Adele M. Fielde

{{short description|American social activist, missionary, scientist, writer}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Adele Marion Fielde

| image = File:Adele M. Fielde.jpg

| alt =

| caption =

| parents = Leighton Field and Sophia (Tiffany) Field

| birth_name = Adelia Field

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1839|03|30}}

| birth_place = East Rodman, New York

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1916|02|23|1839|03|30}}

| death_place =

| nationality =

| other_names =

| occupation =

| known_for = The Fielde Nest

| signature = File:Adele M Fielde signature.jpg

}}

Adele Marion Fielde (March 30, 1839{{spnd}}February 23, 1916){{cite book|last=Stevens|first=Helen Norton|title=Memorial Biography of Adele M. Fielde: Humanitarian|url=https://archive.org/details/memorialbiograp00stevgoog|year=1918|publisher=Fielde Memorial Committee}} was a social activist, Baptist missionary, scientist, and writer.{{cite web|url=http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/f/fielde-adele-m.php|title=Adele M. Fielde|last=Tucker|first=Ruth A.|work=Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity|access-date=20 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140421064306/http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/f/fielde-adele-m.php|archive-date=2014-04-21}}{{cite book|last=Warren|first=Leonard|title=Adele Marion Fielde: Feminist, Social Activist, Scientist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UIuCAgAAQBAJ|date=14 January 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781134488155}}

Biography

Adele Fielde was born in East Rodman, New York on March 30, 1839. Her parents were Laton Fielde and Sophira Tiffany Fielde. She graduated from New York State Normal School in Albany in 1860. From 1883 to 1885, she studied medicine at the Medical College of Pennsylvania. Fielde also studied biology for two years at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, but did not receive a formal degree.

At age 27, her fiancé, Reverent Cyrus A. Chilcott ({{Zh|c=周谷}}), went to Thailand to engage in missionary work among the local Chinese,{{Cite book |last=徐松石 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bCorEAAAQBAJ&dq=%E6%96%90%E5%A7%91%E5%A8%98&pg=PT38 |title=華人浸信會史錄 (第四輯:海外地區) |date=1972-04-01 |publisher=浸信會出版社(國際)有限公司 |language=zh}} and she followed, only to find he had passed several weeks before her arrival.{{Cite journal|last=Griffiths|first=Valerie|date=September 2008|title=Biblewomen from London to China: the transnational appropriation of a female mission idea|url=https://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=5fe83ab9-044d-4a5c-99ae-ce5548338808%40sessionmgr4008|journal=Women's History Review|volume=17. no 4.|pages=530|via=ebscohost}}{{Dead link|date=September 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} She never married.{{Cite journal|last=Santangelo|first=Lauren C.|date=Summer–Fall 2017|title="The Merry War Goes On": Elite Suffrage in Gilded Age Manhattan|journal=Fenimore Art Museum|pages=349–350|via=ebscohost}}

In 1894, after the defeat of the women's suffrage amendment to the New York State constitution, Fielde was one of six prominent suffragists who founded the League for Political Education. She worked with other suffragists to establish the Volunteer Committee with the goal of targeting New York society, using her wealth and status she established as a missionary in China to facilitate her efforts.

