Eclipsed by history: underrecognized contributions to early british solar eclipse expeditions

Joel  Beckles; Deborah Kent

doi:10.1098/rsnr.2023.0001

Eclipsed by history: underrecognized contributions to early british solar eclipse expeditions

Joel Beckles, Deborah Kent^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Pure Mathematics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Solar eclipse expeditions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led to new scientific knowledge that is often credited to prominent male scientists such as Einstein and Eddington. Results generated by named individuals nonetheless depended on the collective effort of scientific administrators, government functionaries, manual labourers, domestic assistants, naval crew members and others. Much substantive work, essential to the success of the scientific ventures, was often done by people local to the observing stations. This paper focuses on British solar eclipse expeditions in 1889 and 1919 to highlight ways in which contributions of women and of people in colonized lands have been underrecognized by the expeditioners and in subsequent narratives about them.

Original language	English
Number of pages	22
Journal	Notes and Records of the Royal Society
Volume	Ahead of Print
Early online date	24 May 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2023.0001
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 24 May 2023

Keywords

Eclipse expeditions
Invisible labour
Nineteenth-century astronomy
Women in astronomy

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10.1098/rsnr.2023.0001Licence: CC BY

Beckles_2023_NR_Eclipsed-by-history_CC
Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Final published version, 2.35 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Eclipsed by history: underrecognized contributions to early british solar eclipse expeditions",

abstract = "Solar eclipse expeditions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led to new scientific knowledge that is often credited to prominent male scientists such as Einstein and Eddington. Results generated by named individuals nonetheless depended on the collective effort of scientific administrators, government functionaries, manual labourers, domestic assistants, naval crew members and others. Much substantive work, essential to the success of the scientific ventures, was often done by people local to the observing stations. This paper focuses on British solar eclipse expeditions in 1889 and 1919 to highlight ways in which contributions of women and of people in colonized lands have been underrecognized by the expeditioners and in subsequent narratives about them.",

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author = "Joel Beckles and Deborah Kent",

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AU - Kent, Deborah

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N2 - Solar eclipse expeditions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led to new scientific knowledge that is often credited to prominent male scientists such as Einstein and Eddington. Results generated by named individuals nonetheless depended on the collective effort of scientific administrators, government functionaries, manual labourers, domestic assistants, naval crew members and others. Much substantive work, essential to the success of the scientific ventures, was often done by people local to the observing stations. This paper focuses on British solar eclipse expeditions in 1889 and 1919 to highlight ways in which contributions of women and of people in colonized lands have been underrecognized by the expeditioners and in subsequent narratives about them.

AB - Solar eclipse expeditions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led to new scientific knowledge that is often credited to prominent male scientists such as Einstein and Eddington. Results generated by named individuals nonetheless depended on the collective effort of scientific administrators, government functionaries, manual labourers, domestic assistants, naval crew members and others. Much substantive work, essential to the success of the scientific ventures, was often done by people local to the observing stations. This paper focuses on British solar eclipse expeditions in 1889 and 1919 to highlight ways in which contributions of women and of people in colonized lands have been underrecognized by the expeditioners and in subsequent narratives about them.

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KW - Invisible labour

KW - Nineteenth-century astronomy

KW - Women in astronomy

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DO - 10.1098/rsnr.2023.0001

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VL - Ahead of Print

JO - Notes and Records of the Royal Society

JF - Notes and Records of the Royal Society

ER -

Eclipsed by history: underrecognized contributions to early british solar eclipse expeditions

Abstract

Keywords

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