Maria was sixteen she was already a teaching assistant to a schoolmaster. He was Cyrus Peirce, the founder of the first normal school in America, nowadays called a teacher’s college. When she was seventeen she decided to open a school of her own. She rented a room and put an advertisement in the newspaper. The school closed after a year when Maria was offered a job as a librarian of Nantucket’s Atheneum Library. This job was perfect for her, because she was earning a good salary and had time to study and read books. Her father also was hired as cashier of the Pacific Bank. With his new job came the living quarters attached to the bank. Mr. Mitchell built an observatory on the roof and installed a brand-new four-inch telescope. He used it to do star observations for the United States Coast Guard and Maria helped her father with the measurements.

She was librarian of the town of Atheneum Mass. She was the first person to find a comet by telescope. This achievement frought her international recognition. Born in 1818 in Nantucket Mass to a quaker family, she was the first woman to be elected to both the American academy of Arts and Sciences and the American association for the academy of Science. She took the post of director of the observatory at Vassar College. She died in 1889 in Lynn Mass.

That would require knowing who Maria Mitchell is.

She served as professor of astronomy at Vassar College from 1865 to 1888

Here’s a wikipedia article on a woman named Maria Mitchell. I’m not sure if its the same woman you are talking about, but if it is, this article chronicles her early life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Mitchell

www.lkwdpl.org/WIHOHIO/mitc-mar.htm This is a link to her biography. I did Google search with her name, and thought this was most useful.

A teacher, then a librarian.