Elizabeth Martha Beckley

Elizabeth Martha Beckley (14 January 1846 – 6 August 1927) was a pioneering British astronomical photographer.[1][2][3]

She was born on 14 January 1846 in Wandsworth, London,[4][5] the daughter of Robert Beckley, a mechanical engineer based at Kew Observatory, who developed the Beckley rain gauge and the Robinson-Beckley anemometer with Thomas Romney Robinson.[1][6][7]

Beckley worked at Kew Observatory from 1854 while still a young girl,[2] where she was one of the first women to work at an astronomical observatory.[8] She photographed the sun in the 1860s and 1870s using a photoheliograph,[1][9][10] although her work was not always recognised.[11]

Beckley married fellow Kew Observatory employee George Mathews Whipple (1842–1893) in 1870.[8][12][13] They had five sons. The eldest was Robert Whipple, who was a scientific instrument collector, and founded the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge.[1][8] While another was Francis Whipple, who was superintendent at Kew Observatory from 1925 to 1939.[14]

She died at 15 Creighton Ave, Muswell Hill, London, on 6 August 1927.[3] Her funeral was held in Richmond, London, and she was buried with her husband in Richmond Old Burial Ground.[15][16]

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. "Death of Mrs G M Whipple". Saffron Walden Weekly News. 12 August 1927. p. 5. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
3. "Deaths". Saffron Walden Weekly News. 12 August 1927. p. 16. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
4. "Elizabeth Martha Beckley in 1885, Westminster Baptisms, St Barnabas, Pimlico, Middlesex, England". www.findmypast.co.uk. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
5. "Elizabeth Martha Beckley. Birth • England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008". Family Search.
6. "Two parts of Beckley recording rain gauge | Science Museum Group Collection". collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
7. Scott, Robert Henry (1886). "The History of the Kew Observatory" (PDF). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. XXXIX: 37–86 – via British Geological Survey.
8. Ptolemy, Photography and Pyjamas. Science Museum website.
9. Ré, Pedro. "THE KEW PHOTOHELIOGRAPH" (PDF).
10. "Diapositives of photographs of sunspots taken by Elizabeth Beckley with the Kew Photoheliograph". Science Museum Group.
11. "The Observatory of the British Association at Kew". The Norfolk News. 20 August 1868. p. 6 – via Find My Past.
12. "1893Obs....16..141. Page 141". The Observatory. 16: 141. 1893. Bibcode:1893Obs....16..141. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
13. "Elizabeth Martha Beckley b. 1845 Battersea, Surrey, England: Whipple Database". whipple.one-name.net. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
14. Who Was Who 1941-1950. Bloomsbury Publishing, London. 1980. ISBN 0-7136-2131-1. Entry of Francis John Welsh Whipple.
15. "Obituary. Mrs Whipple". The Times. 10 August 1927. p. 13 – via The Times Digital Archive.
16. Old Burial Ground Cemetery List (Excel Spreadsheet), Richmond Cemetery