GHI Individual Research Grant

On March 16, 1926 physicist and inventor Robert H. Goddard successfully launched the first liquid- fueled rocket. This day would be remembered as the origin of the modern rocket and the field of rocket science. In preparation for the Centennial on March 16, 2026, and with the support of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative, Dr. Erika B. Seamon (American Studies Program) is researching an unsung hero of this rocket origin story—Mrs. Esther C. Kisk Goddard.

Esther Goddard was not only present on March 16, 1926, she was in charge of the French “Sept” motion picture camera which was crucial for data collection of the rocket launch. On that day and for the next twenty years, Esther would serve not only as the photographer, but also as Dr. Goddard’s trusted confidant and consultant. After Dr. Goddard died in 1945, Esther spent the next thirty years of her life preserving his work and his memory. She transcribed, organized, collected, and curated research diaries, photographic collections, and other artifacts; she applied for patents; and, she ingratiated herself into the nation’s most prestigious universities and research centers in order to ensure Goddard’s discoveries would persist. Without Esther’s leadership, Goddard’s name would not be attached to NASA’s Goddard Space Center and Buzz Aldrin would not have brought the biography of Robert Goddard with him on the Apollo 11.

Despite her significant contributions, there is currently very little substantive scholarship on Mrs. Esther C. Kisk Goddard. Through archival research at Worcester Polytech Institute and Clark University, oral histories with those who knew her, and visits to the Goddard’s house in Worcester, Massachusetts, Dr. Seamon will seek to understand the woman behind the rocket and her contributions not only to rocket science, but also to perpetuating Dr. Goddard’s memory.