Visual artist and author Anna Von Mertens will talk about her book Attention Is Discovery:
The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt (to be released September 17th by the
MIT Press), which tells the fascinating story of the underrecognized woman whose
discovery founded modern cosmology.
Celebrating the path that led to that discovery, the book is highly visual in nature. As part of her talk, Von Mertens will show details of the photographic glass plates of that night sky that Leavitt studied to make her discovery; historic photos of the group of women, now known as the Harvard Computers, who worked at the Harvard College Observatory at the turn of the 20th century—women who chose not to marry or have children and instead chose to be dedicated to their astronomical work and to each other; and art that the artist made in response to Leavitt’s legacy that engages close looking. One of these artworks is a diptych of two hand-stitched quilts: the
first shows the stars above the place of Leavitt’s birth on the day of her birth; the second
showing the stars on the day of her death above Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she spent her life looking.
Book event is free, and open to all.