Annie Jump Cannon

Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941), a prominent astronomer who pioneered stellar classification, observed her first stars from the roof of this house. Cannon, who was legally deaf, graduated valedictorian from Wilmington Conference Academy, now Wesley College, in 1880. She continued her studies at Wellesley College and Radcliffe Women’s College at Harvard. While working at the Harvard Observatory, Cannon developed the Star Spectra system, classifying over 300,000 stars based on color and temperature. She was the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Oxford University and her long career paved the way for women in science.