June 15, 1876

Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, visited the college. “I had imagined the Emperor of Brazil,” Maria Mitchell wrote, “to be a dark, swarthy, tall man, of forty-five years; that he would not really have a crown upon his head, but that I should feel it was somewhere around, handy-like, and that I should know I was in royal presence. But he turns out to be a large, old man, say sixty-five, broad-headed and broad-shouldered, with a big white beard, and a very pleasant, even chatty, manner. Once inside of the dome, he seemed to feel at home; to my astonishment he asked if Alvan Clark made the glass of the equatorial…”

Phebe Mitchell Kendall, Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals.