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Agnes Mary Clerke

October 15, 2023

Agnes Mary Clerke (10 February 1842 – 20 January 1907) was an Irish astronomer and writer, mainly in the field of astronomy. She was born in Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland, and died in London.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Agnes Mary Clerke
Born(1842-02-10)10 February 1842
Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland
Died20 January 1907(1907-01-20) (aged 64)
London

Family Edit

Agnes Clerke was the daughter of John William Clerke (c. 1814–1890) who was, at the time, a bank manager in Skibbereen,[8] and his wife Catherine Mary Deasy (born circa 1819) whose father was a judge's registrar.[9][10] She had two siblings; her older sister, Ellen Mary (1840-1906) and her younger brother, Aubrey St. John (1843-1923).[11] Her elder sister Ellen also wrote about astronomy.[12] All of the Clerke children were entirely home schooled.[11]

Catherine Clerke had been educated at the Ursuline Convent, and therefore placed a great deal of importance on the education of young girls. [13]

Life and work Edit

Following in her father's footsteps — while studying classics, he had also taken courses in astronomy — she developed an interest in astronomy from an early age, using her father's 4-inch telescope in her observations and had begun to write a history of astronomy at the age of 15.[8]

In 1861, aged 19, her family moved to Dublin, and in 1863 to Queenstown (present-day Cobh). At the age of 25, partly for health reasons[14] together with her elder sister Ellen, she went to Italy where she stayed until 1877, chiefly at Florence, studying science, languages, and other subjects that would be useful in their later lives. In 1877, she settled in London.[8]

Upon her return, she was able to get two articles, "Brigandage in Sicily" and "Copernicus in Italy", written while she had been in Italy, published in the Edinburgh Review of October 1877. This led to her being asked by Adam and Charles Black, publishers of the Review, who also published the Encyclopædia Britannica, to write biographies of a number of famous scientists for the ninth edition of the encyclopedia.[15]

This led to a number of other commissions, including the publication of the article on astronomy for the Catholic Encyclopedia.[8]

During her career she wrote reviews of many books, including some written in French, German, Greek, or Italian.[16] In 1885, she published her best known work, A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century.[8] This book became commonly used for its discussion of the spectroscope.[17]

In 1888 she spent three months at the observatory at the Cape of Good Hope.[17]

In the autumn of 1890, Clerke and her brother Aubrey were founding members of the British Astronomical Association.[18]

In 1893, Clerke was awarded the Actonian Prize of 100 guineas by the Royal Institution. As a member of the British Astronomical Association she attended its meetings regularly, as well as those of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1903, with Margaret Lindsay Huggins, she was elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society, a rank previously held only by three other women, Caroline Herschel and Mary Somerville (in 1835), and Anne Sheepshanks (in 1862).[19]

She died of pneumonia in 1907 at her home in South Kensington.[17]

Personal life Edit

Agnes and Ellen were devout Catholics all their lives. Neither ever married.[20]

Legacy Edit

The lunar crater Clerke is named after her.[21]

In 2002, Mary Brück wrote Agnes Mary Clerke and the Rise of Astrophysics.[22]

In 2017, the Royal Astronomical Society established the Agnes Clerke Medal for the History of Astronomy or Geophysics, which is awarded to individuals who have achieved outstanding research into the history of astronomy or geophysics.[23] The first recipient was Clive Ruggles.[24]

In 2022 Jessie Kennedy and the Celestial Quartet performed a concert in Skibbereen in honour of Clerke. The performance included songs specially composed by Jessie Kennedy and by Tess Leak, using words of Agnes and her sister, Ellen, and a cello trio, the Agnes Clerke Cello Trio, composed by Diana Llewellyn.[25]

Selected writings Edit

  • A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century. Edinburgh, 1885 (4th rev. ed. London, 1902)
  • The System of the Stars. London, 1890 (2nd ed. London, 1905)
  • The Herschels and Modern Astronomy. London, 1895
  • The Concise Knowledge Astronomy (co-authored with John Ellard Gore and Alfred Fowler). London, 1898
  • Problems in Astrophysics. London, 1903[26]

She also wrote 55 articles for the Edinburgh Review, mainly on subjects connected with astrophysics, and articles for the Dictionary of National Biography, the Encyclopædia Britannica and the Catholic Encyclopedia, and several other periodicals. Her articles in the ninth edition (1875–89) of the Britannica included Galileo Galilei, Alexander von Humboldt, Johannes Kepler, Antoine Lavoisier and the zodiac.[15]

