Born this day, December 11th:
“Oh Be a Fine Girl and Kiss Me”
Annie Jump Cannon
(December 11, 1863 – April 13, 1941)
Women of the Hall: Year Inducted: 1994
Achievement In: Science
Astronomer Annie Jump Cannon perfected the universal system of stellar classification still in use today, and compiled the largest accumulation of astronomical information ever assembled by an individual – the Draper Catalog.
Cannon was an assistant at the Harvard Observatory beginning in 1896, and working with Williamina Fleming, she undertook a continuation of the project of recording, classifying and cataloging all stars down to the ninth magnitude. The resulting classification system by temperature was her concept, and was universally adopted.
More than a quarter of a million stars were so classified, and published as The Draper Catalogue in nine volumes, from 1918 to 1924. Cannon became curator of astronomical photographs of the Observatory in 1911 and professor of astronomy in 1938.
She published the Draper Catalogue Extension in two volumes (1925 and 1949), with thousands more stars catalogued. These works were of enormous value to the science of astronomy, and forever secured Cannon’s place in scientific history.
Cannon was a women’s suffrage advocate and a member of the National Women’s Party.
Cannon was an American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification. With Edward C. Pickering, she is credited with the creation of the Harvard Classification Scheme, which was the first serious attempt to organize and classify stars based on their temperatures.
“She started by examining the bright southern hemisphere stars. To these stars she applied a third system, a division of stars into the spectral classes O, B, F, G, K, M,, she gave her system a mnemonic of Oh Be a Fine Girl and Kiss Me.”
Annie Jump Cannon died April 13, 1941 after receiving a regular Harvard appointment as the William C. Bond Astronomer. She also received the Henry Draper Medal, which only one other woman has won, shared with a colleague.
Honors and Notations
She was the first woman to ever receive an honorary doctorate in 1925 from Oxford University, England..
In 1929 the National League of Women Voters listed her as one of the 12 “greatest living American women”.
In 1931 awarded the Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.
In 1932 awarded the Ellen Richards Prize.
First woman elected an officer of the American Astronomical Society.
In 1938 named the William Cranch Bond Astronomer at Harvard.
The Cannon crater on the Moon is named after her.
She was nicknamed “Census Taker of the Sky” for classifying 230,000 stellar bodies, more than any other person.
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The Henry Draper Catalog. 9 volumes, 1918-1924. Printed in Volumes 91-99 of the Harvard Annals.
The Henry Draper Extension. 2 volumes, 1925-1936. Printed in Volumes 100 and 112 of the Harvard Annals.
Papers 1863-1978 (inclusive), 12 cubic ft. in 35 boxes and 4 folders. And 2 boxes of photo albums, ca. 1880s-1930s. Harvard University, Archives, Pusey Library. Cambridge, Massachusettes.
Wellesley: Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941)
American Astronomical Society (AAS)
I Own My Vote, PUMA, The Denver Group, The New Agenda
Grab and Keel 
Thanks for the birthday post on AJC! She is an often unsung hero of US astronomy and someone we are proud was an officer of the American Astronomical Society.
Kevin Marvel, Executive Officer, AAS
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Set up a classification system; then with her group, produce over quarter of a million classifications, through observation, evaluation, recording and designation, in a pre-computer era, at 25 cents a day. Stupefying! Thank you. It seemed to me yesterday when I put up her post, there were not so many of her on the web. Today I see there is. I am linking your Society to this post, in hopes that some from my group find interest in your group. Astronomy is a noble profession, and one in which women have been able to find their way.
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