Variable Stars, Meridian Circle Work, and The Beginning of the Pickering Administration, 1870-1936, bulk: 1870-1905

Biography of Edward Charles Pickering

Appointed in 1877, Edward C. Pickering’s (1846 – 1919) tenure as Director of the Harvard College Observatory lasted forty-two years, a period longer than all three of his predecessors combined. Born and raised in Boston, Pickering attended Harvard University as an undergraduate, earning a B.S. in Science in 1865 when he was nineteen years old. At twenty-two, he began teaching classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and at twenty-six, Pickering became the youngest person elected as a Member of the National Academy of Sciences. He accepted the Directorship at the H.C.O. four years later. As Director, Pickering was well-known for recruiting over eighty women to work for the H.C.O. as computers, many of whom became accomplished astronomers, including: Annie Jump Cannon, Williamina Fleming, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, and Antonia Maury. Pickering solidified the purpose of the Harvard College Observatory as a research-focused institution and an ambassador to both national and international astronomical communities. In particular, he promoted research in photometry and spectroscopy. Working alongside Annie Jump Cannon and Williamina Fleming, Pickering championed the development of the Harvard Stellar Classification, which became the basis of the Henry Draper Catalog.