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Mary Ellen Higby (née French), an employee of the Royal Observatory (1930-1943).

© National Maritime Museum, London

Repro ID: H6478
Title: Mary Ellen Higby (née French), an employee of the Royal Observatory (1930-1943).
Description: Mary Ellen French began work at the Observatory in 1930 as a computer, alongside 4 other ‘lady computers’ as they were termed. As a computer she had to make routine calculations on the observations made by the astronomers. After several years at the Observatory, she transferred to clerical work where most women employed by the Observatory after 1936 ended up. She married in 1939 but remained at the Observatory until 1943. In her time at the Observatory she worked under two Astronomers Royal, Frank Dyson and Harold Spencer Jones. She is photographed here using a solar micrometer to measure the exact position of sunspots on a glass plate of the Sun that the astronomers had produced.
Creator: Frank Dyson
Date: 20th century

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