At the time of the annular eclipse of the sun in 1831 the totality was
central at Nantucket. The window was taken out of the parlor on Vestal
street, the telescope, the little Dolland, mounted in front of it, and
with Maria by his side counting the seconds the father observed the
eclipse. Maria was then twelve years old.
At sixteen Miss Mitchell left Mr. Peirce's school as a pupil, but was
retained as assistant teacher; she soon relinquished that position and
opened a private school on Traders' Lane. This school too she gave up
for the position of librarian of the Nantucket Atheneum, which office
she held for nearly twenty years.
This library was open only in the afternoon, and on Saturday evening.
The visitors were comparatively few in the afternoon, so that Miss
Mitchell had ample leisure for study,--an opportunity of which she made
the most. Her visitors in the afternoon were elderly men of leisure, who
enjoyed talking with so bright a girl on their favorite hobbies. When
they talked Miss Mitchell closed her book and took up her knitting, for
she was never idle. With some of these visitors the friendship was kept
up for years.
It was in this library that she found La Place's "Mecanique Celeste,"
translated by her father's friend, Dr. Bowditch; she also read the
"Theoria Motus," of Gauss, in its original Latin form. In her capacity
as librarian Miss Mitchell to a large extent controlled the reading of
the young people in the town.
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