Family history. Margaret Harwood’s lectures at Maria Mitchell Observatory in Nantucket; B.A. from Barnard College, 1925; work with Harlow Shapley at Harvard University, 1926; funding of astronomy projects and Shapley’s other interests in phenomena of nature. M.A. from Radcliffe, 1928. Other female astronomers: Helen Hogg, Antonia Maury, Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin; marriage of the Gaposchkins. Her paper at dedication of Tonantzintla Observatory. Work on LORAN navigation tables with Fletcher Watson during World War II; position at Barnard and Columbia; lecturer at Connecticut College for Women. Work as Walter Baade’s assistant at Hale Observatory, Baade’s work style and influence; Ira S. Bowen, Edwin P. Hubble, disputes among Shapley, Hubble and Baade. History of Swope’s work on variable stars, direct observation in Australia with Bart Bok, 1965; work with Margaret Mayall in American Association of Variable Star Observers. History of technique and changes in astronomy. History of attitudes towards women in astronomy; view of her own role and work in astronomy.
In this interview, James Gilbert Baker discusses: his family and childhood; William Marshall Bullitt; Harlow Shapley; University of Louisville; Walter L. Moore; American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO); Richard Prager; Harvard University; Bart Bok; Otto Struve; A. Pannekoek; Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin; Ted Sterne; Don Menzel; E. Bright Wilson; Leon Campbell; Lawrence Aller; Rudolph Langer; Henry Norris Russell; S. Chandrasekhar; Joe Boyce; George Harrison; optics; Leo Goldberg; Harvard Society of Fellows; Ivan A. Getting; atomic bomb; Lise Meitner; Niels Bohr; R. W. Wood; aerial photography; Ted Dunham; Fred Whipple.
