe is] a joy to read.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Sobel lucidly captures the intricate, interdependent constellation of people it took to unlock mysteries of the stars . . . The Glass Universe positively glows.” —NPR

“An elegant historical tale…[from] the master storyteller of astronomy.” –The Boston Globe

"Sobel mixes discussions of the most abstruse topics with telling glimpses of her subjects’ lives, in the process showing how scientific and social progress often go hand in hand." –The New Yorker

"A peerless intellectual biography. The Glass Universe shines and twinkles as brightly as the stars themselves. –The Economist

“At once an exhaustive and detailed account of a breakthrough moment in the world of science, as well as a compelling portrait of pioneering women who contributed as much to the progress of female empowerment as they did to the global understanding of both astronomy and photography.” —Harper’s Bazaar

"[Sobel] traces a remarkable line in American female achievement…[and] captures the stalwart spirit of Pickering’s female finds." —USA Today

“Sobel has distinguished herself with lucid books about scientists and their discoveries . . . [She] vividly captures how her brilliant and ambitious protagonists charted the skies, and found personal fulfillment in triumphant discovery.” —The National Book Review

“A fascinating and inspiring tale of . . . female pioneers who have been shamefully overlooked.” —Real Simple

"Sobel shines a light on seven 19th- and 20th-century women astronomers who began as 'human computers,' interpreting data at Harvard Observatory, then went on to dazzle...An inspiring look at celestial pioneers." —People

"An astronomically large topic generously explored." —O, The Oprah Magazine

"It takes a talented writer to interweave professional achievement with personal insight. By the time I finished The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel's wonderful, meticulous account, it had moved me to tears...Unforgettable." —Sue Nelson, Nature

"A compelling read and a welcome reminder that American women have long desired to reach for the stars.” —Bookpage

"Sensitive, exacting, and lit with the wonder of discovery." —Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction

"This is intellectual history at its finest. Dava Sobel is extraordinarily accomplished at uncovering the hidden stories of science." —Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Chord and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March

“[Sobel] soars higher than ever before...[continuing] her streak of luminous science writing with this fascinating, witty, and most elegant history...The Glass Universe is a feast for those eager to absorb forgotten stories of resolute American women who expanded human knowledge." —Booklist, Starred Review

"Sobel knows how to tell an engaging story...With grace, clarity, and a flair for characterization, [she] places these early women astronomers in the wider historical context of their field for the very first time." —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Praise for The Planets

"[The Planets] lets us fall in love with the heavens all over again." —The New York Times Book Review

"[Sobel] has outdone her extraordinary talent for keeping readers enthralled. . . . A splendid and enticing book." —San Francisco Chronicle

"An incantatory serenade to the Solar System." —Entertainment Weekly

Praise for Galileo's Daughter

"Sobel is a master storyteller. . . . She brings a great scientist to life." —The New York Times Book Review

Praise for Longitude

"This is a gem of a book." —The New York Times

"A simple tale, brilliantly told." —The Washington Post

Praise for A More Perfect Heaven

"Ms. Sobel is an elegant stylist, a riveting and efficient storyteller, a writer who can bring the dustiest of subjects to full-blooded life." —The New York Times

"Lively, inventive . . . a masterly specimen of close-range cultural history."—The Wall Street Journal

About the Author

DAVA SOBEL is the author of five books, including the New York Times bestsellers Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter, The Planets, and The Glass Universe. A former New York Times science reporter and longtime contributor to The New Yorker, Audubon, Discover, and Harvard Magazine, she is the recipient of the National Science Board’s Individual Public Service Award and the Boston Museum of Science’s Bradford Washburn Award, among others.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Miss Cannon had classified one hundred thousand stars when she set the work aside to spend the summer of 1913 in Europe with her sister, Mrs. Marshall. They planned to attend three major astronomy meetings on the continent, plus all the banquets, garden parties, excursions, and entertainments that such international congresses entailed. On her previous trip to Europe, with her friend and Wellesley classmate Sarah Potter in 1892, Miss Cannon had made the grand tour of popular tourist destinations, camera in hand. This time she would go as a respected astronomer and the only female officer in her professional organization. At the 1912 meeting of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, the members had voted to change their name to the American Astronomical Society and to make her their treasurer. Now she would seek out her foreign colleagues, many of whom she knew only by reputation or correspondence, in their native settings.

