Edwin Hubble: The Discoverer of Galaxies Edwin Hubble was born on November 20, 1889 in Marshfield, Missouri and was the third of seven children. His father was John Powell Hubble and his mother was Virginia Lee James Hubble. As a child, he loved to observe nature and look through his grandfather’s telescope. His parents encouraged Edwin and his siblings to get a good education. Edwin’s father hoped that his son would become a lawyer. When Edwin was 12 years old, his family moved to Wheaton, Illinois where he started the eighth grade. He was always two years younger than his classmates all the way through high school. In high school, Hubble learned about the Rhodes Scholarship. The Rhodes Scholarship is a scholarship that sends students to the famous university in Oxford, England for three years of the degree they choose. The students also receive $1,500 dollars with all expenses paid for including food and transportation. In order for the student’s to qualify for the scholarship they must first go to college, then apply and take a difficult exam. On the night of Hubble’s graduation, the superintendent awarded Hubble with a scholarship to the University of Chicago. This was the first step towards the Rhodes Scholarship. In college, Hubble took courses in both law and astronomy. He had teachers that won Nobel prizes, which contributed to his success of getting a Rhodes Scholarship. After Hubble finished college, he took the exam for the Rhodes Scholarship and got the best score out of all the other students who took the exam. On September 7, 1910, Hubble boarded a train to Montréal, Canada, where a ship took Him and eleven Rhodes scholars to England. Oxford University is made up of 20 campuses. Hubble chose Queen’s college. It was a college that was able to accommodate all of Hubble’s needs in both law and astronomy. In the summer of 1913, Hubble returned home only to find that his father had died of malaria and a fatal liver disease. He also took a visit to the local circuit court judge to gain authorization to practice law. He later got a job at New Albany High School in Indiana. He taught physics, Spanish, and mathematics. At the end of the school year in 1914, Hubble became the assistant of Edwin B. Frost, the director of Yerkes Observatory. Yerkes observatory is located on the shores of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Two years later, Dr. George Ellery hale, the director of Mt. Wilson Observatory, offered Hubble a job as astronomer. Because World War I had started, Hubble enlisted in the army and asked Dr. Hale to save the position for him. In the Army, Hubble quickly advanced to the rank of Major and liked to run things in a strict military fashion. In the year 1919, Hubble traveled to Pasadena, California, where he started work at the Mt. Wilson Observatory. At Mt. Wilson, giant telescopes were being built. The 100-inch Hooker telescope would be the biggest telescope in the world. Astronomers in