Williamina Fleming

Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming (1857-1911) was a Scottish-American astronomer who developed a system for classifying stars by their spectra while working at the Harvard College Observatory. Originally hired as a housekeeper by observatory director Edward Pickering, Fleming was brought on to help process astronomical data and went on to lead a large team of women computers who examined thousands of photographic plates. She personally catalogued the spectra of more than 10,000 stars for the Henry Draper Catalogue, discovered 59 gaseous nebulae, more than 310 variable stars and 10 novae, and in 1888 she discovered the Horsehead Nebula, one of the most recognizable objects in the night sky, while examining a photographic plate of the region near Orion's Belt. Fleming was also a vocal advocate for expanding opportunities for women in astronomy, and in 1906 she became the first American woman elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society.