Victoria Burge

Star Data was inspired by objects found in a collection of contact prints. These objects came from two related projects at the Harvard College Observatory: the Harvard Standard Regions and the North Polar Sequence. Both aimed to provide astronomers with reliable sets of stars for calibrating stellar magnitudes. One of the biggest challenges with photographic plates was correcting for differences in telescopes and photographic materials.

The Standard Regions project sought to identify stars of fixed magnitudes across different parts of the sky. Wide-field plates would then capture several of these constant, non-variable stars, giving researchers a consistent standard for comparison. The Polar Sequence focused on a precise group of non-variable stars near Polaris, the North Star. Plates were made using a double-exposure technique: first the target field, then—after shifting the telescope—the same plate was exposed for the same duration on Polaris. This method required a new approach to plate-making and could not be retroactively applied to earlier plates.

Henrietta Swan Leavitt worked on both projects in the final years of her life. By the time of her death in 1921, she had made significant progress. The following year, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin arrived from England to pursue her doctorate at Harvard. The new observatory director, Harlow Shapley, initially encouraged her to continue Leavitt’s unfinished work, but she declined—choosing instead to study stellar spectra, supported by funding from Radcliffe College and a British women’s fellowship. Over a decade later, in the mid-1930s, Payne-Gaposchkin returned as a paid researcher, and Shapley once again assigned her the same task.

One of the central themes in Victoria Burge’s work, including Star Data, is the recognition of labor and the often-overlooked artifacts that record it. In the Plate Stacks, both glass plates and photographic prints are heavily annotated—covered in the handwriting of generations of researchers and astronomers. Burge’s artwork draws attention to these marks as evidence of the scientific process.

The detail of the print shown above illustrates why annotation was essential: labeling. Hundreds of stars are individually numbered, while pencil-drawn concentric rings form a bullseye around the north celestial pole. Straight radial lines mark Right Ascension, and curved arcs trace Declination.

This particular print inspired Star Data II. When Burge’s work is placed over the image, its punched holes reveal the hand-drawn numbers beneath, not the photographed objects. The size of each hole corresponds to the size of the annotation, not the star itself—making the pattern one step removed from the sky it represents. By following the rhythm of these perforations, one can also discern the underlying circular rings, even though Burge chose to replicate only the inked annotations.