Born: Dec. 11, 1863, Dover, Delaware, U.S.
Died: April 13, 1941, Cambridge, Mass.
Annie Jump Cannon was an American astronomer, born in Dover, Delaware, and educated at Wellesley and Radcliffe colleges. She was an assistant at the Harvard College Observatory from 1897 until 1911, when she was appointed curator of astronomical photographs. She was responsible for the photographic discovery of 5 novas and about 300 variable stars. She is best known for compiling a bibliography of about 200,000 references to variable stars and for completing a catalogue of more than 350,000 stellar spectra; the catalogue is still accepted as an international standard. Regarded as the first great woman astronomer, she was also the first woman to receive an honorary doctor’s degree from the University of Oxford.
