Agnes Mary Clerke 1842 – 1907
Astronomer, author, historian of astronomy.
10 February 1842 – 20 January 1907
A tribute to Agnes Mary Clerke by Dr Rebekah Higgitt
Born in Skibbereen, a town in County Cork, Agnes Mary Clerke was the middle of three children, between older sister, Ellen Mary, and younger brother Aubrey St John. All were clearly quite brilliant, although it was only the boy who could go on to study at Trinity College Dublin, where he excelled in mathematics and natural science. All, however, benefitted from an education at home, including classics and practical scientific lessons from their banker father, John, and music and languages from their accomplished mother, Catherine.
Family ties sustained Clerke throughout her life and career. She moved first to Dublin, where she studied mathematics, physics and astronomy with her brother, and then, with her sister, to Italy in 1867 and London in 1877. In both places they sustained and expanded their scholarly, musical, scientific and literary endeavours. After their parents’ deaths in the 1890s, the two sisters continued to live together and support each other. Ellen was also a writer and translator, of literary and scientific articles, poetry and a novel. To quote the author of Ellen’s entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, the sisters had ‘a formidable breadth and depth of learning’.
Agnes Clerke wrote a huge amount of prose over her lifetime. For the Edinburgh Review, she produced more than 50 articles. These were mostly on scientific topics. They appeared in every annual issue of The Observatory over two decades; 150 entries for the Dictionary of National Biography and more for the 9th and 11th editions of Encyclopaedia Britannica. The first of her many books was the 1885 A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century, which tackled the ‘so-called “new astronomy”‘ of the period, which used photography and spectroscopy to explore the physical nature of heavenly bodies. Clerke undertook her research at the library of the British Museum. Although working alone, one of the librarians, Richard Garnett, noticed her unusual interests and introduced her to astronomers including Norman Lockyer, a leading figure in the ‘new astronomy’.
Her book was reviewed by the Astronomer Royal of Ireland, Robert Ball, in Nature, who ‘read … with very great interest and no little pleasure.’ He went on:
The authoress (for this learned volume is indeed the product of a lady’s pen) has modestly described her ‘History of Astronomy’ as a ‘popular’ work. We certainly hope that the book will be as popular as it deserves, and that it will be widely and extensively read. We think, however, that few men of science who use this book will think that it ought to be classed as a popular work in the ordinary acceptance. It might be more correctly described as a masterly exposition of the results of modern astronomy in those departments now usually characterised as physical.
Her writing was and still is commended for its literary qualities and readability as well as its scientific content. Several more books followed – The System of the Stars (1890), The Herschels and Modern Astronomy (1895), Astronomy (1898), Problems in Astrophysics (1903), Modern Cosmogonies (1905) and, to confound any thoughts of two cultures, Familiar Studies in Homer in 1892. Her writing is striking both for her solid sense of history and her knowledge of the fast-changing world of astronomy and astrophysics in the last quarter of the 19th century. H.P. Hollis FRAS, an Assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, wrote that her Popular History, which was revised three times in her lifetime, ‘at once took standard rank’, and was ‘especially valuable for its wealth of references’.
Clerke’s practical knowledge of astronomy and spectroscopy increased when she spent three months working at the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope in 1888. She developed a friendship with the Astronomer Royal there, David Gill, and his wife Isobel. She was also well connected within London astronomical circles, particularly through the amateur British Astronomical Association, of which she and her brother were founding members, and – when allowed access – the more professional Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).
In 1889, Clerke was invited to join the staff at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, as a computer, to undertake work such as mathematical calculations and measuring images on photographic plates. This was part of an experimental scheme by the Astronomer Royal, William Christie, to increase his staff with the small funds he had at his disposal. Clerke was vastly over-qualified for a role traditionally undertaken by young school leavers but there were very few opportunities for women to gain paid work in astronomy. Clerke deliberated over the offer but turned it down – she was not guaranteed opportunities to make observations and could probably make more money as a writer.
Three university-educated women did work at the Royal Observatory in the 1890s, although none were impressed at the £4 a month salary and few stayed long. At least two, Alice Everett and Annie Scott Russell, were allowed to do some observing and in February 1892 they were among a group of women who submitted signed election certificates nominating them to fellowship of the RAS. Edward Maunder (the head of the Photographic and Spectroscopic Department at Greenwich, who Russell had married) and William Huggins (husband of the astronomer Margaret Huggins) were among the signatories, but the applications were rejected. As a sop, the women were offered ‘cards of admission’ that allowed them to attend some meetings, which the Clerke sisters took up. In 1903, Clerke and Margaret Huggins were given honorary fellowship of the Society, the first granted since Caroline Herschel, Mary Somerville (both 1835) and Anne Sheepshanks (1862). Women were not eligible for full fellowship until 1916.
As well as enjoying close relationships with her like-minded family members, it clear that Clerke benefitted from the mutually supportive atmosphere created by the circle of women astronomers and some of the men around them. One of this group, Margaret Huggins wrote an obituary of Clerke for the RAS and a privately circulated appreciation of the Clerke sisters. Agnes she described as having lofty ideals but ‘loving and lovable’, and declared that ‘No purer, loftier and yet sweetly unselfish and human soul has lived’.
