FAMOUS AND GREAT WOMEN.
Cont'd.HALL OF FAME
Her greatest achievement came as co-founder, in 1964, of SIECUS. Serving as its president from 1975 to 1982, Calderone and SIECUS fought to gain recognition of the idea that sexuality reflects the entire human character, not solely our gender-nature. Working to ensure that children receive a sound foundation in sex education at home and at school, Calderone has helped young people understand and appreciate their own sexuality. Her numerous books have taught thousands of confused and reluctant parents how to explain sex and sexuality to their children. Calderone's work has been recognized through numerous awards including the Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Schlesinger Library of Radcliffe/Harvard College, and the Award for Human Service from the Mental Health Association of New York. Summarizing Calderone's contributions, People magazine wrote: "What Margaret Sanger did for birth control and Rachel Carson [did] for the environment, Calderone . . . has done for sex education. Her work, like theirs, has profoundly changed the quality of life in this century." Additional Resources: Edited by Calderone. Manual of Contraceptive Practice. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1964. NOTES: Considered a pioneering medical text. Sexual Health and Family Planning. New York: American Public Health Association, 1967. With Eric W. Johnson. The Family Book about Sexuality. New York: Harper & Row, 1981. With James W. Ramey. Talking with your Child about Sex: Questions and Answers for Children from Birth to Puberty. New York: Random House, 1982.
Annie
Jump Cannon (1863-1941)
Astronomer who perfected the universal system of stellar classification. While
working at Harvard Observatory, Cannon compiled the largest accumulation of
astronomical information ever assembled by an individual.
Astronomer
Annie Jump Cannon perfected the universal system of stellar classification
still in use today, and compiled the largest accumulation of astronomical
information ever assembled by an individual - the Draper Catalog. Cannon was
an assistant at the Harvard Observatory beginning in 1896, and working with
Williamina Fleming, she undertook a continuation of the project of recording,
classifying and cataloging all stars down to the ninth magnitude. The
resulting classification system by temperature was her concept, and was
universally adopted. More than a quarter of a million stars were so
classified, and published as The Draper Catalogue in nine volumes, from 1918
to 1924. Cannon became curator of astronomical photographs of the Observatory
in 1911 and professor of astronomy in 1938. She published the Draper Catalogue
Extension in two volumes (1925 and 1949), with thousands more stars
catalogued. These works were of enormous value to the science of astronomy,
and forever secured Cannon's place in scientific history. Cannon was a women's
suffrage advocate and a member of the National Women's Party.
Additional Resources:
The Henry Draper Catalog. 9 volumes, 1918-1924. Printed in Volumes
91-99 of the Harvard Annals. The Hender Draper Extension. 2
volumes, 1925-1936. Printed in Volumes 100 and 112 of the Harvard Annals.
Papers 1863-1978 (inclusive), 12 cubic ft. in 35 boxes and 4 folders. And 2
boxes of photo albums, ca. 1880s-1930s. Harvard University, Archives, Pusey
Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Rachel
Carson (1907-1964)
Zoologist whose concern over the damaging effects of pesticides and other
poisons on the environment led to her groundbreaking work, Silent Spring.
Carson's book was a catalyst for the environmental movement of today.
A shy young
woman who loved books and nature equally well, Rachel Carson trained as a
zoologist. She joined the Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington to work on
their publications. In 1951 she came to national prominence when her book, The
Sea Around Us, topped the best seller list for 86 weeks. Her graceful prose
opened up scientific knowledge about the oceans to the layperson. An earlier
work, Under the Sea Wind, was reissued. When she studied marine life in Maine
for her next book, The Edge of the Sea, she stayed for hours wading in icy
tidal pools until she was so numb with cold she had to be carried out. She was
not by nature a crusader, but when aerial spraying of DDT killed the birds in
a friend's bird sanctuary, she began to investigate the effects of pesticides
on the chain of life. "The environment" and "ecology" have since become
household words for Americans, but it all began with her Silent Spring in
1962. Driven by the knowledge that the book was desperately needed, she pored
over and combined the work of many individual researchers. She wrote of the
heedless pesticide poisoning of our rivers and soils, warning that we might
soon face a spring when no bird songs could be heard. Rachel Carson had to
weather a storm of controversy and abuse, and she did not live to see the
eventual banning of DDT. But the environmentalist movement carries on the work
she began, preserving our natural heritage for the future.
Additional Resources:
Brooks, Paul. Rachel Carson: The Writer at Work. Sierra Books, 1998.
Formerly known as--The House of Life: Rachel Carson at Work. Boston:
Houghton-Mifflin, 1972. NOTES: Includes index. Bibliography: p. [331]-338.
"Rachel Carson bibliography": p. [339]-343. Hynes, H. Patricia. The
Recurring Silent Spring. New York: Pergamon Press, 1989. NOTES: Includes
index. Bibliographical references and index. Edited by: Gino J. Marco, Robert
M. Hollingworth, and William Durham. Silent Spring Revisited.
Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society, 1987. NOTES: Based on a symposium
on the topics posed in Rachel Carson's Silent spring, held in Philadelphia,
Aug. 1984. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Lear, Linda.
Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. Henry Holt & Co., 1997. NOTES:
Considered the definitive biography. Edited by: Martha Freeman. Always,
Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952-1964.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1995.
More names and bios shall appear in the forthcoming issue. Coming soon.