Elizabeth Beckley

Elizabeth Beckley (c.1846-1927) was a pioneering British astronomical photographer.[1]

She was the daughter of Robert Beckley, a mechanical engineer based at Kew Observatory, who developed the Robinson-Beckley anemometer with Thomas Romney Robinson.[1]

Beckley worked at Kew Observatory, where she was one of the first women to work at an astronomical observatory.[2] She photographed the sun in the 1860s and 1870s using a photoheliograph.[1]

Beckley married fellow Kew Observatory employee George Matthew Whipple.[2] They had two sons. The elder, Robert Whipple, was a scientific instrument collector, and founded the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge,[2][1] while the younger, Francis Whipple, was superintendent of Kew Observatory from 1925 to 1939.[3]

References
  1. Macdonald, Lee (9 March 2017). "'Work peculiarly fitting to a lady': Elizabeth Beckley and the early years of solar photography". conscicom.org. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  2. Ptolemy, Photography and Pyjamas. Science Museum website.
  3. Who Was Who 1941-1950. Bloomsbury Publishing, London. 1980. ISBN 0-7136-2131-1. Entry of Francis John Welsh Whipple.
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