EDWARD SINGLETON HOLDEN. 891 



that Hill, with his genius and originaHty, should have spent the best 

 years of his life on computations which could have been carried 

 through by others if the necessary delay in training them for the work 

 had been granted. 



Hill published a number of other papers on a variety of astronomical 

 subjects, many of them worthy of careful study for Hill always put the 

 impress of his own mind into his memoirs, even when developing the 

 ideas of his predecessors. The Carnegie Institution of Washington 

 has published Hill's memoirs in four large quarto volumes. 



For practically the whole of his life Hill was a member of the staff 

 of the Nautical Almanac office, doing his work as far as possible at 

 his home in West Nyack, N. Y. He cared little for money or luxuries, 

 and resigned his post as soon as he had completed the tables of Jupiter 

 and Saturn. He was essentially a man who lived for the development 

 of his own ideas and who cared little for contact with his fellow men. 

 Nevertheless those who knew him well, and were in the habit of 

 accompanying him on the walks or trips which he frec^uently took in 

 the country, always speak of the pleasure of his companionship. 

 But few people knew him personally, and his life was so uneventful 

 that the biographer finds little to record, yet his name will live after 

 those of most of his generation are forgotten. 



He was born in New York City on March 3, 1838, and died at his 

 home in West Nyack, N. Y., on April 16, 1914. 



E. W. Brown. 



EDWARD SINGLETON HOLDEN (1846-1914) 



Fellow in Class I, Section 1, 1885. 



Edward Singleton Holden was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on 

 November 5, 1846. He was a student in Washington University, 

 St. Louis, in the years 1862-66, and was graduated in the latter year 

 with the B. S. degree, William Chauvenet, author of the well known 

 " Manual of Spherical and Practical Astronom}^," was Chancellor of, 

 and Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy in, Washington Uni- 

 versity during that period. It is probable that Mr. Holden pursued 

 astronomical studies with Professor Chauvenet, but his interest in 

 astronomical subjects had been aroused on the occasions of visits to 



