Isabel Martin Lewis

Born in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, in 1881, Isabel Martin Lewis studied at Cornell University and later at Teachers College, Columbia. She went on to build a notable career in astronomy at a time when very few women were given such opportunities.

Lewis is best known as the first woman hired by the United States Naval Observatory as an assistant astronomer. She worked on eclipses, calendars, and popular astronomy writing, and she also contributed regularly to public understanding of astronomical events through articles and reports.

She was elected to the American Astronomical Society in 1918 and was also associated with other scientific organizations, including the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. She died in 1966, remembered as both a skilled scientist and a clear, approachable science communicator.