Maria Mitchell came by her love of learning naturally. Since her mother worked in libraries, she became an avid reader; her father enjoyed astronomy immensely, providing Maria early exposure to that field. In addition, she grew up in Nantucket, where people knew and appreciated natural phenomena. Although she completed her formal schooling at age sixteen, Mitchell studied further on her own, reading French authors, books on mathematics, and Bodwitch's Practical Navigator.

At seventeen she opened her own school, the beginning of a lifelong interest in educating others. She was unconventional in her approach to teaching, sometimes starting the school day before dawn to allow students to see certain birds, or extending class time into the night to encourage astronomical observations.

In 1836 she became a librarian, a post which gave her time to make an unusual astronomical discovery. Since the library was only open afternoons and Saturday evenings, she...