Sarah Frances Whiting

Sarah Frances Whiting (1846 – September 12, 1927), US physicist and astronomer, was the instructor to several astronomers, including Annie Jump Cannon.

Whiting attended classes at MIT and observed their undergraduate physics labs.

Whiting joined Wellesley College as its first professor of physics and established the undergraduate physics labs at Wellesley, the second of its kind to be started in the country.

While at MIT, Whiting met a physics professor named Edward Pickering. In 1877, Pickering left MIT to become the director of the Harvard College Observatory. He invited Whiting to observe some of the new techniques being applied to astronomy, such as spectroscopy. In 1880, Whiting started teaching astronomy at Wellesley.

In 1900, Whiting helped to establish the Wellesley College observatory, Whitin Observatory. Whiting then she became its first director.

Whiting retired from Wellesley in 1916.