Harvard Plate Stacks
| The Harvard Plate Stacks | |
|---|---|
| Mission statement | "to serve as a beacon of knowledge, preservation, and inclusivity, ensuring that the legacy of astrophotography and the pioneering women behind it continue to shine brightly for generations to come" |
| Commercial? | No |
| Type of project | Educational research center and historic archival collection |
| Location | Cambridge, MA |
| Owner | Harvard College Observatory a member of The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian |
| Founder | Mary Anna Draper and Edward Charles Pickering |
| Established | 1880s |
| Website | platestacks |
The Harvard Plate Stacks, previously known as the Harvard College Observatory's Glass Plate Collection or the Astronomical Photographic Glass Plate Collection is the largest collection of photographic glass plate negatives of the night sky in the world. The collection was created across a century by the Harvard College Observatory. Many of the people who worked in and studied the collection were a group of famous female astronomers called the Harvard Computers. It is a scientific and historical collection at the The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.