Caroline Herschel - Astronomer

Judy Chicago is a feminist artist who created the installation at the Brooklyn Museum entitled "The Dinner Party", a symbolic history of women in Western Civilization. She did so by creating an equilateral triangle with 39 place settings that each honored a woman who made an impact on the world. The plate above honors Caroline Herschel, a woman who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. She was educated by her father, and continued her education under her brother, becoming an astronomer and discovering multiple comets. When Caroline's brother was appointed by King George III as his royal astronomer, she was his assistant, receiving a salary, which made her the first woman in science to be recognized for her academic work and research. Interestingly, Caroline was 4' 3" due to a typhus infection that she contracted at 10 years old. The eye in the plate above represents her eye looking through a telescope at the universe. The shape around the eye is a representation of the Milky Way depicted by Caroline herself.

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