Research

Speaker: David Baron

On July 29, 1878, a total solar eclipse crossed Colorado and Wyoming. The astronomical event lured many of the era’s great scientists to the western frontier because it offered a rare opportunity to solve longstanding riddles of the sun and solar system. Based on his five years of original research, Boulder author David Baron tells the tale of this influential event in American science and shares the stories of some remarkable people who witnessed it. Among the prominent eclipse chasers in 1878 were Vassar astronomer Maria Mitchell, who headed an all-female expedition to Denver to show what women could do in science, and a young Thomas Edison, who after observing the eclipse in Wyoming soon lit the world with his most famous invention.