Clerke, Agnes Mary (1842-1907)

Irish astronomer and writer who had a particular talent for collecting and summarizing results of astronomical research. Born in Skibbereen, County Cork, she showed an early interest in astronomy and began writing a history of the science at the age of 15. Her book, A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century (1885), received international recognition.

Clerke moved to Dublin in 1861, to Queenstown (now Cobh), County Cork in 1863, and then lived in Italy 1863-77 before settling in London where most of her important writing was done. Her first major article, ‘Copernicus in Italy’, was published in the Edinburgh Review in October 1877. Other notable works included Problems in Astrophysics (1903), and Modern Cosmogonies (1905). Although not a practical astronomer she spent three months at the Royal Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa. She was a member of the British Astronomical Association and was elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1903, at the time one of only four women to have been elected.