Clerke was, perhaps, also sustained by her religious faith, which she owed to her Catholic mother. This faith was supported and revealed by her writing on astronomy and, in 1893, the Royal Institution awarded her the Actonian Prize, a septennial award for ‘the author of the best essay illustrative of the wisdom and beneficence of the Almighty, in such department of science as the committee of managers [of the Royal Institution] should, in their discretion, have selected’. It was worth 100 guineas, with which, ever the modern Renaissance woman, she bought herself a new piano.
Dr Rebekah Higgitt is a historian of science and Principal Curator of Science at National Museums Scotland. She has previously worked as a curator at the Royal Observatory Greenwich and a lecturer at the University of Kent and is author of Recreating Newton (2007) and co-author of Finding Longitude (2014), Maskelyne: Astronomer Royal (2014) and Metropolitan Science: London Sites and Cultures of Knowledge and Practice, 1600-1800 (forthcoming 2024).
Further reading
Ball, Robert S., 1886. Astronomy during the nineteenth century. Nature, 33, 313-314.
Brück, M.T., 1997. Agnes Clerke’s work as a scientific biographer. Journal of the Irish Astronomical Society, 24 (2), 193-198.
Brück, M. T., 1991. Companions in Astronomy: Margaret Lindsay Huggins and Agnes Mary Clerke. Irish Astronomical Journal 20, 70–77.
Brück, M.T., 1994. Agnes Mary Clerke, chronicler of astronomy. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 35 (1), 59-79.
Brück, M.T., 2002. Agnes Mary Clerke and the Rise of Astrophysics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Clerke, Agnes M., 1885. A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century. Edinburgh: A & C Black.
Clekre, Agnes M. 1890. The System of the Stars. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
Clerke, Agnes M., 1895. The Herschels and Modern Astronomy. London: Cassell and Company.
Clerke, Agnes M., 1903. Problems in Astrophysics. London: Adam & Charles Black.
Elkin, Susan, 2004. Clerke, Ellen Mary (1840-1906), translator and writer. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 11 Jan. 2024, from https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-32445.
Hollis, H., and Brück, M., 2004. Clerke, Agnes Mary (1842–1907), writer on astronomy. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 11 Jan. 2024, from https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-32444.
Huggins, Margaret L., 1907. Agnes Mary Clerke. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 67 (4): 230–231.
Lightman, Bernard, 1997. Constructing Victorian heavens: Agnes Clerke and the ‘new astronomy’, in Barbara T. Gates and Ann B. Shteir (eds), Natural Eloquence: Women Reinscribe Science. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 61-75.Weitzenhoffer, K., 1985. The prolific pen of Agnes Clerke. Sky and Telescope, 70, 211-212.
MINI BIOGRAPHY
‘Both from the literary and scientific standpoints she must be ranked as a great scientific writer.’ Obituary
The Times
Education
Home schooled: learning modern languages, music and the classics. Self-taught in mathematics and science supported by her father, an amateur astronomer. Her brother tutored her in mathematics and physics.
1867-77 Lived in Italy and learned the language. In Florence studied the astronomical work of Italians at the public library.
1877 In London started career as a writer for the Edinburgh Review and contributing biographies for the Dictionary of National Biography. Attended lectures at the Royal Institution.
Frequented the British Museum researching astrophysics and published her first work A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century in 1885 aimed at a wide audience.
Using her international network she collected photographs to support her text making her work up-to-date and accessible.
1888 Spent three months at the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope as a guest of the director Sir David Gill and his wife.
1889 On her return to London, declined the offer of a post as an assistant to a computer with little pay at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (the only position open to women at that time dictated by Civil Service rules). The offer reflected her reputation despite her lack of formal academic credentials.
Became established through her publications as an astronomer with a deep knowledge who kept updated.
1892 Awarded the Actonian Prize of 100 guineas by the Royal Institution for her astronomical works.
1892 Given admission to Royal Astronomical Association’s meetings which were not officially open to women.
1903 Made an Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society, the fifth woman to become a member.
Legacy
1973 A moon crater on the border of the Sea of Serenity (close to where Apollo 12 landed on 11 December 1972) was named in her honour by the International Astronomical Union.
Issues
Suffered from ill health and was short sighted which disadvantaged her use of a telescope and led her to concentrate on writing.
Excluded from opportunities open to men in her field at that time. She did not campaign for equal opportunities and pay but was a role model for women who followed.
Connection to Bloomsbury
British Museum
Female Networks including
Isabella Gill, Margaret Huggins.
Publications include
1885 A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century
1890 The System of the Stars
1895 The Herschels and Modern Astronomy
1903 Problems in Astrophysics (an update on her Popular History)
1905 Modern Cosmogonies
Articles for the Edinburgh Review, Knowledge, The Observatory
Sketches of scientists for the Dictionary of National Biography
Articles on the lives of scientific greats for the Encyclopedia Britannica
Further Reading
Agnes Mary Clerke | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | Oxford Academic (oup.com)
Herstory: Agnes Mary Clerke (rte.ie)
2003JHA….34..243E Page 243 (harvard.edu)
Agnes Mary Clerke (1842 – 1907) – Biography – MacTutor History of Mathematics (st-andrews.ac.uk)
Agnes Clerke – an intense light on Victorian astronomy | Royal Institution (rigb.org)