Evelyn Leland facts for kids

Harvard computers. Back row (L to R): Margaret Harwood (far left), Mollie O'Reilly, Edward C. Pickering, Edith Gill, Annie Jump Cannon, Evelyn Leland (behind Cannon), Florence Cushman, Marion Whyte (behind Cushman), Grace Brooks. Front row: Arville Walker, unknown (possibly Johanna Mackie), Alta Carpenter, Mabel Gill, Ida Woods. Image courtesy of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The photograph was taken on 13 May 1913.

Evelyn Frances Leland was an American astronomer born around 1870 and who died around 1930. She was one of the "Harvard Computers". These were women who worked at the Harvard College Observatory with Edward Charles Pickering. Evelyn Leland worked there for a long time, from 1889 to 1925. She was part of a team of assistants who were paid very little, starting at just 25 cents an hour.

What Were Harvard Computers?

The Harvard College Observatory studied the stars. They needed many calculations to understand what they saw. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, there were no electronic computers. So, people had to do all the math by hand. The women who did this important work were called "computers." They processed huge amounts of data.

Evelyn Leland's Work with Stars

Evelyn Leland and the other Harvard Computers did very careful work. They looked at special glass plates. These plates had images of light from distant stars. The light was captured at a station in Peru and then sent to Harvard.

Leland's job was to measure and calculate how bright the light from stars was. She also helped discover new variable stars. These are stars whose brightness changes over time. She found other interesting objects in space too, which had "peculiar spectra" (unusual light patterns). She also helped write and publish scientific papers with others at the observatory.

See also

• Evelyn Leland para niños