Evelyn Leland

Harvard computers. Back row (L to R): Margaret Harwood (far left), Mollie O'Reilly, Edward C. Pickering, Edith Gill, Annie Jump Cannon, Evelyn Leland (behind Cannon), Florence Cushman, Marion Whyte (behind Cushman), Grace Brooks. Front row: Arville Walker, unknown (possibly Johanna Mackie), Alta Carpenter, Mabel Gill, Ida Woods. Image courtesy of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The photograph was taken on 13 May 1913.

Evelyn Frances Leland (1867–1931) was an American astronomer and member of "Harvard Computers," a group of female astronomers who worked at the Harvard College Observatory under Director Edward Pickering. She worked for 36 years (1889–1925) Leland and her colleagues performed an analysis of photographic plates taken in Cambridge and Arequipa, Peru. She was involved in computing stellar spectra and discovering variable stars. He believed that theories not supported by data were worthless, and that observers with their own theories were more likely to be biased, leading to inaccurate data. Perseverance and keen insight were required of women, not originality or scientific thinking. (However, Williamina P. Fleming states in her diary that the actual working hours were from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.) The starting wage for female computers was 25 cents an hour. With other human "computers," Leland measured and calculated the brightness of the stellar spectra extensively, and discovered new variable stars as well as other "objects with peculiar spectra." To find out the magnitude of every star in the sky, Pickering asked Leland and Cannon to learn how Leavitt discovered variable stars. They are characterized by a variable period of several hours, and are a new type of variable star, different from the Type I Cepheids discovered by Henrietta Swan Leavitt in the same period. each contained in a paper envelope. About 20% of these are themed on stellar variability, proper motion, galactic dynamics, cosmology, meteors, and comets.

Large Magellanic Cloud, 1921

Long Exposure H.S. Regions and Series, 1918/1919

M Determinations - North Pole Plates, 1918/1919

M Determinations - North Pole Plates, 1919

M Determinations - North Pole Plates, 1919/1920

M Determinations - North Pole Plates, 1919/1920

M Determinations - North Pole Plates, 1920

MC and A Plates, 1921

MC Plates, 1921/1922

Measure of Eros (South Pole), 1899/1902

Measures, new satellite (Phoebe) of Saturn, Nova Sgr, 1899/1906

Measures of Eros, 1902/1904

Measures of M3, etc., 1902/1903

Measures of Variables in M15, 1917

Measures of Variables in M15, 1916/1917

Measures of Variables in M15, 1917/1918

Measures of Variables in M15, 1917/1918

MF Series, 1920

MF Series, 1920/1921

Miscellaneous Observations - Variables, 1893/1896

Miscellaneous Observations - Variables M5, 1896

Miscellaneous Observations - Variables M5, 1896

Miscellaneous Observations - Variables M5, 1896/1897

Miscellaneous Observations - Variables M5, 1897/1898

Miscellaneous Observations - Variables W Cen., 1897/1898

New Satellite of Saturn and North Polar Sequence, 1904/1911

Observing Book, 1918

Observing Book, 1918

Observing Book - M5, 1913

Scale measures, 1907/1910

Scale measures, 1911/1912

Scale measures, 1910/1912

Scale measures, 1910/1911

Scale measures, 1912

Scale measures, 1913/1914

Search for variables; measures, 1902/1903

Search for variables; measures, 1903/1904

Search for variables; measures, 1904/1907

Search for variables; measures, 1907/1909

Search for variables; measures, 1904/1910

Series Reductions, 1913

Series Reductions, 1913

Series Reductions, 1913/1914

Series Reductions, 1913/1914

Series Reductions, 1913/1915

Series Reductions, 1915/1917

Series Reductions, 1915/1917

Series Reductions, 1915/1917

Series Reductions, 1914/1915

Series Reductions, 1914/1915

Series Reductions and M5 variables, 1914/1915