WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
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imaginedmemoir.bsky.social
WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
@imaginedmemoir.bsky.social
77 followers 220 following 32 posts
Scottish-American astronomer, 1857-1911. One of the Harvard Women Computers; Discoverer and Curator of Stars.
Photo: Harvard University Archive
My historical fiction novel-in-verse based on the life of this remarkable woman is at Ingram and Amazon.
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imaginedmemoir.bsky.social
WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer @imaginedmemoir.bsky.social · Oct 31
"An engaging, thoughtful introduction to an overlooked scientific pioneer."--Kirkus Reviews
www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...
#WomenInStem #histsci #histstm #WomensHistory #WomeninScience #WomanAstro #Astronomy
WILLIAMINA FLEMING, ASTRONOMER | Kirkus Reviews
An abandoned wife becomes an acclaimed astronomer in Vizurraga’s fictionalized autobiography of a real-life woman who charted the stars while navigating the constraints of her era.
www.kirkusreviews.com
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
nottsnursing.bsky.social
Fascinating study: women who qualified as doctors in UK between 1877-1914.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Women who qualified as doctors in the United Kingdom, 1877–1914: Birthplaces, parentage and training - Roger Jeffery, 2025
This paper uses a newly created database of all women who gained a qualification registrable with the General Medical Council between 1877 and 1914 to answer th...
journals.sagepub.com
January 13, 2026 at 7:12 AM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
stemfem.bsky.social
1/13/1978 — NASA selects the first class of U.S. women astronauts | Left to right — Shannon W. Lucid, Margaret Rhea Seddon, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Judith A. Resnik, Anna L. Fisher, and Sally K. Ride #womenshistory #WomenInSTEM #AstroSky #SciSky #HistSci #NASA #OTD
NASA's first class of female astronauts | Left to right — Shannon W. Lucid, Margaret Rhea Seddon, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Judith A. Resnik, Anna L. Fisher, and Sally K. Ride | 1978 1978
January 13, 2026 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
politicdormouse.bsky.social
Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau chemical #engineer designed 1st commercial penicillin production plant. 1937 1st woman to earn PhD in chemical engineering @ MIT Later 1st woman member of American Institute of Chemical Engineers. d. #OTD Jan 12 2000 #WomenInSTEM en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margare...
Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau rocking a strong lip in B&W headshot
January 12, 2026 at 11:54 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
politicdormouse.bsky.social
Helen Blanchard, US inventor, received 28 patents 1873-1915, 22 for sewing machines & tech, & a pencil sharpener. Patent No.141987 introduced buttonhole stitch. Blanchard over-seaming-machine could simultaneously sew & trim knitted fabrics. b. #OTD 25 Oct 1840 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_B...
Helen Blanchard in B&W photo #WomenInSTEM
January 13, 2026 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
politicdormouse.bsky.social
Hoylande Young US chemist. PhD @uofcalifornia.bsky.social #WWII worked Manhattan Project Metallurgical Lab. 1946 1st woman division head @ Argonne National Laboratory Director of Technical Information, 1st woman chair Chicago Section Amer Chem Soc. d #OTD 12 Jan 1986 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoyland...
Hoylande Young in profile sat at desk reading pile of papers.
January 13, 2026 at 12:14 AM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
admirablewomen.bsky.social
Susan Hayhurst: the first woman to get a pharmaceutical degree post a course of study on equal terms as male students (Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, 1883). She was 63.

It marked a milestone in achieving gender equality in professional educational standards. #WomenInSTEM #NationalPharmacistDay
A black-and-white historical portrait photograph of Susan Hayhurst (1820–1909) by Frederick Gutekunst, published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on August 8, 1909. She is a pioneering American physician, educator, and the first woman to earn a pharmaceutical degree in the United States (from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1883 at age 63): An older woman with short, wavy gray hair parted in the center, wearing small round wire-rimmed eyeglasses. She has a serious, dignified expression, gazing directly at the camera. She is dressed in dark Victorian/Edwardian-era clothing, including a high-necked dark dress or blouse with a textured vest or jacket, and a prominent decorative brooch or cameo at the neck. The image is framed in a simple rectangular border, typical of late 19th/early 20th-century studio photography, highlighting her as a trailblazing figure in pharmacy and women's professional advancement.
January 12, 2026 at 11:09 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
politicdormouse.bsky.social
Minnie Elizabeth (Betty) Barclay Lindsay, 2nd woman engineering graduate (mech eng) @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social Worked as #civilengineer in #Albania on Anti-Malarial Mission 1926-39 later technical translator in Spanish & Albanian for Air Ministry d. #OTD 11 Jan 1953 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_L...
Betty Lindsay with engineer Frederick W. Knipe and ecologist Dr Lewis W. Hackett in Albania
January 11, 2026 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
admirablewomen.bsky.social
On National Milk Day, let's celebrate chemist & food scientist Virginia Holsinger, whose enzyme research revolutionized dairy for millions. #WomenInSTEM

