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Wednesday, March 20, 2002

Mary Somerville was born to Vice Adm. Sir William George Fairfax and his wife, Margaret Charters, in 1780 in Scotland. Somerville did not receive a formal education because her parents considered it "unladylike" for a girl to study anything more than the rudiments of reading and writing.

However, her unquenchable desire to learn led her to educate herself by reading every book she could find in her home. At 13, she taught herself Latin so she could read "Caesar's Commentaries."

An algebra problem in a women's magazine piqued her interest to such an extent that she persuaded her younger brother's tutor to purchase a mathematics book for her. She also studied Euclid's "Elements" after hearing the book held the key to understanding astronomy, other sciences and perspective in painting.

In 1804 at 24, she married Samuel Greig. He grudgingly permitted her interest in mathematics and astronomy. He died three years after their marriage, leaving her with two sons, a large inheritance and time to study mathematics and astronomy.

She had a circle of friends made up of mathematicians and scientists who encouraged her. Somerville received a silver medal for her solution to a mathematical problem that had been published in The Mathematical Repository.

In 1812, she married William Somerville, a doctor and an inspector of hospitals who also encouraged her studies. During their marriage, she wrote many papers on astronomy and mathematics, including a translation and detailed explanation of Laplace's "Celestial Mechanics." The success of her works led to her election to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1835.

-- By Jennifer Cramer, intern, Henry Buhl Jr. Planetarium & Observatory