Fleming, Williamina (1857-1911), was a Scottish-born American astronomer . She is known for her work on the classification of stars and other celestial objects based on the spectra of their light.
Williamina Paton Stevens was born on May 15, 1857, in Dundee, Scotland. She married James Orr Fleming, an accountant, in 1877, and the couple traveled to the United States the following year. Her husband left her in 1879 and she was forced to find work to support herself. She became a maid at the home of Edward Pickering, director of the Harvard College Observatory. Pickering was impressed with her intellect and work ethic, and he soon hired her as a clerk at the observatory. By 1881, she was assisting with the tedious work of inspecting hundreds of photographs and analyzing the spectra of thousands of stars.
Fleming and Pickering developed a classification system to organize thousands of stellar spectra into select categories. During her career, Fleming discovered many celestial objects, including more than 300 variable stars, whose light varies in brightness, and the Horsehead Nebula, a distinct region of gas and dust in the constellation Orion . She also recognized the existence of small, hot stars now called white dwarfs . In addition, she assisted with writing, editing, and proofreading research papers, reports, and other publications.
In 1899, Fleming was given the title of Curator of Astronomical Photographs at the Harvard College Observatory. In 1906, she became the first American woman to be named a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of London. She died on May 21, 1911.
