Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming (15 May 1857 – 21 May 1911) was a pioneering Scottish astronomer, who made significant contributions to the field despite facing gender biases.

[1] She was a single mother hired by the director of the Harvard College Observatory to help in the photographic classification of stellar spectra.

[6] After her husband abandoned her and her young son, she worked as a maid in the home of Professor Edward Charles Pickering, the director of the Harvard College Observatory (HCO).

[14] In 1890, the HCO published the first Henry Draper Catalogue due to years of work by their female computer team, a catalog with more than 10,000 stars classified according to their spectrum.

Fleming also made it possible to go back and compare recorded plates by organizing thousands of photographs by telescope along with other identifying factors.

Her speech suggested she agreed with the prevailing idea that women were inferior but felt that, if given more significant opportunities, they would be able to become equals; in other words, the sex differences in this regard were more culturally constructed than biologically grounded.

[6] Most notably, in 1888, Fleming discovered the Horsehead Nebula on a telescope-photogrammetry plate made by astronomer W. H. Pickering, brother of E.C.

The first Dreyer Index Catalogue omitted Fleming's name from the list of contributors, having then discovered sky objects at Harvard, attributing the entire work merely to "Pickering".

However, by the time the second Dreyer Index Catalogue was published in 1908, Fleming and her female colleagues at the HCO were sufficiently well-known and received proper credit for their discoveries.

Smith Zrull realized that the 2,500+ volumes were outside the scope of her work with DASCH but wanted to see the material preserved and made accessible.

In response, the Wolbach Library launched Project PHaEDRA (Preserving Harvard's Early Data and Research in Astronomy).

In July 2017, the Wolbach Library at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian unveiled a display showcasing Fleming's work,[25] including the log book containing the Horsehead Nebula discovery.