An Exhibition of the Development and Impact of Higher Education in Astronomy for Women at the University of Michigan
Laura Elizabeth Hill Mclaughlin
Ph.D. in Astronomy (1929)
Laura Elizabeth Hill Mclaughlin (born September 3, 1893 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania- died February 22, 1991)(3) was a computer, instructor, and researcher of astronomy. As an astronomer of the Detroit Observatory for the University of Michigan, she conducted research work alongside her husband, fellow Detroit Observatory astronomer Dean B. Mclaughlin.(2)
Early Life & Education
Raised within the Methodist Home for Children in Philadelphia, Mclaughlin was the first of the Home to ever attend college. She received a B.A. in Astronomy in 1917 with her thesis, “Proper Motions of Stars from Micrometric Measures” from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (4). She then remained at Northwestern to achieve an A.M in Astronomy (1). To receive a doctoral degree, Mclaughlin went to the University of Michigan and by 1929 graduated with a Ph.D. in Astronomy with her dissertation, “A Micro-Photometric Study of the Spectrum of Beta Lyrae”. The dissertation was conducted under the direction of Detroit Observatory Director Ralph Hamilton Curtiss. This piece was the last of her major research publications.
Family Life and Legacy
Mclaughlin married fellow Detroit Observatory Astronomer Dean B. Mclaughlin in 1927 (2). It was that year that Dean joined the U-M Faculty as an Assistant Professor of Astronomy, coming from Swarthmore College where he spent three years as an instructor of mathematics and astronomy (6). While Mclaughlin assisted her husband in his astronomical research efforts at the Detroit Observatory, she did not publish any independent work after the creation of her dissertation. Laura and Dean had five children: one son (Dean Mclaughlin Jr.) and four daughters (Elizabeth Schick, Laura Alberta Dawson, Sarah Mclaughlin, and Lawrence Farley), and fourteen grandchildren. She remained an active participant in Methodist Church community activities until her death in 1991. (6)