Emma Phoebe Waterman earned a Ph.D. in astronomy from University of California – Berkley in 1913, becoming one of the first of two women to do so. Shortly after being awarded her Ph.D., Phoebe was appointed as an assistant to the Argentine National Observatory in Cordoba, Argentina, and she later volunteered with the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). This collection consists of digital scans of photographic prints and negatives from a Haas family scrapbook, including all the pages of album plus details of 70 selected individual images; and the front and back of a postcard found loose in the photo album.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of digital scans of photographic prints and negatives from a Haas family scrapbook, including all the pages of album plus details of 70 selected individual images; and the front and back of a postcard found loose in the photo album.
Arrangement:
Images are in the same order as the original album. Detail images are shown after the image for the page on which they appear. Images of post card found loose in between pages of album are shown at the end of the slideshow.
Biographical / Historical:
Emma Phoebe Waterman was born at Fort Totten in the Dakota Territory (now North Dakota) in 1882. Her father, John Charles Waterman, commissioned in the U.S. Cavalry, had been sent to Fort Totten after General Custer's failure at Little Big Horn. As a teenager, her parents wanted Phoebe to receive a better education, so they sent her to live with her father's family in Michigan so she could attend high school. She continued her education at Vassar, earning a BA (1904) and MA (1906) in mathematics and astronomy. After graduation, she traveled to the Philippines with her father. Upon her return, she was employed as a computer at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California. Working with several highly respected astronomers ignited her passion to follow her dreams of being one as well. In 1911, she applied and was accepted into the doctoral program at University of California – Berkley. She earned a Ph.D. in astronomy in 1913, becoming one of the first of two women to do so.
Shortly after being awarded her Ph.D., Phoebe was appointed as an assistant to the Argentine National Observatory in Cordoba, Argentina. While on the ship to Buenos Aires, she met Otto Haas; they married in February 1914. Phoebe put her astronomy dreams on hold while she supported her husband's business and took care of their family. Despite her commitment to her family, Phoebe never lost her passion for astronomy. Through the suggestions of others, she volunteered with the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). In 1927, through the assistance of Leon Campbell, recorder for AAVSO at Harvard Observatory, Phoebe purchased a Clark telescope from the Cranis estate. She used this telescope to make 338 observations between 1928 and 1933. In 1953 when AAVSO was evicted from Harvard and lost its funding, Phoebe assisted financially by calculating the five-or ten-day means for southern variable stars.
Provenance:
Thomas Haas, Gift, 2015, NASM.2015.0045.
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
Vera Florence Cooper Rubin (1928-2016) was an American astronomer whose work provided clear, observational evidence of the existence of dark matter. This collection consists of four born digital images of astronomer Vera Rubin, seated at her desk with papers relating to her discovery of dark matter, during an oral history interview conducted by Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) curator David H. DeVorkin and NASM intern Ashley Yeager in Rubin's office.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of four born digital images of astronomer Vera Rubin, seated at her desk with papers relating to her discovery of dark matter, during an oral history interview conducted by Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) curator David H. DeVorkin and NASM intern Ashley Yeager in Rubin's office at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C.; July 20, 2007. DeVorkin was the photographer and is not seen in the images; Yeager appears seated beside Rubin's desk in one image. Images were received as 300 ppi image files in RGB JPG format, each 2560 x 1920 pixels in size.
Arrangement:
Collection is in original order.
Biographical / Historical:
Vera Florence Cooper Rubin (1928-2016) was an American astronomer whose work provided clear, observational evidence of the existence of dark matter. Rubin graduated with a degree in astronomy from Vassar College in 1948, completed a master's degree from Cornell University in 1951, and a Ph.D. from Georgetown University in 1954. In the 1960s, Rubin began what would become a life-long quest to understand the motions of stars within galaxies and the motions of galaxies themselves. Expecting to discover that stars farther from the center of a galaxy moved more slowly than stars closer to the center, Rubin instead observed that the outermost stars all seemed to be orbiting faster than they should. The stars were being influenced by the gravity of a vast amount of undetected mass surrounding the galaxy that came to be known as dark matter. Rubin collaborated with gifted instrument-maker W. Kent Ford, Jr. using an image tube spectrograph he developed at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. When Rubin used this instrument in telescopes it allowed for much more sensitive observations of distant galaxies than had previously been possible. These observations yielded evidence for the existence of dark matter that stimulated general acknowledgement that it forms much of the mass in the universe. For her ground-breaking work, Vera Rubin became the second woman in history to receive the prestigious Gold Medal of England's Royal Astronomical Society. Rubin was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1993.
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
![View Phoebe Waterman Haas Photo Album [Digital Scans] digital asset: Finding aid](https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max=120&id=https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/findingaid.gif "Finding aid")