References Edit

  1. ^ For details of the life and work of Agnes Clerk, see Weitzenhoffer, Kenneth (1985). "The Prolific Pen of Agnes Clerke". Sky and Telescope. 70 (9): 211–212. Bibcode:1985S&T....70..211W.
  2. ^ Huggins, Margaret L. (1907). "Agnes Mary Clerke". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 67 (4): 230–231. Bibcode:1907MNRAS..67..230.. doi:10.1093/mnras/67.4.230.
  3. ^ "Obituary–Agnes Mary Clerke". The Observatory. 30: 107–108. 1907. Bibcode:1907Obs....30..107.
  4. ^ Lynn, William T. (1907). "Miss Agnes Mary Clerke". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 17 (4): 188–189. Bibcode:1907JBAA...17..188.
  5. ^ Huggins, Margaret L. (1907). "Agnes Mary Clerke". Astrophysical Journal. 25 (3): 226–230. Bibcode:1907ApJ....25..226H. doi:10.1086/141436.
  6. ^ Dent, Elsie A. (1907). "Agnes Mary Clerke". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 1 (2): 81–84. Bibcode:1907JRASC...1...81D.
  7. ^ See, Thomas J. J. (1907). "Some Recollections of Miss Agnes M. Clerke". Popular Astronomy. 15 (6): 323–326. Bibcode:1907PA.....15..323S.
  8. ^ a b c d e O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Agnes Mary Clerke", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  9. ^ "Miss Agnes Mary Clerke (transcription)". The Times. No. 38236. London. 22 January 1907. p. 12; col D. Retrieved 6 December 2008.
  10. ^ England 1871 census Class: RG10; Piece: 870; Folio: 118; Page: 24; GSU roll: 827769.
  11. ^ a b Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy, eds. (1 January 2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science A-K. Vol. 1. Routledge: New York and London. pp. 269–271. ISBN 978-0-415-92039-1.
  12. ^ Clerke, Ellen (1893). The Planet Venus. London: Witherby and Sons. pp. 59 p. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  13. ^ "Irish Female Scientists You Should Know | Connolly Cove". 28 September 2020. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  14. ^ Cliver, E W (2007). "Agnes Mary Clerke: Real—time historian of astronomy". Astronomy & Geophysics. 48 (3): 25–26. Bibcode:2007A&G....48c..25C. doi:10.1111/j.1468-4004.2007.48325.x.
  15. ^ a b Important Contributors to the Britannica, 9th and 10th Editions Important Contributors to the Britannica, 9th and 10th Editions, 1902encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  16. ^ Brake, Laurel; Demoor, Marysa, eds. (2009). "Clerke, Agnes Mary". Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. Academia Press. pp. 127–128. ISBN 9789038213408.
  17. ^ a b c Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey (1986). Women in science : antiquity through the nineteenth century : a biographical dictionary with annotated bibliography. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. pp. 59–60. ISBN 0-585-34792-1. OCLC 47008020.
  18. ^ "1907JBAA...17..188. Page 188". articles.adsabs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  19. ^ Bailey, Mandy (2016). "Women and the RAS: 100 years of Fellowship". Astronomy and Geophysics. 57 (1): 19–21. Bibcode:2016A&G....57a1.19B. doi:10.1093/astrogeo/atw037.
  20. ^ The Messenger Monthly Magazine 1907
  21. ^ Haines, Catharine (2001). International women in science: a biographical dictionary to 1950. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-57607-090-1. madge adam oxford.
  22. ^ Brück, Mary T. (2002). Agnes Mary Clerke and the Rise of Astrophysics. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Bibcode:2002amcr.book.....B. ISBN 978-0521808446.
  23. ^ Bowler, Sue (2016). "Maunder and Clerke medals". Astronomy and Geophysics. 57 (4): 10. doi:10.1093/astrogeo/atw143.
  24. ^ Royal Astronomical Society. . www.ras.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 15 October 2018. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  25. ^ "Jessie Shines a Light on Agnes". www.southernstar.ie. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  26. ^ Brown, Ernest W. (1904). "Review: Problems in Astrophysics by Agnes M. Clerke". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 10 (4): 205–206. doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1904-01096-4.
  • Fox, William (1908). "Agnes Mary Clerke" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Further reading Edit

