Agnes Mary Clerke (10 February 1842 - 20 January 1907) was an astronomer and writer, mainly in the field of astronomy. She was born in Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland, and died in London. Read more
This week sees the centenary of the death of Irish astronomer Agnes Mary Clerke, probably the most famous woman working in the field in Victorian times Agnes Mary Clerke (February 10, 1842 – January 20, 1907) was an astronomer and writer. She was born at Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland, and died in London. She was interested in astronomy from an early age, and had begun to write about it before the age of 15. In 1861 her family moved to Dublin, and in 1863 to Queenstown. She achieved a world-wide reputation in 1885, on the appearance of her exhaustive treatise, A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century. Clerke was not a practical astronomer, instead collating, interpreting and summarising the results of astronomical research.