Mount Holyoke College - Llamarada Yearbook (South Hadley, MA)

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ELISABETH MILLER BARDWELL, PROFESSOR or As'1'1aoNoMv, AS born in Coleraine, December fourth, eighteen hundred and thirty-one. Her father, Amos Bardwell, was a man greatly honored by his town and always prominent in the administration of its affairs. For two years, from eighteen hundred and thirty-seven to thirty- nine, he represented his district in the Legislature of Massachusetts. Miss Bardwell's early home was on a high hill where, to the north, the nearest three or four miles away, rise the beautiful Leyden Hills, while to the southeast the view stretches beyond Sugar Loaf and Mt. Toby, and to the south, almost to Mt. Holyoke and Mt. Tom. Here in earliest childhood she learned to know and love the beauty of nature. After gaining what the district school had to offer, Miss Bardwell attended Shelburne Falls Academy. She taught her first school at the age of eighteen. From the first she was successful, and her services were always in demand until she left the public school for further study. Wliile she taught the district school, she had what she feels was a most valuable experience. She boarded round, and gained the acquaint- ance with all classes of people that enables her to judge character readily, and at the same time developed the ability to act under any circum- stances, however new and strange. Whetlier from this cause or some other, her judgment has been freely acknowledged by all and she has been for many years the counsellor of the perplexed. Miss Bardwell was graduated from Mount Holyoke in eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and in the following year entered upon her duties as instructor here. She had from the first the confidence of fellow- teachers and students. In eighteen hundred and seventy-three, Miss Bardwell did graduate work at Dartmouth College with Professor Quimby. Since the erection, in eighteen hundred and eighty-one, of the john Payson Williston Observatory, Miss Bardwell has been its happy and 17

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gi. ' ELISABETH 'MILLER BARDWELL ar 5' f

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able director. She delights in her delicate instruments almost as in personal friends, and any one who is allowed to handle them catches something of the same feeling. ' Miss Bardwell especially likes to tell the story of our equatorial. The object glass is one of the last and best of Alvan Clark's. The firm was honored with an order for a famous German observatory and took especial pains to make an instrument perfect in every way. After they had completed it with such great care, word was sent of a change of plan so that a smaller glass was wanted. Thus a piece of the most exact work that Mr. Clark ever did was thrown on the market at just the time we were ready to purchase. - Miss Bardwell frequently sets the telescope on some interesting celestial object and allows all who choose to come and look. This oppor- tunity, with Miss Bardwell's wise words of explanation and willing replies to questions, enables those not taking the course to become acquainted with the appearance of planets and their satellites, stars and nebulae. These advantages are appreciated by the students and the observatory is usually thronged while it is open to the public. Miss Bardwell is a member of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and of the British Astronomical Association. She has visited the most famous observatories and their directors, as the Washingtoiig Princeton, Lick, Berlin, and Potsdam Observatories. In the class room, her power is exceptional, she has rare ability and tact in making the student think for herself just as far as she is capable of doing so and then is ready with the right word of guidance. She has as various times written interesting and scholarly articles for the Astron- omy and Astro-Physics and for the Popular Astronomy. Miss Bardwell has a rare breadth of interest, she is exceedingly fond of music, art and poetry. By the depth of her Christian exper- ience, she has become a power in the lives of all who have known her. In many matters, she is rigid and inflexible, but she knows the love of God and is not prone to give more emphasis to his sternness than to his mercy. The new student is afraid of her, but soon learns to watch for the twinkle in her eye and to know her exceedingly kind heart. As an astronomer, a teacher, and a woman, Miss Bardwell richly deserves the honor and respect in which she is held by Mount Holyoke. C. F. K. 18