page_title: Mythology of Benjamin Banneker
section_title: Astronomical works
hierarchical_section_title: Mythology of Benjamin Banneker / Astronomical works
caption_attribution_description: English: David Rittenhouse was a renowned American astronomer, inventor, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrument craftsman, and public official.
context_page_description: According to accounts that began to appear during the 1960s or earlier, a substantial mythology has exaggerated the accomplishments of Benjamin Banneker, who was a free African-American almanac author, surveyor, landowner and farmer who had knowledge of mathematics, astronomy and natural history. Well-known speakers, writers, artists and others have created, repeated and embellished a large number of such questionable reports during the two centuries that have elapsed since Banneker lived.
  Several such urban legends describe Banneker's alleged activities in the Washington, D.C., area around the time that he assisted Andrew Ellicott in the initial survey of the boundaries of the future federal district. Others involve his clock, his astronomical works, his almanacs and his journals. Although part of African-American culture, all lack support by historical evidence. Some are contradicted by such evidence.
context_section_description: In 2019, a Harvard University website describing a program that the "Banneker Institute" conducted at the school each summer claimed about Banneker: "As a forefather to Black American contributions to science, his eminence has earned him the distinction of being the first professional astronomer in America." The website, which noted that the program "prepares undergraduate students of color for graduate programs in astronomy by emphasizing research, building community, and encouraging debate and political action through social justice education", did not cite the source of this questionable information.
  Banneker prepared his first published almanac in 1791, during the same year that he participated in the federal district boundary survey. As a 1942 journal article entitled Early American Astronomy has reported, American almanacs published as early as 1687 predicted eclipses and other astronomical events. In contrast to the statement in the Banneker Institute's posting, that article and others that have reported the works of 17th and 18th century American astronomers either do not mention Banneker's name or describe his works as occurring after those of other Americans.
  Colonial Americans John Winthrop (a Harvard College professor) and David Rittenhouse authored publications that described their telescopic observations of the 1761 and 1769 transits of Venus soon after those events occurred. Other Americans, some of whom taught at Harvard, also wrote about astronomy and used telescopes when observing celestial bodies and events before 1790 (see also: Colonial American Astronomy).
  A book relating the history of American astronomy stated, that as a result of the American Revolution, "... what astronomical activity there was from 1776 through 1830 was sporadic and inconsequential". Another such book has stated that "the dawn of American professional astronomy" began in the middle of the 19th century. In 1839, the Harvard Corporation voted to appoint clockmaker William Cranch Bond, whom some consider to be the "father of American astronomy", as "Astronomical Observer to the University".
caption: National Portrait Gallery1796 portrait of David Rittenhouse by Charles Willson Peale
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