Women Employees at NASA in January 1959

Photo Credit: NASA

The image above was taken in 1959 at NASA in Hampton, Virginia where the woman were gathered in a meeting room. The photograph includes Lucille Coltrane, Jean Clark Keating, Katherine Collie Speegle, Doris Lee, Ruth I. Whitman, and Emily Stephen Mueller (from far left). Lucille Coltrane was a “computer” at Langely Research Center; Jean Clark Keeting was an aerospace engineer; Katherine Collie Seegle and Doris Lee were mathematicians; Ruth I. Whitman was an engineer in the pilotless aircraft division, and Emily Stephens Mueller was also a computer who worked in the Space Task Group (Thomas, 2017).

From this image, I learned that women at NASA had various roles, which included: engineers, mathematicians, and computers. It is interesting to see from this image, the lack of diversity among the women as they were all what appeared to be caucasian. I also learned that during this time, even though women of color were also offered similar roles, they were segregated. At Langely Research Center, women of color worked on the west side of the center and non-colored women worked on the east side.

This photograph is an excellent resource to support my guiding questions, as it depicts both women mathematicians and scientists. It would be extremely beneficial for young students to see how women played an integral role at Langely Research Center. In addition, it represents the role of segregation during this time, as all the women in the photograph were not African American, even though African American women had similar roles at the research center during this time period.

Reference: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/langley/nasa-langley-s-hall-of-honor-calls-18-researchers-to-join-hallowed-ranks