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Hidden Human Computers: the Black Women of NASA: Home

Explores the contributions of Black women mathematicians and scientists to NASA

Hidden Human Computers

Duchess Harris events in San Diego

 

Related Books

 

Hidden Figures: the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race by Margot Lee Shetterly,

"Even as Virginia's Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley's all-black "West Computing" group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens."--Publisher's description.

 

 Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt

"During World War Il, when the brand-new minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate jet velocities and plot missile trajectories, they recruited an elite group of young women--known as "computers"--who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design and helped bring about America's first ballistic missiles."--Adapted from dust jacket.
 
 

 Rocket Girl by George D. Morgan; Forward by Ashley Stroupe

"When von Braun and other top engineers could not find a solution to the repeated failures that plagued the nascent U.S. rocket program, North American Aviation, where Mary Sherman Morgan then worked, was given the challenge. Her work resulted in a new propellant, Hydyne. While von Braun went on to become a high-profile figure in NASA's manned space flight, Mary Sherman Morgan and her contributions fell into obscurity."--from Rutgers catalog description.
 

 When Computers Were Human by David Alan Grier

"This is a book about heroism, technology, organization and hard work Before we had electronic computers, before we had machines to do computation for us, we had staffs of workers who processed information.  They sorted records, searched for data and processed numbers by hand.  These people, usually called “human computers” lay the foundation for the modern technological era."--http://whencomputerswerehuman.djaghe.com/