Temporary Measures: Women Computers at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1890–1895

Abstract

Between 1890 and 1895, five women “computers” were hired to work at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, one of the world’s leading observatories at the time. Caroline Herschel notwithstanding, these women were the very first in Britain to be paid for astronomical observation. They were hired as supernumerary computers – normally a temporary position reserved for young schoolboys. Instead of adhering to the usual strict regimen of astronomical calculations, the women at Greenwich functioned much more as astronomers. They observed with telescopes, engaged in original research, and even published their findings. This paper examines how exactly this occurred at a time when women remained excluded from professional observation elsewhere. It engages original archival research in combination with the Greenwich published literature to shed light on a little-known story that reveals how women in Britain first came to be paid as professional astronomers.