Julia Brainerd Hall

Julia Brainerd Hall
Julia Brainerd Hall, 1881, Oberlin College Senior Year Portrait
Born	November 11, 1859 Jamaica
Died	September 4, 1926 (aged 66) Rochester, New York, USA
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	Oberlin College

Julia Brainerd Hall (November 11, 1859 – September 4, 1926) supported her younger brother, Charles Martin Hall, in his discovery of the Hall Process for extracting aluminum from its ore. She was also a still-life painter, who exhibited at the Edgar Adams Gallery in Cleveland.

Julia was born on November 11, 1859, to Reverend Heman Bassett Hall (1823-1911) and his wife Sophronia Brooks Hall (1827-1885), missionaries in Jamaica. In 1860, the family returned to the United States. Julia's younger brother, Charles Martin Hall, was born in 1863 in Thompson, Geauga County, Ohio. In 1873, the family moved to Oberlin, Ohio, where Heman Hall and Sophronia Brooks had attended Oberlin College.

Julia was one of eight children. With the exception of a brother (Lewis Albert) who died young, all obtained degrees from Oberlin College. Her eldest brother, George Edward Hall (February 23, 1851, Jamaica - August 29, 1921, Pasadena, CA) became a minister. Her older sister Ellen Julia Hall-Kinsey (Mrs. George M. Kinsey, 1852 - May 17, 1882) studied medicine at the University of Wooster (she was a senior in the class of 1881) and in Vienna, Austria. Her sister Emily Brooks Hall and Emily's husband Martin Luther Stimson (1857 - 1943) became missionaries in China.

Julia Brainerd Hall is listed as a student in the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College in the 1876-77 and 1877-78 catalogues. She is listed as a second year student in the "Literary" course at Oberlin as of 1878, and graduated in the Literary course in 1881. The "Literary" course had replaced the "Ladies" course as of July 30, 1875. Such educational tracking was usual for women attending Oberlin at the time. One of the classes she took was chemistry, which was taught by William Kedzie in 1879-1880 for only one term prior to his unexpected death, rather than the usual two terms.

Some time before her invalid mother's death in 1885, Julia took over running the household and raising her two younger sisters, Edith May Hall (later Mrs. George H. Seymour, 1865-1937) and Louie Alice Hall (1870 - 1944).