External links Edit

 
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Agnes Mary Clerke

October 15, 2023
agnes, mary, clerke, february, 1842, january, 1907, irish, astronomer, writer, mainly, field, astronomy, born, skibbereen, county, cork, ireland, died, london, born, 1842, february, 1842skibbereen, county, cork, irelanddied20, january, 1907, 1907, aged, london. Agnes Mary Clerke 10 February 1842 20 January 1907 was an Irish astronomer and writer mainly in the field of astronomy She was born in Skibbereen County Cork Ireland and died in London 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Agnes Mary ClerkeBorn 1842 02 10 10 February 1842Skibbereen County Cork IrelandDied20 January 1907 1907 01 20 aged 64 London Contents 1 Family 2 Life and work 3 Personal life 4 Legacy 5 Selected writings 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksFamily EditAgnes Clerke was the daughter of John William Clerke c 1814 1890 who was at the time a bank manager in Skibbereen 8 and his wife Catherine Mary Deasy born circa 1819 whose father was a judge s registrar 9 10 She had two siblings her older sister Ellen Mary 1840 1906 and her younger brother Aubrey St John 1843 1923 11 Her elder sister Ellen also wrote about astronomy 12 All of the Clerke children were entirely home schooled 11 Catherine Clerke had been educated at the Ursuline Convent and therefore placed a great deal of importance on the education of young girls 13 Life and work EditFollowing in her father s footsteps while studying classics he had also taken courses in astronomy she developed an interest in astronomy from an early age using her father s 4 inch telescope in her observations and had begun to write a history of astronomy at the age of 15 8 In 1861 aged 19 her family moved to Dublin and in 1863 to Queenstown present day Cobh At the age of 25 partly for health reasons 14 together with her elder sister Ellen she went to Italy where she stayed until 1877 chiefly at Florence studying science languages and other subjects that would be useful in their later lives In 1877 she settled in London 8 Upon her return she was able to get two articles Brigandage in Sicily and Copernicus in Italy written while she had been in Italy published in the Edinburgh Review of October 1877 This led to her being asked by Adam and Charles Black publishers of the Review who also published the Encyclopaedia Britannica to write biographies of a number of famous scientists for the ninth edition of the encyclopedia 15 This led to a number of other commissions including the publication of the article on astronomy for the Catholic Encyclopedia 8 During her career she wrote reviews of many books including some written in French German Greek or Italian 16 In 1885 she published her best known work A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century 8 This book became commonly used for its discussion of the spectroscope 17 In 1888 she spent three months at the observatory at the Cape of Good Hope 17 In the autumn of 1890 Clerke and her brother Aubrey were founding members of the British Astronomical Association 18 In 1893 Clerke was awarded the Actonian Prize of 100 guineas by the Royal Institution As a member of the British Astronomical Association she attended its meetings regularly as well as those of the Royal Astronomical Society In 1903 with Margaret Lindsay Huggins she was elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society a rank previously held only by three other women Caroline Herschel and Mary Somerville in 1835 and Anne Sheepshanks in 1862 19 She died of pneumonia in 1907 at her home in South Kensington 17 Personal life EditAgnes and Ellen were devout Catholics all their lives Neither ever married 20 Legacy EditThe lunar crater Clerke is named after her 21 In 2002 Mary Bruck wrote Agnes Mary Clerke and the Rise of Astrophysics 22 In 2017 the Royal Astronomical Society established the Agnes Clerke Medal for the History of Astronomy or Geophysics which is awarded to individuals who have achieved outstanding research into the history of astronomy or geophysics 23 The first recipient was Clive Ruggles 24 In 2022 Jessie Kennedy and the Celestial Quartet performed a concert in Skibbereen in honour of Clerke The performance included songs specially composed by Jessie Kennedy and by Tess Leak using words of Agnes and her sister Ellen and a cello trio the Agnes Clerke Cello Trio composed by Diana Llewellyn 25 Selected writings EditA Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century Edinburgh 1885 4th rev ed London 1902 The System of the Stars London 1890 2nd ed London 1905 The Herschels and Modern Astronomy London 1895 The Concise Knowledge Astronomy co authored with John Ellard Gore and Alfred Fowler London 1898 Problems in Astrophysics London 1903 26 She also wrote 55 articles for the Edinburgh Review mainly on subjects connected with astrophysics and articles for the Dictionary of National Biography the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Catholic Encyclopedia and several other periodicals Her articles in the ninth edition 1875 89 of the Britannica included Galileo Galilei Alexander von Humboldt Johannes Kepler Antoine Lavoisier and the zodiac 15 References Edit For details of the life and work of Agnes Clerk see Weitzenhoffer Kenneth 1985 The Prolific Pen of Agnes Clerke Sky