Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and JournalsMitchell, Maria
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Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals
Mitchell, Maria
Astronomers -- United States -- Biography; Mitchell, Maria, 1818-1889; Women astronomers -- United States -- Biography
My attention had been drawn to the subject of the king of Denmark's
comet medal by some allusion to it in my correspondence with Professor
Schumacher, in reference to the discovery of telescopic comets by Mr.
George P. Bond, of the observatory at Cambridge. Having learned some
weeks after Miss Mitchell's discovery that no communication had been
made on her behalf to the trustees of the medal, and aware that the
regulations in this respect were enforced with strictness, I was
apprehensive that it might be too late to supply the omission. Still,
however, as the spirit of the regulations had been complied with by Mr.
Mitchell's letter to Mr. Bond of the 3d of October, it seemed worth
while at least to make the attempt to procure the medal for his
daughter. Although the attempt might be unsuccessful, it would at any
rate cause the priority of her discovery to be more authentically
established than it might otherwise have been.
I accordingly wrote to Mr. Mitchell for information on the subject, and
applied for, and obtained from Mr. Bond, Mr. Mitchell's original letter
to him of the 3d of October, with the Nantucket postmark. These papers
were transmitted to Professor Schumacher, with a letter dated 15th and
24th January.
On the 8th of February I wrote a letter to my much esteemed friend,
Captain W.H. Smyth, R.N., formerly president of the Astronomical Society
at London, requesting him to interest himself with Professor Schumacher
to obtain the medal for Miss Mitchell. Captain Smyth entered with great
readiness into the matter, and addressed a note on the subject to Mr.
Airy, the Astronomer Royal, at Greenwich. Mr. Airy kindly wrote to
Professor Schumacher without loss of time; but it was their united
opinion that a compliance with the condition relative to immediate
notice of a discovery was indispensable, and that it was consequently
out of their power to award the medal to Miss Mitchell. Mr. Schumacher
suggested, as the only means by which this difficulty could be overcome,
an application to the Danish government, through the American legation
at Copenhagen.
Conceiving that the correspondence could be carried on more promptly
through the Danish legation at Washington, I addressed a letter on the
20th of April to Mr. Steene-Billé, Chargé d'Affaires of the king of
Denmark in this country, and sent with it copies of the documents which
had been forwarded to Professor Schumacher. Mr. Steene-Billé, however,
was of opinion that the application, if made at all, should be made
through the American legation at Copenhagen; but he expressed at the
same time a confident opinion that, owing to the condition and political
relations of Denmark, the application would necessarily prove
unavailing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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