Cambridge
Cecilia went to "Newnham College, Cambridge ... to study physics" (Interview)
Laboratory at Newnham College [Image courtesy Newnham College].
Payne faced much discrimination at Cambridge. "When I went to Cambridge, women were segregated in the lecture room." (Cecilia Payne-Gaposhckin).
"Unfortunately I didn’t have a tutor because there weren’t any women who were qualified to tutor in physics. The men had tutors, and occasionally got some help from a man from a man’s college" (Interview).
"There was one other [woman], but I think she dropped out. I was the only woman who sat through the second part of the studies" (interview)
Ernest Rutherford was the Physics professor at Cambridge and "taught in the Cavendish Laboratory" (Payne-Gaposchkin). Because of his discriminatory disposition towards women, Cecilia "was afraid to ask questions, made many blunders, and learned very little about experimental physics" (Payne-Gaposchkin).
"Well, I was rather resented, know I was resented by Rutherford. I don't think he thought much of women in research."
~ Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
Ernest Rutherford [Image Courtesy Britannica]
Staff and Students at Cavendish Laboratory [Image courtesy Research Gate]
"I was the only woman student who attended [lectures] and the regulations required that women sit at the front row... I vividly remember him [Rutherford] starting his lectures with a pointed 'ladies... and gentlemen.' The boys regularly greeted this witticism with thunderous applause... and at every lecture I wished I could sink down into the earth"
~ Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Autobiography
"I became quite a close friend of his daughter, and she reported to me that he had said to her indignantly, "She isn't interested in you, my dear; she's just interested in me," which made me so mad that I decided that I would not continue in physics but that I would turn to astronomy as soon as I could."
~ Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Interview
"Eddington gave a lecture on relativity right after he had returned from an expedition in Brazil," and "when I returned to my room, I found that I could write the lecture word for word... I was so shaken... I stayed up three nights" (Payne-Gaposchkin).
Sir Arthur Eddington was a professor of astronomy at Cambridge University and a popularizer of science. His lectures encouraged Payne to pursue astronomy as a career.
"When she told Eddington of her ambition to be an astronomer, 'I see no insuperable objection' was his laconic reply"
~Owen Gingerich
Sir Arthur Eddington [Image courtesy Britannica]
"Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin completed her undergraduate studies in astronomy at Newnham College, Cambridge in 1923. However her degree was not awarded as Cambridge did not grant degrees to women until 1948" (Smith et. al).
Harvard
"Payne-Gaposchkin applied for and won a National Research Fellowship to attend Radcliffe College, Harvard's women's college, to work on a Ph.D." (Oakes)
Harlow Shapley [Image Courtesy the Library of Congress]
Harlow Shapley was an "American astronomer who worked at Harvard as a professor"(Payne-Gaposchkin). After Payne moved to Harvard on a fellowship partially sponsored by Shapley himself, she worked for him at Harvard Observatory.
"Dr. Comrie introduced me to Harlow Shapley. I came immediately to the point. 'I should like,' I said, 'to come and work under you.' He answered that he would be delighted: 'When Miss [Annie Jump] Cannon retires, you can succeed her.'"
~ Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
Harvard employees acting in a play [Image courtesy Britannica]
In the fall of 1923, Cecilia Payne crossed the Atlantic Ocean to from London, England, to Cambridge, Boston, to work at Harvard Observatory. There, she experienced an atmosphere of greater gender equality and began working with other women, including Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Leavitt, and Antonia Maury.
"Coming to Harvard was intoxicating"
At Harvard Observatory, Payne experienced an atmosphere where she was "free, for the first time, to do astronomy just as much as she wanted when she never had been [able to] before" (Interview). This increased freedom allowed Payne to pursue her career in astronomy.
Women of Harvard Observatory [Image Courtesy Britannica]
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