“There are no women assistants,” Miss Cannon noted of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Travel broadened her appreciation for the singularity of Harvard’s large female staff, although she easily befriended men wherever she went. At Greenwich, “Without the slightest feeling of being out of place, without the smallest tinge of embarrassment, I discussed absorbing work with one and another.” That evening the astronomer royal, Frank Dyson, called for Miss Cannon and Mrs. Marshall at their London hotel and escorted them to a soiree at Burlington House, the headquarters of the Royal Astronomical Society and four other scientific fraternities. “Never has it been my good fortune to have such a kindly greeting, such hearty good will, such wonderful feeling of equality in the great world of research as among these great Englishmen.” At the society’s meeting a few days later, she gave a formal presentation about her recent investigation into the spectra of gaseous nebulae.

Mrs. Marshall understandably avoided the scientific sessions, at which Miss Cannon inured herself to being the sole woman in a roomful of as many as ninety men. In Germany, she reported, “Not a single German woman attended these Hamburg meetings” of the Astronomische Gesellschaft. “Once or twice, two or three would come in for a few minutes but I was generally the only woman to sit through a session. This was not so pleasant but at the recesses the men were so kind that nothing seemed to matter, and at the luncheon women appeared in great numbers.”

In Bonn, where the Solar Union gathered from July 30 to August 5, the astronomers were treated to a flyby visit of a military zeppelin, a side trip to the Gothic cathedral at Cologne, a riverboat ride up the Rhine, and a gala night in the Bonn observatory that prompted the English-speaking delegates to sing “They Are Jolly Good Fellows” to Director Friedrich Küstner and his wife and daughters. “Luncheon and indeed all meals in Germany,” observed Canadian astrophysicist John Stanley Plaskett, “are a much more important and solemn function than with us and take at least twice the time.”

Pickering, an elder statesman in this community, spoke at several banquets during the week. He shared impressions of his previous stays in Bonn, a city he had long regarded as the world capital of photometry. It was here that the legendary Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander assembled the Bonner Durchmusterung star catalogue and perfected the Argelander method of studying variables by comparing them to their steady neighbors. Argelander’s own small telescope, still mounted at the Bonn observatory, proved an object of veneration for the visiting astronomers.

Only about half the members of Pickering’s Committee on Spectral Classification, first convened at Mount Wilson, had come to the Bonn meeting. Those present included Henry Norris Russell, Karl Schwarzschild, Herbert Hall Turner, and of course Küstner, of the local observatory. They met Thursday afternoon, July 31, to polish their report before Friday’s discussion and vote. The group had considered incorporating some symbols into the Draper classification that would account for the widths of spectral lines, but ultimately rejected the idea. Rather than retrofit the Draper system, they preferred to look forward and explore the possibility of an entirely new design for stellar taxonomy.

On Friday morning Chairman Pickering read the committee’s recommendation to the full assembly at the Physical Institute. He proposed postponing “the permanent and universal adoption” of any system until the committee could formulate a suitable revision. In the interim, however, everyone should foster the well-known and widely praised Draper classification. Approval of the resolution was swift and unanimous. Ditto the subresolution regarding a refinement originally suggested by Ejnar Hertzsprung and already practiced by Miss Cannon. It consisted of a zero subscript for lone letters. Going forward, A0 would denote a star of purely A‑category attributes, showing no B tendencies whatever. The new A0 reduced plain A to a “rough” categorization.

