Angeline Stickney

Who was Angeline Stickney?

Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall 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.

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.