Table of Contents
- Collection Summary
- Biographical Note
- Scope and Content Note
- Subject Headings
- Related Material
- Administrative Information
- Access and Use
- Encoding Information
- Series List
- Container List
Collection Summary
Repository: | Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries |
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Creator: | Furness, Caroline E. (Caroline Ellen), 1869-1936 |
Title: | Caroline Furness Papers |
Inclusive Dates: | 1840-1938 |
Bulk Dates: | 1887-1928 |
Quantity: | 4 cubic feet (5 boxes, 1 OV folder) |
Abstract: | The Caroline Furness Papers consist of correspondence, personal and professional papers, writings, research, and photographs created and assembled by American astronomer and Vassar faculty member Caroline E. Furness. Notable correspondents include Furness’s father, Henry B. Furness; Vassar faculty member Mary W. Whitney; Kan'ichi Asakawa; Sakusaburo Uchigasaki; Rose O'Neill; Vilhjalmur Stefansson; and other astronomers, including Jan van der Bilt, Phoebe Waterman Haas, and Ruth E. Smith. |
Language of Material: | Materials are in English, with some materials in Japanese. |
Biographical Note
Caroline Eleanor Furness (1869-1936) was an American astronomer and professor at Vassar College. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 24, 1869, to Henry B. Furness and Caroline Sarah Baker, she spent her adolescence in Cincinnati, where her father was a high-school science teacher. She came to Vassar in 1887 as part of the class of 1891, and would be associated with the college for most of her life. In 1894, she became Professor Mary W. Whitney's assistant in the Vassar College Observatory, and in 1900 received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. She became an associate professor at Vassar in 1911, director of the Observatory a few years later, and Alumnae Maria Mitchell Professor of Astronomy in 1916. Her best-known publication is Introduction to Variable Stars, published in 1915.
One of Furness's many interests outside her astronomical work was Japan, particularly the education of Japanese women and their opportunities for participation in civic and political life. In 1918, Furness travelled to Japan and met with numerous women educators and political figures, including Umeko Tsuda, one of the five girls sent to the United States in 1872 as part of the Iwakura Mission. Two of the other five girls were Vassar graduates Sutematsu (Yamakawa) Oyama (VC 1882) and Shigeko (Nagai) Uriu (VC Spec 1878-1881). During her visit, she collaborated with the Red Cross of Japan and the Unitarian Women of Japan.
Furness taught at Vassar until her death in 1936.
TopScope and Content Note
Correspondence makes up the largest portion of the Furness papers and includes 182 letters written by Caroline E. Furness to her friends and family, primarily during her years as a Vassar student, 1887-1891. Incoming correspondence consists of 2,199 letters received from family, friends, colleagues, and other professional acquaintances on various personal and professional topics, from family life and travel, to astronomical work and women's suffrage. Additional materials include travel diaries from trips to Europe and Japan with records of star sightings; astronomy and birdwatching notebooks; drafts of written works; records from the Vassar College Astronomy Department; photographs of Furness and her visits to Japan; and research on Matthew Vassar's family history.
TopAccess and Use
Access
This collection is open for research according to the regulations of the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library without any additional restrictions.
Restrictions on Use
Permission to quote (publish) from unpublished or previously published material must be obtained as described in the regulations of the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library.
Subject Headings
Names:
- Asakawa, Kan'ichi, 1873-1948
- Bilt, Jan van der, 1876-1962
- Furness family
- Furness, H. B.
- Haas, Phoebe Waterman
- O'Neill, Rose Cecil, 1874-1944
- Smith, Ruth E.
- Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 1879-1962
- Uchigasaki, Sakusaburo
- Vassar, Matthew, 1792-1868
- Whitney, Mary Watson, 1847-1921
Organizations:
- American Unitarian Association
- Pan-Pacific Women's Conference (1927)
- Vassar College--Faculty
- Vassar College--Students
Subjects:
- Astronomers
- Astronomy--Research
- Astronomy--Study and teaching
- Women college teachers
- Women scientists
- Women--Diaries
- Women--Education--Japan
- Women--Japan--Social conditions
Places:
- Cincinnati (Ohio)--Politics and government
Document Types:
- Correspondence
- Cyanotypes (photographic prints)
- Diaries
- Essays
- Financial records
- Photographs
- Postcards
- Printed ephemera
- Reports
VCL Categories:
- East Asia and South Asia
- Math, Science and Medicine
- Vassar College
- Women's History
Encoding Information
Encoded by Elizabeth Clarke, February 2007. Updated by Emma Gronbeck, December 2023.