Her work laid the foundation for Lactaid® products, making milk digestible for the lactose-intolerant & improving nutrition worldwide. (1/2)
Black-and-white portrait of Virginia Holsinger (1931–2012), the pioneering American food scientist and inventor who developed lactose-free milk. She is shown smiling warmly at the camera, with short, light-colored wavy hair styled neatly. She wears a dark blazer over a dark top, accessorized with a long beaded necklace and a patterned pocket square tucked into the breast pocket. Small dangling earrings are visible, and the blurred dark background with foliage suggests an outdoor or garden setting. The image conveys approachability, confidence, and accomplishment. Color photograph of a grocery store dairy shelf displaying various cartons of Lactaid brand lactose-free milk. Prominently featured are half-gallon cartons in different varieties: 1% Lowfat Milk (light blue), Calcium Enriched Fat Free Milk (purple), Protein 2% Reduced Fat Milk (dark blue), 2% Reduced Fat Milk (blue), and Whole Milk (red). Each carton features an illustration of a glass of milk splashing next to chocolate chip cookies, with the Lactaid logo and "100% Lactose Free" labeling. Price tags show $2.57 each with "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" promotions, highlighting the product's availability for lactose-intolerant consumers.
January 11, 2026 at 11:11 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
politicdormouse.bsky.social
Mary Taylor Brush, US aviator, artist, plane designer & camouflage developer. Began experimenting on Morane-Borel monoplane bought in 1916, by 1917 filed patent stating she was could produce plane "practically invisible when in the air". b. #OTD 11 Jan 1866 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ta...
Portrait of Mary Taylor Brush (called Mrs. Brush in picture title), by her husband George de Forest Brush, 1888 Mary Taylor Brush's 1917 drawing from U.S. patent 1,293,688
January 11, 2026 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
wisarchive.bsky.social
Neuropathologist Gabrielle Lévy was born 140 years ago today - during her career she made fundamental contributions to our understanding of encephalitis lethargica, and in 1926 described the wasting condition now known as Roussy-Lévy Syndrome.

#WomenInSTEM #NeuroSky #BookSky 🧪🧠
January 11, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
politicdormouse.bsky.social
Helen Jeanne Skewes Plummer US micropaleontologist, expert on Gulf Coastal Plain foraminifera. 1917 1st woman geologist hired as employee @ petroleum company, Roxana Petroleum Co., subsidiary of Shell (women had previously consulted for industry). d. #OTD 11 Jan 1951 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_J...
Helen Jeanne Skewes Plummer in B&W headshot asa young woman #WomenInSTEM
January 11, 2026 at 6:52 PM
imaginedmemoir.bsky.social
Yes! I hope to get there to see it some day. I believe she lived on Alexander Street, and her father had a gilding/framing/shop; he also was a Daguerreotypist. 🌟
perthwomenwiki.bsky.social Perth Women on Wikipedia @perthwomenwiki.bsky.social · 6d
Williamina Fleming (1857-1911) was from Dundee. She has a blue plaque on the Dundee Women's Trail - on University of Dundee campus 💙
imaginedmemoir.bsky.social WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer @imaginedmemoir.bsky.social · 6d
Williamina Fleming was the first woman to hold a title at Harvard, Curator of Astronomical Photographs, in 1899. She supervised the Harvard Women Computers under Director Pickering until her death in 1911, when Annie Jump Cannon fulfilled those duties.
My historical fiction based on her life:
January 11, 2026 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
clayennisastro.bsky.social
I always get excited when the Horsehead Nebula is back in the night sky. It is a super cool target and one of the first that I tried and failed miserably at. I made this image black and white mainly because I think it looks cool. How do you like it? #astrophotography @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social
January 9, 2026 at 2:10 AM
imaginedmemoir.bsky.social
Williamina Fleming was the first woman to hold a title at Harvard, Curator of Astronomical Photographs, in 1899. She supervised the Harvard Women Computers under Director Pickering until her death in 1911, when Annie Jump Cannon fulfilled those duties.
My historical fiction based on her life:
January 8, 2026 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
politicdormouse.bsky.social
Fazila Samadova #Azerbaijani chemical engineer. Head of Lab @ Research Institute of Petrochemical Processes. 530 scientific works incl 64 copyright certificates & patents.1987 Prof of Oil & Gas Tech, 1991 Honoured Scientist of Azerbaijan. d. #OTD 8 Jan 2020 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazila_...
Fazila Samadova in later life
January 8, 2026 at 10:36 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
politicdormouse.bsky.social
Virginia Norwood US aerospace engineer, inventor, physicist. 1947 grad MIT in mathematical physics. Designed Multispectral Scanner used on Landsat 1, collecting satellite imagery of Earth launched 1972. Nicknamed "Mother of Landsat". b. #OTD 8 Jan 1927 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgini... #WomenInSTEM
Virginia Norwood holding a slide rule 1960s
January 8, 2026 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
minouette.bsky.social
The next #printerSolstice2526 prompt is ‘one’ so I selected a woman who was often the first: first woman science doctorate, first woman physics professor and first woman member of a scientific academy, the Academy of Sciences at the University of Bologna: Laura Bassi (1711-1778). 🐡🧪👩🏼‍🔬#histsci
🧵
My carved Lino block on cutting mat shows 18th century woman (Laura Bassi) in dress with fur cape, and hair in ringlets with a hairpiece which echoes a laurel crown. She’s holding an open book with Newtonian optics diagrams and in front of her is an electrical machine (a stand with vertical large glass plate and hand crank and brass tubes to channel the large electrostatic charges it could generate through friction). She is surrounded by typical high tech lab equipment of her day like conductors, an aurora flask, a luminous discharge tube, a Lane electrometer, Leyden jars and Volta's electric pistol.
January 7, 2026 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
hiddenherstory.bsky.social
📅Jan 7 1939: Marguerite Perey, A French physicist & student of Madam Curie, discovered Fr(francium), the last naturally occurring element. Perey went on become the 1st woman ever elected to the French Académie des Sciences in 1962,breaking a 296yr male only tradition. #WomenInSTEM
shorturl.at/bCZSh
January 7, 2026 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
wisarchive.bsky.social
Physicist Joan Freeman was born 108 years ago today. During World War II, her research aided the development of Australia's microwave-range radar defense grid, and after the war her experiments in beta decay would go on to be foundational for electroweak theory.

