Search for evolutionary changes in Cepheid periods using the Harvard plate collection: NSV 9159

We have obtained 530 photographic magnitude estimates for the long-period classical Cepheid NSV 9159 (P = 39^d) in the plate collections of the Harvard Observatory and the Sternberg Astronomical Institute. Together with the currently available CCD observations from the ASAS-3 catalog, our data have allowed us to construct an O-C diagram spanning a time interval of 119 years. The O-C diagram has the shape of a parabola, which has made it possible to determine for the first time the quadratic light elements and to calculate the rate of evolutionary decrease in the period, 314.4 (±7.3) s yr^?1, in agreement with the results of theoretical calculations for the second crossing of the instability strip. The available data reduced by the Eddington-Plakidis method do not reveal any noticeable random fluctuations in the period.