Adaline Emerson Thompson

Adaline Emerson Thompson (13 August 1859 — 1951) was an American educational worker and reformer.

Adaline Emerson Thompson was born on August 13, 1859, in Rockford, Illinois. Her father, Ralph Emerson, was a son of Professor Ralph Emerson, of Andover, Massachusetts, who was a cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

In 1877, Thompson entered Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and graduated with honor in 1880. After finishing her education, she moved back to her hometown of Rockford, Illinois, and got married.

Upon the removal of her household to New York, in 1888, her days of mental activity began. As president of the Woman's Club, of Orange, and also of the New York Associated Alumnae, she won recognition as a leader and presiding officer, but in the College Settlements' Association, her organizing force has been most largely expended. 

Believing that the true way to reach and help the poor in the large cities is through the intimate personal contact which comes from living among them, and further, that the only way to solve the sociological problems pressing so heavily upon us is through knowledge gained at first-hand by thinking men and women, she threw her energy and enthusiasm into this home extension movement. As its president, she carried the association successfully through all the trials and difficulties.

In 1902-1905, Thompson was the third president of Rockford Woman's Club. She also taught at Rockford College. 

After finishing her education, she married Norman Frederick Thompson in 1883.

Thompson died in 1951 at the age of 91. She is buried at Greenwood Cemetery, in Rockford, Illinois.