TopAdministrative Information
Preferred Citation
Caroline Furness Papers, Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries.
Processing Information
Processed by Emma Gronbeck, December 2023.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Estate of Caroline Furness.
Series List
Series I. Correspondence, 1840-1935 (Boxes 1-3) | |
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Correspondence makes up the largest part of the Caroline E. Furness Papers and includes letters to and from Caroline E. Furness's family, friends, and professional contacts. Her outgoing correspondence consists primarily of letters written to her family during her years at Vassar. Incoming family correspondence consists of letters from Furness's father, H. B. Furness, about Cincinnati, Ohio politics, his reading, her work and career, family matters, and other intellectual pursuits (131 letters); her sister Mary (74 letters); and her cousins, Alexander and Philip Macomber, and their father James. Professional correspondence related to astronomy includes extensive correspondence with Furness's Vassar mentor, Mary Watson Whitney, about intellectual and professional issues, travel, affairs of friends, and other personal news (1,098 letters); as well as letters on both personal and professional topics from a variety of Dutch and American astronomers, including Jan van der Bilt, Benjamin Boss, Annie J. Cannon, Edwin B. Frost, Phoebe Waterman Haas (VC 1904), Alberta Hawes, John Hedrick, Harold Jacoby, Jacobus Kapteyn, Carl Otto Lampland, Harriet McWilliams Parsons, Ruth Emily Smith, Lillian M. Wickham, and Anne Sewell Young. | |
Additional correspondents include a number of Japanese educators and activists, particularly Yale professor Kan'ichi Asakawa, the first Japanese citizen to teach at an American university and one of the major figures involved in establishing the field of Asian Studies in the United States (85 letters); as well as professor and politician Sakusaburo Uchigasaki (13 letters); and Michi Kawai, a Japanese educator and Christian activist who helped found the Japanese YWCA (2 letters). Other notable correspondents include Rose O'Neill, inventor of the Kewpie Doll (6 letters); and Arctic explorer and ethnologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson (5 letters). | |
Correspondence is organized into 3 subseries: Outgoing Correspondence, Incoming Correspondence, and Correspondence Between Others. Each subseries is arranged alphabetically with unidentified correspondence filed at the end of the sequence. |
Series II. Personal and Professional Papers, 1901-1938 (Box 3) | |
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This series consists of assorted materials related to Caroline Furness's personal and professional matters. It includes personal and family memorabilia, such as passports and clippings; printed ephemera and notes from trips to Japan and the Netherlands; printed ephemera and notes related to professional organizations; and materials related to Furness's career as Professor of Astronomy at Vassar College. Vassar College materials include correspondence related to Furness's struggle to be promoted from associate professor of astronomy to head of the department after Mary Whitney's retirement in 1910; financial records of the department; annual reports and budgets; and student papers from 1925. | |
Arranged alphabetically by file title. |
Series III. Writings, 1890-1928 (Box 3) | |
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This series consists of Caroline Furness's writings and related correspondence, including notebooks on various topics from astronomy to birdwatching; travel journals from trips abroad; drafts of written works; and correspondence related to published books and articles. | |
Arranged alphabetically by file title. |
Series IV. Photographs, circa 1870-1926, undated (Box 4) | |
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This series consists of photographic prints and cyanotypes of Caroline Furness during various periods of her life. Also included are photographs of family, friends, places, and people met during Furness's visit to Japan in 1918-1919. | |
Arranged alphabetically by file title. |
Series V. Vassar Family Research, 1926-1932 (Box 4) | |
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This series consists of Caroline Furness's correspondence, notes, and copies of documents related to her research into Matthew Vassar and his family history. Furness commissioned B. H. Vores to research Matthew Vassar's family history in Norfolk, particularly whether concrete evidence could be found as to whether or not William Vassar of Shipdham was Matthew Vassar's grandfather, and the series includes their correspondence as well as Vores's final report on his findings. Also included is correspondence with other individuals regarding the Vassar family's genealogy, notably Vassar relative William A. F. Vassar. | |
Arranged alphabetically by file title. |
Container List
Return to the Table of Contents
Details
The Caroline Furness Papers consist
of correspondence, personal and professional papers, writings, research, and
photographs created and assembled by American astronomer and Vassar faculty member
Caroline E. Furness. Notable correspondents include Furness’s father, Henry B.
Furness; Vassar faculty member Mary W. Whitney; Kan'ichi Asakawa; Sakusaburo
Uchigasaki; Rose O'Neill; Vilhjalmur Stefansson; and other astronomers, including
Jan van der Bilt, Phoebe Waterman Haas, and Ruth E. Smith.