and Telescope 70 9 211 212 Bibcode 1985S amp T 70 211W Huggins Margaret L 1907 Agnes Mary Clerke Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 67 4 230 231 Bibcode 1907MNRAS 67 230 doi 10 1093 mnras 67 4 230 Obituary Agnes Mary Clerke The Observatory 30 107 108 1907 Bibcode 1907Obs 30 107 Lynn William T 1907 Miss Agnes Mary Clerke Journal of the British Astronomical Association 17 4 188 189 Bibcode 1907JBAA 17 188 Huggins Margaret L 1907 Agnes Mary Clerke Astrophysical Journal 25 3 226 230 Bibcode 1907ApJ 25 226H doi 10 1086 141436 Dent Elsie A 1907 Agnes Mary Clerke Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada 1 2 81 84 Bibcode 1907JRASC 1 81D See Thomas J J 1907 Some Recollections of Miss Agnes M Clerke Popular Astronomy 15 6 323 326 Bibcode 1907PA 15 323S a b c d e O Connor John J Robertson Edmund F Agnes Mary Clerke MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive University of St Andrews Miss Agnes Mary Clerke transcription The Times No 38236 London 22 January 1907 p 12 col D Retrieved 6 December 2008 England 1871 census Class RG10 Piece 870 Folio 118 Page 24 GSU roll 827769 a b Ogilvie Marilyn Harvey Joy eds 1 January 2000 The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science A K Vol 1 Routledge New York and London pp 269 271 ISBN 978 0 415 92039 1 Clerke Ellen 1893 The Planet Venus London Witherby and Sons pp 59 p Retrieved 15 October 2018 Irish Female Scientists You Should Know Connolly Cove 28 September 2020 Retrieved 17 September 2021 Cliver E W 2007 Agnes Mary Clerke Real time historian of astronomy Astronomy amp Geophysics 48 3 25 26 Bibcode 2007A amp G 48c 25C doi 10 1111 j 1468 4004 2007 48325 x a b Important Contributors to the Britannica 9th and 10th Editions Important Contributors to the Britannica 9th and 10th Editions 1902encyclopedia com Retrieved 16 April 2017 Brake Laurel Demoor Marysa eds 2009 Clerke Agnes Mary Dictionary of Nineteenth century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland Academia Press pp 127 128 ISBN 9789038213408 a b c Ogilvie Marilyn Bailey 1986 Women in science antiquity through the nineteenth century a biographical dictionary with annotated bibliography Cambridge Mass MIT Press pp 59 60 ISBN 0 585 34792 1 OCLC 47008020 1907JBAA 17 188 Page 188 articles adsabs harvard edu Retrieved 11 June 2021 Bailey Mandy 2016 Women and the RAS 100 years of Fellowship Astronomy and Geophysics 57 1 19 21 Bibcode 2016A amp G 57a1 19B doi 10 1093 astrogeo atw037 The Messenger Monthly Magazine 1907 Haines Catharine 2001 International women in science a biographical dictionary to 1950 Santa Barbara California ABC CLIO p 67 ISBN 978 1 57607 090 1 madge adam oxford Bruck Mary T 2002 Agnes Mary Clerke and the Rise of Astrophysics Cambridge England Cambridge University Press Bibcode 2002amcr book B ISBN 978 0521808446 Bowler Sue 2016 Maunder and Clerke medals Astronomy and Geophysics 57 4 10 doi 10 1093 astrogeo atw143 Royal Astronomical Society Agnes Mary Clerke Medal for Historical Research A G www ras ac uk Archived from the original on 15 October 2018 Retrieved 15 October 2018 Jessie Shines a Light on Agnes www southernstar ie Retrieved 6 August 2022 Brown Ernest W 1904 Review Problems in Astrophysics by Agnes M Clerke Bull Amer Math Soc 10 4 205 206 doi 10 1090 S0002 9904 1904 01096 4 Fox William 1908 Agnes Mary Clerke In Herbermann Charles ed Catholic Encyclopedia Vol 4 New York Robert Appleton Company Further reading EditBruck M T 2002 Agnes Mary Clerke and the Rise of Astrophysics Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 80844 6 OCLC 47805069 Huggins Margaret Lindsay April 1907 Agnes Mary Clerke The Astrophysical Journal 25 1 225 30 Bibcode 1907ApJ 25 226H doi 10 1086 141436 Bruck Mary T 2004 Agnes Mary Clerke Ever popular Historian of Astronomy The Antiquarian Astronomer 1 3 5 Bibcode 2004AntAs 1 3B Bruck Mary T 2014 Clerke Agnes Mary In Hockey Thomas Trimble Virginia Williams Thomas R eds Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers New York Springer Publishing pp 440 442 doi 10 1007 978 1 4419 9917 7 290 ISBN 978 1 4419 9917 7 Hollis Henry Park Bruck Mary T 2004 Clerke Agnes Mary Clerke Agnes Mary 1842 1907 writer on astronomy Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford England Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 ref odnb 32444 External links Edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Agnes Mary Clerke nbsp Wikisource has original works by or about Agnes Mary Clerke Works by Agnes M Clerke at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Agnes Mary Clerke at Internet Archive Works by Agnes Mary Clerke at LibriVox public domain audiobooks nbsp Science Reference Services Library of Congress Women in Astronomy A Comprehensive Bibliography Library of Congress Archived from the original on 3 August 2008 Retrieved 18 August 2008 Bibliography of writings about Agnes Mary Clerke Biographical material from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific O Connor John J Robertson Edmund F Agnes Mary Clerke MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive University of St Andrews Irish Examiner article Southern Star article Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Agnes Mary Clerke amp oldid 1176596273, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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