In 2022, with the help of a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, I traveled to the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to access their glass plate photographic collection.  My research at the Observatory focused on a discovery made by Henrietta Swan Leavitt, a determined but relatively untrained young “computer” who worked at the Harvard Observatory from 1895 until her death in 1921.  Leavitt’s primary task was to identify and measure variable stars on the glass plate photographs taken both at the Harvard Observatory and at the Boyden Station in Peru.  Through meticulous observation, Leavitt discovered an undeniable relationship between period and luminosity in Cepheid variable stars, which allowed for the first measuring system for distances in the universe.  She described her findings in a 1912 paper titled “Periods of 25 Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud.”  Leavitt’s Law, as her findings became known, ultimately was used by ­­­­Edwin Hubble to prove that our universe is made of multiple galaxies. One hundred years after her important discovery, Leavitt’s essential contribution is still rarely acknowledged.    Her only memorial is a small crater that exists on the dark side of the moon which can’t be seen from earth.  

“25 Variable Stars: A Temporary Monument for Henrietta Swan Leavitt” is comprised of 25 large-scale lenticular photographs and a video animation created from hundreds of photographs of hand-blown glass objects.  These works form a series of portraits of the twenty-five stars in Henrietta Swan Leavitt’s ground-breaking 1912 paper.  Using the data Leavitt presented in this paper, each star’s portrait is created from a specific number of layered photographs that directly corresponds to the number of days it takes for the star to transform from its smallest and dimmest form to its largest and brightest iteration.  Together, these twenty-five star portraits tell the story of Leavitt’s important but overlooked contribution to astronomy.

By approaching Henrietta Swan Leavitt’s work in a multimedia way I hope to generate a visual experience of Leavitt’s important research that communicates a sense of awe and wonder at Leavitt’s discovery, as well as her essential contribution to modern astrophysics.

Documentation images of Kendall/MIT photo credit: Kayleigh MacDonald

Documentation images below courtesy of Copenhagen Contemporary. Photo credit: David Stjernholm

Documentation of Installation view Yet, It Moves!, Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhagen Airport (2023) Photo credit: Christian Brems