Wrexie Leonard

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Wrexie Leonard
Leonard in 1937
Born
Wrexie Louise Leonard

September 15, 1867
DiedNovember 9, 1937(1937-11-09) (aged 70)
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy

Wrexie Leonard (September 15, 1867 – November 9, 1937), also known as Louise Leonard, was an American astronomer who worked as an assistant to Percival Lowell and published her observations of Mars. The Leonard Crater on Venus is named for her.

Biography

Wrexie Louise Leonard was raised in Troy, Pennsylvania, and later moved to Boston.[1] She was private secretary and assistant to the astronomer Percival Lowell for over two decades, from 1883 until Lowell's death.[1][2] In 1895, she traveled to Africa with Lowell to look for a site for a new observatory, which was later established in Flagstaff, Arizona.[1][3]

Leonard managed Lowell's correspondence, edited his many articles and speeches, and traveled with him extensively.

oppositions of Mars that she would observe.[5] In 1907, she published her drawings of Mars in Popular Astronomy with notes on the planet—its ice caps, Lowell's 'canals'— during some of the years when it was in opposition (1901, 1903, 1905).[3]

In 1904, Leonard was inducted into the

Societé Astronomique de France, then an unusual honor for a woman.[3] She was also an honorary member of the Sociedad Astronomico de Mexico.[6]

After Lowell's death in 1916, she moved back to the eastern United States.

Roxbury, Massachusetts.[1]

Legacy

The 31.7 kilometres (19.7 mi) wide Leonard crater on Venus (latitude −73.8, longitude 185.2) is named after her.[3]

Leonard was the basis for the character Lulu in Jan Millsapps' 2014 novel Venus on Mars.[9]

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Putnam, William Lowell. The Explorers of Mars Hill. Light Technology Publishing, 1994.
  2. ^ "Obituary." Boston Evening Transcript, Nov. 12, 1937.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Millsapps, Jan. "Wrexie Louise Leonard: Take a Letter, Take a Look". The Lowell Observer, no .80, Fall 2008. Archived
  4. ^ Millsapps, Jan. "Celebrating Women’s History Month — On Mars". Huffpost Science blog.
  5. ^ Sheehan, William, and Christopher J. Conselice. "Galactic Encounters: Our Majestic and Evolving Star-System, From the Big Bang to Time’s End." Physics Today, vol. 68, no. 6 (2015), p. 54.
  6. ^ Plutovian. "Wrexie and Percy". Finding Pluto blog.
  7. ^ Goodman, Susan. Republic of Words: The Atlantic Monthly and Its Writers, 1857–1925. UPNE, 2011, p. 178.
  8. ^ Leonard, Louise. Percival Lowell: An Afterglow. RG Badger, 1921, pp. 52–-.
  9. ^ Millsapps, Jan. "Wrexie, Ada, let’s celebrate!". Venus on Mars blog, March 24, 2010.
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