Born March 21, 1866, in New York, Antonia Maury was born into a family with an astronomical legacy: Her grandfather, John William Draper, was the second person to photograph the Moon (and the first whose photo survived to be shown publicly). Her uncle and aunt, Henry and Anna Draper, made several landmark astrophotographs themselves and were pioneers in stellar spectroscopy. After Henry’s death at only 45, Anna sponsored the work of the Harvard College Observatory to catalog stellar spectrums.
Maury attended Vassar and studied with Maria Mitchell, graduating in 1887 with a degree in physics, astronomy, and philosophy. The following year, Edward Pickering hired her to work on the Henry Draper Memorial stellar spectroscopy project. There she devoted years to studying stellar spectra, and devised her own system for classifying stars; though Pickering rejected it, it would be key to Ejnar Hertzsprung later creating the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
Often frustrated by lack of recognition for her work, Maury left Harvard several times to teach. When she published her catalog of northern stars in the Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, Maury insisted on receiving credit; she became the first woman with her name on the title page of the Annals. She would later become a professor at Harvard until her retirement in 1935. She received the American Astronomical Society’s Annie Jump Cannon Award in 1943, and passed away on Jan. 8, 1952.
