Williamina Fleming was born May 15, 1857 in Dundee, Scotland. Her story is one of resilience and determination. She took every opportunity she was given and ran with it. She married James Fleming in 1877 and shortly after that, they both moved to Boston. However, a year later, James left her and their unborn son. To support herself and her son, she took a job as Edward Pickering’s housekeeper. In 1881, Pickering hired her to do clerical and mathematical work in the Harvard Observatory, where he was the director. This, of course, is where we find Williamina in Silent Sky.
Michelle Sullivan is the actress who plays Williamina in College of Charleston’s production. She speaks highly of Williamina, both the character and the historical figure (because of course, much of the traits in the play are somewhat made up). After describing Williamina’s situation in her own words, Michelle comments “she’s in this really desperate dire situation and so instead of shutting down and choosing to give up, she does what a lot of people at the time had to do, which is kind of like screw your courage and find a strategy that works for you to try and go on with your life. And it doesn’t make her bitter.”
Michelle goes on to talk about Williamina’s sense of humor. When asked to compare herself and Williamina, Michelle says, “I choose to get up and look at every day with a positive attitude. I don’t always succeed and she’s kind of an inspiration of mine as a character because she’s facing the kind of adversity that I could really never imagine facing and she’s doing so with grace and humility and a sense of joy and so I really aspire to be like that.”
Williamina Fleming faced an enormous amount of adversity as an immigrant, a woman, and a working single mother. And yet she powered through. By the end of her career, she had discovered 10 novae, 52 gaseous nebulae, and 310 variable stars. She was a force to be reckoned with both in her real life and as a character in Silent Sky and everyone could use a role model like her.
If Lauren Gunderson’s portrayal of Williamina Fleming could be summed up in one sentence, Michelle says it best: “she’s fabulous and very funny.”