Agnes Mary Clerke

Irish Astronomer Agnes Mary Clerke (1842-1907)
Credit: American Astronomical Society

Agnes Mary Clerke was born in Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland in February 1842. Clerke spent a majority of her time reading and writing and loved the history of science (astronomy, in particular). The Clerke family moved around a lot, living in Dublin, Queenstown, and then in various cities in Italy including Rome, Naples, Florence, and Bagni di Lucca. Clerke worked especially hard in Florence, Italy where she read in the public library quite often. In 1877, Clerke and her family settled in London where she continued with her interest in writing, reading, and the history of science. She was a regular contributor to the Edinburgh Review during her lifetime, and she also contributed the main article on the history of astronomy and biographies on thirty astronomers to the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Clerke's first book was a popular science book and is entitled A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century (1885). Her second book, The System of the Stars (1890), focuses on the contents and structure of the visible universe. Two of her other notable books are Problems in Astrophysics (1903), and Modern Cosmogonies (1905). A complete list of Clerke's works would be difficult to compile as there are many, and each of these is a model of painstaking research and of clear, concise writing.

Some of Agnes Mary Clerke's works.

In 1892, Clerke was awarded the Actonian Prize by the Royal Institution for her works on astronomy, and in 1903, was elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society - an honor and title held previously only by Mary Somerville, Caroline Herschel, and Anne Sheepshanks. Her incredible contributions to the public's understanding of astronomy also earned her a crater on the Moon - Clerke is a lunar impact crater located near the Apollo 17 landing site.