Key research contributions

Fielde made significant contributions to myrmecology, the study of ants. In particular, she devised the 'Fielde Nest', a portable observation nest that she then used to enable precise observations of ant behaviour,{{Cite journal| title = Portable Ant Nests| volume = 2| pages = 81–85| last = Fielde| first = Adele Marion| journal = Biological Bulletin| date = 1900| issue = 2| doi = 10.2307/1535735| jstor = 1535735| doi-access = free}} and which was also used by others including William Morton Wheeler.{{cite book|last1=Wheeler|first1=W.M.|title=Ants: Their Structure, Development and Behavior|url=http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/images/b/b1/Wheeler_1910.pdf|year=1910|series=Columbia University Biological Series|volume=9|publisher=Columbia University Press}} She published over 20 papers about ants in less than 10 years.{{Cite journal| title = Women's History: Adele Marion Fielde|url=http://blog.myrmecologicalnews.org/2020/03/08/womens-history-adele-marion-fielde/ |last = Gibson| first = Roberta| journal = Myrmecological News Blog| date = 2020}} She carried out her myrmecological research at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, one of the few institutions that was sympathetic to female students at that time. In addition to studying there, she also gave lectures. Key discoveries include demonstrating that ants use their antennae to recognise nestmates{{Cite journal| title = Power of recognition among ants |url=http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/bbl/1904/7/5 |last1=Fielde|first1=A.M. |year=1904| journal = Biological Bulletin| volume = 7 |issue=5 |pages = 227–250|doi=10.2307/1535711 |jstor=1535711 |hdl=2027/njp.32101079510044 |hdl-access=free }} and that ants react to vibrations in the ground detected via their legs, rather than 'hearing' sound travelling through the air.{{Cite journal| title = The reactions of ants to material vibrations |last1=Fielde|first1=A.M. |last2=Parker|first2=GH. |year=1904| journal = Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia| volume = 56 | issue = 3 |pages = 642–649| jstor = 4062955 }}

Fielde also wrote a comprehensive dictionary and guide to the Chinese Teochew language, and was known to locals as "Miss Fielde" ({{Zh|c=斐姑娘}}).{{Cite web |author=林伦伦 |date=2018-04-22 |script-title=zh:"斐姑娘"及其《汕头方言词典》 |url=http://chaofeng.stlib.net/information/157041 |access-date=2022-06-14 |script-website=zh:汕头日报 |language=zh}}

Selected works

{{Cite book| publisher = Macmillan and Co.| last = Fielde| first = Adele M.| title = A corner of Cathay: studies from life among the Chinese| location = New York| access-date = 2015-04-01| date = 1894| url = https://archive.org/details/cornerofcathayst00fieliala}}
{{Cite book| edition = 3rd| publisher = W.G. Corthell| title = Pagoda shadows: studies from life in China| location = Boston| access-date = 2015-04-01| date = 1885| url = https://archive.org/stream/pagodashadowsstu00fiel#page/n5/mode/2up}}
{{Cite book| publisher = Helen N. Stevens| last = Fielde| first = Adele M.| title = Parliamentary procedure; a compendium of its rules compiled from the latest and highest authorities, for the use of students and for the guidance of officers and members of clubs, societies, boards, committees, and all deliberative bodies| location = Seattle, WA| access-date = 2015-04-01| date = 1914| url = https://archive.org/details/parliamentarypro00fielrich}}
{{Cite book| publisher = American Presbyterian Mission Press| last = Fielde| first = Adele M. | title = A pronouncing and defining dictionary of the Swatow dialect, arranged according to syllables and tones| location = Shanghai| access-date = 2015-04-01| date = 1883| url = https://archive.org/details/pronouncingdefin00fielrich}}
{{Cite book| publisher = Swatow Printing Office Company| last = Fielde| first = Adele M.| title = First Lessons in the Swatow Dialect| location = Swatow| access-date = 2015-04-01| date = 1878| url = https://archive.org/details/FirstLessonsInTheSwatowDialect}}
{{Cite journal| title = Portable Ant Nests| volume = 2| pages = 81–85| last = Fielde| first = Adele M.| journal = Biological Bulletin| date = 1900 | issue = 4| doi = 10.2307/1535796| jstor = 1535796}}
{{Cite journal| title = The reactions of ants to material vibrations |last1=Fielde|first1=Adele M. |last2=Parker|first2=George H. |year=1904| journal = Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia| volume = 56 | issue = 3 |pages = 642–649| jstor = 4062955 }}

Taxon named in her honor

The Swatow thryssa, Thryssa adelae, is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Engraulidae. It is found in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. {{cite web | url = http://www.etyfish.org/engraulidae/ | title = Family ENGRAULIDAE Gill 1861 (Anchovies) | access-date= 27 April 2023 | author1 = Christopher Scharpf | author2 = Kenneth J. Lazara | name-list-style = amp | work = The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database | publisher = Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara | date = 22 September 2018}}