Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Maury (March 21, 1866 – January 8, 1952) was an American astronomer who was the first to detect and calculate the orbit of a spectroscopic binary. She published an important early catalog of stellar spectra using her own system of stellar classification, which was later adopted by the International Astronomical Union. She also spent many years studying the binary star Beta Lyrae. Maury was part of the Harvard Computers, a group of female astronomers and human computers at the Harvard College Observatory. Antonia Maury was awarded the Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy in 1943. William Wilson Morgan, one of the developers of the MK system of stellar classification, which builds upon her work, has said that he considers Antonia Maury "for me, the single greatest mind that has ever engaged itself in the field of the morphology of stellar spectra." Early life Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Maury was born in Cold Spring, New York, in 1866. She was named in honor of her maternal grandmother, Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Gardner Draper, the daughter of a physician at the court of John VI of Portugal and Charlotte of Spain. The family fled Portugal for Brazil because of the Napoleonic Wars. Maury's father was the Reverend Mytton Maury, an amateur naturalist, a direct descendant of the Reverend James Maury and one of the sons of Sarah Mytton Maury. Maury's mother was Virginia Draper, a daughter of Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Gardner and Dr. John William Draper. Maury was also the granddaughter of John William Draper and a niece of Henry Draper and his wife Mary Anna Draper, all pioneering astronomers. Mary Anna Draper funded research at Harvard College Observatory through the creation of the Henry Draper Memorial Fund. As a result of their family connections, Antonia and her two siblings were exposed to science at a very early age. Her younger sister, Carlotta Maury, went on to become a geologist, stratigrapher, and paleontologist. Antonia Maury attended Vassar College, graduating in 1887 with honors in physics, astronomy, and philosophy. At Vassar she studied under the tutelage of renowned astronomer Maria Mitchell. She was one of seven graduates chosen to give an addresses at her commencement. Astronomical work After completing her undergraduate work, Maury went to work at the Harvard College Observatory as one of the so-called Harvard Computers, highly skilled women who processed astronomical