tinyurl.com/8dyn6zjy

#WomenInSTEM 🧪
From Wartime Radar to W-Bosons: The Experimental Physics of Joan Freeman.
In 1983, one of the great pillars of modern physics was cemented in place when CERN announced the discovery of a group of particles that stood at the center of the attempt to unify two of the universe...
tinyurl.com
January 7, 2026 at 3:11 PM
imaginedmemoir.bsky.social
My hero, Zero!
mariapopova.bsky.social Maria Popova @mariapopova.bsky.social · 8d
“If you look at zero you see nothing; but look through it and you will see the world.”

The invention of zero: www.themarginalian.org/2017/02/02/z...
January 7, 2026 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
nebulousnikki.bsky.social
Guys! Guys! This is SO cool. This is a time lapse from the Chandra X-ray Observatory of Kepler’s Supernova Remnant over 25 years!
January 6, 2026 at 9:32 PM
imaginedmemoir.bsky.social
amazing
drnereide.bsky.social Nereide @drnereide.bsky.social · 9d
🧵
This bright image features the central region of the Omega Centauri globular cluster, where a research team, using more than 500 images from Hubble, found evidence of a rare intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) candidate.

Why do researchers think so?

➡️ science.nasa.gov/missions/hub...

🔭 🧪 1/7
This image, a collection of myriad stars colored red, white, and blue on the black background of space, shows the central region of the Omega Centauri globular cluster, where #Hubble found evidence for an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) candidate.
January 7, 2026 at 12:09 AM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
politicdormouse.bsky.social
Edith Anne Stoney physicist. Her #Dublin scientific family moved to London for girls' education. 1st woman medical physicist, physics lecturer. #WWI set up medical & X-Ray services on front line. 1 of @wes1919.bsky.social ’s earliest & oldest membs b. #OTD 6 Jan 1869 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_A...
Edith Anne Stoney during her time in Cambridge in the early 1890s
January 6, 2026 at 10:32 PM
Reposted by WilliaminaFlemingAstronomer
politicdormouse.bsky.social
Laila Ohlgren, Swedish telecomms engineer in mobile telephony @ Telia. Introduced storing number in phone microprocessor so connection made via call button avoiding transmission breakages from dialing numbers. 2009 1st woman to win Polhem Prize. d. #OTD 6 Jan 2014. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laila_O...
Laila Ohlgren in B&W photosat using a phone prototype
January 6, 2026 at 11:16 PM
imaginedmemoir.bsky.social
Williamina Fleming featured in this new book on Women in the History of Quantum Physics (ed. Charbonneau)
January 5, 2026 at 10:32 PM