Dorothea Klumpke Roberts was born the third daughter of a wealthy German family in San Francisco, California. Her parents believed the American education system was lacking, and so they educated their children overseas in France, Germany and Switzerland. All of her siblings were successful in various fields such as music, medicine and business. Dorothea obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Paris in 1886. She first worked with pioneer astrophotographers Paul and Prosper Henry. Her job was to measure star positions and plot them on the astrographs. She also studied meteorites. In 1886, Sir David Gill proposed international cooperation in creating an atlas of all of the stars. The first of many conventions to complete this project was held in Paris, and Dorothea found a niche translating all of the papers into French for the official records. In 1889 she became the first recipient of an award called the Prix de Dames from the Astronomical Society of France. In 1893 she was made an officer of the Paris Academy of the Sciences. Both of the aforementioned were the first for a woman. In 1891, despite being both a woman and a foreigner, Dorothea obtained the position of director of the Bureau of Measurements at the Paris Observatory. She beat out 50 men for this position. The project was immense. It is estimated that a stack of all of Paris's charts of the sky would stand over 37 meters high! Dorothea remained the Director until 1901 when she married. She also achieved her Doctorate in Sciences in 1896, fifty years before Harvard would grant a Doctorate degree to a woman. In 1899, Dorothea was selected by the French to be carried in a balloon to observe to Leonid meteor shower. She was the first woman to observe the Meteor shower from above the Earth. Of the experience, Dorothea wrote: "My body seemed lighter than ever, I had the sensation of floating in air, and my heart was filled with gratitude". After Dorothea's marriage, she joined her husband in his quest of mapping all 52 of the Hershel areas. After her husband's unexpected death in 1906, Dorothea was left to continue the project with advanced astronomical equipment and a large sum of money. It is without question that Dorothea paved the way for many successful women in the field in science. Rock on, Dorothea.
Sources:
"Leonid MAC - Dorothea Klumke and the 1899 Leonids." Leonid MAC - Dorothea Klumke and the 1899 Leonids. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.
"Dorothea Klumpke Roberts, Pioneer Woman Astronomer." AANC Article: Dorothea Klumpke Roberts. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
"1942PASP...54..217A Page 217." 1942PASP...54..217A Page 217. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
(http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1942PASP...54..217A)
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