The Telescope. A Familiar Sketch Combining a Special Notice of Objects within the Range of a Small Telescope, with a Detail of the most Interesting Discoveries which have been made with the Assistance of Powerful Telescopes, concerning the Phenomena of the Heavenly Bodies. Illustrated by the Author’s Original Drawings. London, Groombridge, 1869. Pp viii, 150, [2]. Original blue cloth decorated in gilt with title in gilt to upper cover and spine, all edges gilt. With new endpapers to front and rear. Foxing throughout text, ink stamp tom title, but overall a nice bright copy.

Frontispiece Map of the Moon with 12 coloured plates and several line drawings in the text.

Mary Ward (1827-1869) was born in Ferbane, County Offaly in 1827. The gift of a microscope in 1845 transformed her life and came at a time when her cousin, the third earl of Rosse, was completing the great telescope (then the largest in the world) in in the grounds of Birr Castle. Not surprisingly, this fuelled her interest in astronomy about which she would also write extensively. Her precise, detailed drawings of planets, moon craters, and nebulae, observed through the telescope, earned her significant respect within scientific circles. She corresponded with and was praised by leading astronomers of the day.

Sadly, Ward  holds the unfortunate distinction of being the first documented fatality of an automobile accident. While riding on a steam-powered car built by her cousins Richard & Charles Parsons, she was thrown from the vehicle during a sudden jolt and fell under its wheel, dying instantly