Annie Jump Cannon (1863 - 1941)
Astronomer
Introduction
Annie was an American astronomers whosecataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification. She is credited with the creation of the Harvard Classification Schemes, which was the first attempt to organize and classify stars based on their temperatures and spectral types. She was nearly deaf throughout her career as a result of scarlet fever. However, it made her immerse more in her exploration of Astronomy.
Cannon was born on December 11, 1863. Cannon’s interests in constellations was nurtured by her mother. Cannon's mother was the first person to teach her the constellations and she encouraged her to follow her own interests, suggesting that she pursue studies in mathematics, chemistry, and biology at Wellesley College. After she contracted scarlet fever, her hearing declined from year to year, but her interest in astronomy never declined.
She began studying photography, began teachingat Wellesley, and continued her studies in astronomy at Radcliffe. She and another Deaf woman (Henrietta Swan Leavitt) were employed as assistants at the Harvard College Observatory, where she catalogued more than 350,000 stars, created a stellar classification system to explain them, found new stars and novas, and organized astronomical images.
She was the first female dean of astronomers and the first woman to get an honorary degree from Oxford University. She also received other awards. She is commemorated by the names Cannonia, an asteroid, and Cannon, a lunar crater.Difficulty and how to overcome
When Annie was still a child, she had a cold, which made her can hear less and less. In this case, she can only read other people’s lips, which made her that sometimes she may miss something when she was learning. Also, as a woman at that period, although she had the talent and passion to study astronomy, she could not fully contact advanced research and studying opportunity. However, she successfully worked as a researcher in the Harvard College Laboratory at the end because of her talent and her passion. Annie won a lot of awards during her research experience in Harvard College, but in fact most of awards were from places and people outside of where she worked since she was a deaf and women. She finally got an award from Harvard at the end of her career. It was the William Cranch Bond Astronomer Award.
Without a hearing aid, Cannon had total deafness her whole professional life. When Cannon was being considered for election to the National Academy of Sciences, Johns Hopkins professor Raymond Pearl said he could not vote for her since she was deaf. In any case, it took until 1978 for the first female astronomer to be elected to the academy.
Her work and way of life served as an example for other women who went on to commit their lives to science and, for many, chose careers in astronomy.
Passion:
After she returned home Annie created a booklet of photos and prose from her trip. It was published by the Blair Company and was used as a souvenir for the Chicago World Fair in 1893. It was titled In the Footsteps of Columbus. While at home Annie became unhappy with the way her life was heading and wrote the following in her journal:I am sometimes very dissatisfied with my life here. I do want to accomplish something, so badly. There are so many things that I could do if I only had the money. And when I think that I might be teaching and making money, and still all the time improving myself it makes me feel unhappy and as if I were not doing all that I can.
Annie Cannon lead a very full life. She traveled extensively, entertained many guests, wrote letters avidly and was an accomplished pianist. She was also an advocate for women's suffrage and a member of the National Women's party. Through out her life Annie was dedicated to education, self betterment and learning while always sharing her findings with others. Late in life Annie said, “In our troubled days it is good to have something outside our planet, something fine and distant for comfort.”
