Cannon, Annie Jump (18631941), a United States astronomer. She had a long, distinguished career at Harvard Observatory, 18961940, and was one of the foremost women scientists of her time. She was a pioneer in the analysis of the spectra of stars and completed a catalog classifying some 350,000 stars. In her work with astronomical photographs, she discovered several hundred variable stars and numerous novae and double stars.
Cannon was born in Dover, Delaware. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1884, and in 1896 became staff assistant at Harvard Observatory. She was made curator of astronomical photographs there in 1911 and the William Cranch Bond Astronomer in 1938. She received numerous honorary degrees, including the first ever awarded by Oxford University to a woman.