At the final session on August 5, the Solar Union dissolved its old committees and regrouped into new ones for the work to be done over the next three years, before they would all meet again in Rome. “When the names of committees were read,” wrote Miss Cannon, “I was very much surprised to find that I was put on the Committee on Classification of Stellar Spectra—and one of the novel experiences of the summer was to meet with this Committee. They sat at a long table, these men of many nations, and I was the only woman. Since I have done almost all the world’s work in this one branch, it was necessary for me to do most of the talking.”

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking; 1st edition (December 6, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0670016950
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0670016952
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1330L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.31 x 1.14 x 9.31 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #330,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #685 in Astronomy (Books)
- #1,636 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)
- #2,004 in Women in History

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Dava Sobel

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Dava Sobel (born June 15, 1947, The Bronx, New York) is an American writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. Her books include Longitude, about English clockmaker John Harrison, and Galileo's Daughter, about Galileo's daughterMaria Celeste.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Ragesoss (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Meribeth Meixner Reed, PhD

I am a fan because I have enjoyed Sobel's Longitude and Galileo's Daughter many times each

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2017

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Meribeth Meixner Reed, PhD
6 June 2017

Sobel, Dava. (2016). The Glass Universe: How the ladies of the Harvard Observatory took the measure of the stars. New York, NY: Viking.

Women's expeditions into advanced mathematics and science are not the same as men's. That was notoriously true in 19th and 20th century America, as gate-keepers protecting the realm of men (while ostensibly and disingenuously protecting the fairer sex) unapologetically denied gender equality. Recall that before 1920, women in most of the US did not have the right to vote.

Glass Universe is an important women's history overlaid on a history of astronomy and astrophysics. The title refers to the half million glass photographic plates on which stellar observations were recorded, and the subtitle reveals the subject of Dava Sobel's exploration, developed through a series of biographies. A chronologic approach was taken, focusing on several key players with a large supporting cast, while the observatory is the stage.

Award-winning science writer Sobel introduces a cadre of astronomers previously known to few of us, although their discoveries and taxonomies are fundamental today. I am a fan because I have enjoyed Sobel's Longitude and Galileo's Daughter many times each. Her research is rigorous, and she treats her subject astronomers with admiration and love, describing women pioneers in photography; spectroscopy; stellar origins, evolution, and chemistry; and astrophysics. Positions of primacy are given to Williamina Fleming (1857-1911), who devised a classification scheme for stars and discovered more than 300 variable stars; and Antonia Maury (1866-1952), whose enhanced spectral classification scheme based on improvements in photography distinguished between giant and dwarf stars, and who identified spectroscopic binaries.

Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921) established a system to measure distances across space based on the brightness of stars, and her co-worker of two decades, Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941) classified and cataloged the light spectra of hundreds of thousands of stars. Cannon also mentored Cecilia Payne (Gaposchkin)(1900-1979), who revealed the physical and chemical nature of stars, the articulation of physics and astronomy, or astrophysics. Hers was the first PhD in Astronomy conferred by Harvard/Radcliffe (1925). Heiresses Anna Palmer Draper (1839-1914) and Catherine Wolfe Bruce (1816-1900) also advanced astronomy as generous benefactors.

Reading this book required three and four bookmarks. The text is 323 pages, including bibliography and index. There is so much information -- unwrapping the life stories of many astronomers -- that I frequently flipped back and forth between sections to help me distinguish between individuals. An extensive timeline is concealed under the title Highlights of the Observatory (pp. 273-279), and that was important to bookmark, as is the alphabetic catalog of astronomers and others (pp. 285-292), and the glossary located between them. Six color photos are centered in the book, which includes 20 pictures of the visionaries. But the unconventional lack of scholarly references and citations is not explained, despite the wide use of quotations, and it is not clear why the academic title Dr. was so seldom and inconsistently used.

Through this book, Sobel opened a new universe for me, sending me searching for more information on these fascinating women of science. These astronomers who changed our understanding of the universe demonstrated resilience in the face of denied academic degrees, titles, awards, positions, and reasonable pay based explicitly on their gender, even as they published seminal works in the science.

