Annie Maunder

Annie Russell was born (1868) and raised in Strabane, Ireland. She studied at Girton College, Cambridge, and took a job at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich as a “computer”, photographing and analysing sunspots. She married Walter Maunder in 1895 and was admitted to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1916. She died in 1947.

The mural references Maunder’s work in a number of ways: the eclipse in the apex is a reference to Maunder’s work on eclipses – she travelled to Norway in 1896, India in 1898, Algiers in 1900, and Mauritius in 1901 in order to photograph and research the solar eclipses; the butterflies are a reference to the “butterfly” diagram for sunspots (WP).

Most particularly referential is the mask with a moustache that she is holding. This is a reference to the treatment of women in the academic and scientific communities of the time: as a woman, she received no degree for her studies at Cambridge; as a married woman she was compelled to give up her position at the Observatory; she had been first nominated for membership of the Society more than twenty years earlier; her work in her first year at the Observatory was not credited to her and the butterfly diagram was initially attributed solely to Walter.

(Royal Museums | Royal Observatory | WP | Brück on Alive Everett and Annie Russell Maunder)

Painted by emic (web) in Bridge Street, Strabane. The portrait more closely resembles Everett than Russell (Girton).