Oberlin's Women: A Legacy of Leadership & Activism

Ellen Hayes

Ellen Amanda Hayes (1851-1930, OC 1878) was an educator, author, and philanthropist. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1878 while working as a teacher in local district schools. After graduating she was employed as the principal of the women's department of Adrian College in Michigan. In 1879 she began work at Wellesley College as a professor of mathematics, and in 1888 Hayes began teaching applied mathematics. In 1904 she became a professor of astronomy and applied mathematics. Hayes worked for Wellesley until her retirement in 1916. In addition to her work as a mathematician and astrologist, Hayes believed in socialism and fought for the rights of factory workers. She published the Relay, a small paper dedicated to political movements and scientific topics as well as other subjects she felt were not covered properly in larger newspapers. Hayes devoted time and support during her retirement to the creation of schools for factory workers, including The Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and the Vineyard Shore Workers’ School in West Park-on-Hudson, New York. Over the course of her career she wrote technical books on applied mathematics as well as novels and memoirs. She helped found the History of Science Society and was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America.

Sources:
Riddle, Larry. “Ellen Amanda Hayes.” Biographies of Women Mathematicians. Last modified February 25, 2016. https://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/hayes.htm

Student File (Ellen Amanda Hayes), Alumni & Development Records, O.C.A.

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