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Researchers may access born digital materials by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by
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Preferred Citation
[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Katherine G. Johnson, Mathematician, Papers, A&M 4536, West Virginia
and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Joylette G. Hylick and Katherine G. Moore, 2021-2022.
Katherine Goble Johnson was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia on August 26, 1918. Born Creola Katherine Coleman
to parents Joylette Roberta and Joshua McKinley Coleman, she was the youngest of four children. Excelling at mathematics from
an early age, Katherine and her family moved to Institute, West Virginia in order for Katherine to attend high school on the
campus of West Virginia State University (WVSU). Graduating from high school at the age of 14, Johnson immediately enrolled
at WVSU to pursue higher education. At the age of 18 she graduated summa cum laude in 1937 with a double major in mathematics and French. Finding few opportunities for an African-American teenage mathematician
she eventually took a job as a schoolteacher in Marion, Virginia.
After marrying her first husband, James Goble, in 1939 Katherine was selected by the president of WVSU to be one of three
African Americans to integrate West Virginia University (WVU) following Governor Homer Holt's decision to desegregate public
graduate schools in West Virginia. Becoming the first African-American woman to be accepted into WVU's graduate program, Johnson
withdrew from classes after discovering she was pregnant, settling into motherhood and her career as a teacher over the next
decade.
In 1952, after hearing from a relative about jobs working with the all-black West Area computing section at the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Langley laboratory under the instruction of fellow West Virginian Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine
and James moved to Newport News, Virginia and Johnson began working at Langley in the summer of 1953. First assigned to a
project in the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division, her temporary position quickly turned permanent.
Johnson helped provide some of the math for the 1958 document Notes on Space Technology . As NACA transformed in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Johnson continued to provide groundbreaking
work including trajectory analysis for the 1961 Freedom 7 mission with Alan Shepard, America's first human spaceflight. Her
and engineer Ted Skopinski's Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite Over a Selected Earth Position was the first time a woman in the Flight Research Division received credit as an author of a research report.
Over the course of her career with NASA Johnson assisted with a variety of pioneering space flight missions. She verified
the flight plan of John Glenn prior to his historic orbit of the Earth in 1961, in 1969 she was part of the team that calculated
where and when to launch the rocket for the Apollo 11 mission that sent the first humans to the Moon, as well as working on
the space shuttle program, and authoring/coauthoring 26 research reports. Katherine Johnson retired from NASA in 1986 after
33 years at the Langley facility.
Over the years Johnson received numerous awards and recognitions for her contributions to space flight. In 2015, she was awarded
the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, the highest civilian award in the United States. In 2016, NASA
named the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility after her. Also in 2016, Margot Lee Shetterly published Hidden Figures: The American Dream and The Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race , a book about the West Area computers, including Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. A film based on the
book and having the same title was released that same year with the movie being nominated for Best Picture at the 89th Academy
Awards.
Katherine Johnson passed away on February 24, 2020 at the age of 101 at a retirement home in Newport News, Virginia. She was
preceded in death by her second husband Jim Johnson in 2019, whom she married in 1959 after the death of her first husband
in 1956. A memoir, My Remarkable Journey , co-written by Johnson and her daughters, Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore, was published posthumously in 2021.
Papers of Katherine G. Johnson. Includes assorted artifacts, family photographs, awards, honorary degrees, correspondence,
and other material regarding the career and life of Katherine G. Johnson. The bulk of the collection is focused on material
relating to the release of the 2016 film Hidden Figures while other material details Katherine Johnson's early life and her family history. Such material includes news clippings,
magazine articles, and fan mail to Katherine G. Johnson.
Includes materials related to Katherine G. Johnson, the film Hidden Figures , and general NASA publications. Types of material include newspaper clippings, magazine articles, pamphlets, program schedules,
books, and copies of commencement speeches given by Johnson and others, among other items.
Includes mostly fan mail to Katherine Johnson, with other items including personal and family correspondence, as well as writings
related to event and award ceremonies.
Includes family photographs, scrapbooks, Katherine Johnson's math tools and math book, and a Barbie doll of Katherine Johnson,
among other items.
Mixed Materials Box: 5 Folder: 1
Katherine Johnson funeral guestbook
2020 March 7
Mixed Materials Box: 5 Folder: 2
Photo albums of Katherine Johnson and Alpha Academy
2018-2020
Mixed Materials Box: 5 Folder: 3
Framed family portrait
undated
Mixed Materials Box: 6
Astronomical Society of the Pacific medal and paperweight
2016
Mixed Materials Box: 6
Buddha paperweight
undated
Mixed Materials Box: 6
Katherine Johnson signature stamp
undated
Mixed Materials Box: 8
Plastic squares and other mathematical instruments owned by Katherine Johnson
ca. 1930s-1960s
Scope and Contents
Contains four plastic squares, one broken spiral mathemathical instrument, one intact spiral, and one small paper kit containing
a variety of equipment.
Mixed Materials Box: 8
Circle templates, logarithmic spirals, ellipse set, and protractors (mathematical instruments) owned by Katherine Johnson
ca. 1930s -1960s
Scope and Contents
Contains two circle templates, one logarithmic spiral curve and booklet, one ellipse set, and two protractors.
Mixed Materials Box: 8
Katherine Johnson Barbie Doll
2017
Mixed Materials Box: 8
Slide rule (mathematical instrument) owned by Katherine Johnson
ca. 1930s-1960s
Mixed Materials Box: 8
Compass/divider kit (mathematical instrument) owned by Katherine Johnson
A significant portion of these photographs are of Katherine's maternal aunt, Lelia Lowe White, and her students at Langston
High School in Danville, VA.
Mixed Materials Box: 11 Folder: 2
Oversized birthday card and laminated news clippings
1999-2019
Mixed Materials Box: 11 Folder: 3
Framed photograph of NASA building dedication
2019 July 2
Mixed Materials Box: 12
A Manual of Mathematics book
1917
Mixed Materials Box: 12
Katherine Johnson's parents' bible
1902
Mixed Materials Box: 12
Ledger book
ca. 1800s
Scope and Contents
Includes handwritten math textbook in the ledger for a business (possibly a pharmacy) owned by an ancestor of Katherine Johnson
(likely Thomas H. Lowe) and several documents found inside the ledger, such as letters and a handwritten story. Other names
listed in this material include Abraham North Lowe and Lee Lowe.
Mixed Materials Box: 17 Folder: 1
Vanity Fair photograph by Annie Leibovitz
2016
Mixed Materials Box: 18 Folder: 3
Photographs of Katherine G. Johnson family members