Angeline Stickney

Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall (November 1, 1830 – July 3, 1892) was an American suffragist, abolitionist, and mathematician, and the wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. She did not use her first name and so was known as Angeline Stickney Hall.

Angeline was born to Theophilus Stickney and Electa Cook.

Though poor, Angeline Stickney was able to attend Central College in McGrawville, New York with help from her sister Ruth and by teaching at the college. She majored in science and mathematics, doing coursework in calculus and mathematical astronomy. Central College was a progressive school where students of modest means, including women and free African Americans, could earn a college degree. It was here that she became passionate about the causes of women's suffrage and the abolition of slavery.

At Central College, Asaph Hall took her courses in geometry and German, and she gave up her career to marry him at Elkhorn, Wisconsin on March 31, 1856. She is believed to have helped him with mathematical calculations early in his career.

Stickney's residence in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

She encouraged him to continue his search for satellites of Mars when he was ready to give up, and he successfully discovered Phobos and Deimos.

The largest crater on Phobos, Stickney crater, is named after her.

Hall home-schooled all four of her children and all attended Harvard University. Her third son, Angelo Hall, a Unitarian minister, wrote her biography. Her oldest son, Asaph Hall, Jr., was born on October 6, 1859 and served as director of the Detroit Observatory from 1892 to 1905. Other sons were named Samuel (second son) and Percival (fourth son); Percival Hall (1872–1953) was the second president of Gallaudet University from 1910 to 1946 (he himself was not deaf).

She died at North Andover, Massachusetts at age 61.

Books

• Angelo Hall. An Astronomer's Wife: The Biography of Angeline Hall. Baltimore: Nunn & Company, 1908. (This book is public domain in the United States; a full scan can be found at archive.org.)

References

• "Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall". The Contributions of Women to the United States Naval Observatory: The Early Years. United States Naval Observatory. 14 November 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
• Whitesell, Patricia S. "Detroit Observatory: nineteenth-century training ground for astronomers" (PDF). Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 6 (2): 69–106. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 December 2005. Retrieved 19 May 2014.

External links

• Works by or about Angeline Stickney at Internet Archive
• The Descendants of Richard Hutchinson of Arnold, Nottinghamshire, England