Maria Mitchell

Her parents were Quakerss who, unconventionally for their time, insisted on giving her the same quality of education that boys received. She worked as a librarian and also pursued astronomy at her father's observatory. Discovered "Miss Mitchell's Comet" (Comet 1847 VI, modern designation is C/1847 T1) in the autumn of 1847, the first person to discover a comet using a telescope. Some years previously, King Frederick VI of Denmark had established gold medal prizes for discoverers of comets, and one of the prizes was for the first telescopic discovery of a comet, which Maria Mitchell duly won. There was a temporary question of priority because Francesco de Vico had independently discovered it two days later, but had reported it first; however, this was resolved in Mitchell's favor. The prize was awarded in 1848 by the new king Frederick VII and Maria Mitchell won worldwide fame.

She became the first woman member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1848 and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1850. She later worked at the U.S. Nautical Almanac Office, calculating tables of positions of Venus, and travelled in Europe with Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family. She became professor of astronomy at Vassar College in 1865. After teaching there for some time, she learned that despite her reputation and experience, her salary was less than that of many younger male professors. She insisted on a salary increase, and got it.

In 1842, she left the Quaker faith and followed Unitarian principles. In protest against slavery, she stopped wearing clothes made of cotton. Was friends with various suffragistss such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and co-founded the American Association for the Advancement of Women.