Like artists, scientists pursue original thoughts and intellectual challenges. The interpretation of findings and written expression are steps in a solitary creative endeavor. They must have great faith in those to whom they reveal and entrust their discoveries. I imagine these pioneers created a supportive environment for each other, a privileged sisterhood, enabling them to retain their unique positions in the observatory and the academy, fully aware that most women were denied access to such work and study. And they were probably not surprised when others took credit for their work. Yet the women remained committed to expanding, generating, and then sharing knowledge. They were as brilliant as the stars they were measuring in as many dimensions.

7 people found this helpful

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Everything I Expect from Sobel's Work!

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2017

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In "The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars", Dava Sobel examines the spectroscopy work performed at Harvard under the auspices of the Henry Draper Memorial. Sobel's narrative begins with the work of Draper, who took spectroscopic photographs of the stars through a telescope, but died before having the opportunity to examine them. His widow, wishing to see the work completed, endowed the Harvard Observatory with a grant to catalogue the images and make further photographic and spectroscopic examinations, leading to the discovery of the chemical nature of the stars. Sobel's work examines the lives and work of the women who worked as computers, counting the Fraunhofer lines on the stellar spectra and creating a system to interpret it. Most interesting of all, despite working in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in a field dominated by men, the ladies and their contributions were recognized both in the United States and abroad. Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming, who worked as a maid before establishing a system to classify the stars, and Annie Jump Cannon, a Wellesley graduate, both stand out in this narrative for their dedication and exactitude in their work as well as their lasting contributions to science. The history Sobel examines is fundamental to our understanding of the universe and so has appeared before, in "Cosmos" and Alan Hirshfeld's "Starlight Detectives", but her examination brings an unprecedented level of detail that demonstrates the significance of the women of the Harvard Observatory in their own time along with the challenges they faced, often working on a shoestring budget or without pay. Beyond her subjects' research, Sobel explores the nature of academia and academic funding in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, showing how research that would easily receive university and financial support in the twentieth century struggled at times in the era on which she focuses. Sobel's title refers to the massive collection of glass photographic plates accumulated in the Harvard collection as a result of their research (pg. 203). The research and writing are everything readers expect of Sobel and a delight to delve into, sharing in her narrative. Though unrelated to Sobel's work, the appearance of the book is rather lovely as well.

2 people found this helpful

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Alan Witzgall

Best contribution to the history of astronomy to date!

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2021

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Dava Sobel did it again! Her history of women's contribution to the study of astrophysics and stellar evolution in the early 20th century is a masterpiece! She has created a wonderful mix of science, personalities, and women's issues then and now (that is only today being recognized and corrected).
I fully recommend this book to all who want the true backstories of what and how we know and can fully appreciate the contributions of women to the sciences. - APW

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G. L. Russell

Fascinating account of womens' contributions to astrophysics

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2018

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I had high expectations of this book and it didn't disappoint. This is a very readable account of how a group of women, encouraged by enlightened directors, performed ground-breaking work in the new discipline of astrophysics. Nerdy as it may appear, I found this book to be a page turner.

Oldprof

The place of women in the study of our universe.

Reviewed in Canada on February 6, 2017

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This is an extraordinary tale of how a group of ladies worked together and helped to produce much of the data on which our understanding of the universe progressed in the 19th and 20th centuries. This book is another fine history of otherwise poorly publicised scientific endeavours and is of the same great standard as Dava Sobel's "Galileo's daughter" and "Longitude". It is recommended reading for general interest as well as the proper place of women in the advancement of science. I look forward to her next book!!

One person found this helpful

roderick garland

Ladies Rule the Universe

Reviewed in Canada on June 30, 2022

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These ladies weren't men's equals, they were superior, pioneering scientific advances into the realm of the new astronomical knowledge of the Universe. Great and easy read.

antedeluvian

Heavy going

Reviewed in Canada on May 18, 2018

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I found this book to be slow reading.

Nowhere near as good as her book "Longitude".

Kindle Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on January 23, 2017

Verified Purchase

A fascinating story, very well told!

One person found this helpful

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The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars Hardcover – December 6, 2016

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