Thomas Joannes Stieltjes was born on December29, 1856 in Zwolle, capitalof the province Overijssel, The Netherlands. He had two brothers and foursisters. He carried the same first names as his father, who was a civilengineerand member of parliament. The latter was rather well-known, mainly because ofhis achievements in the construction of harbours in Rotterdam. He was a doctorh.c. of Leiden University. To his memory a statue is erected by his friendsand admirators onthe Noordereiland, at the Burgemeester Hoffman Plein, in Rotterdam.

Thomas Jr. started his studies in 1873 at the Polytechnical School in Delft(now the Technical University). Instead of going to the lectures, he spentmost of his time in the library studying the works of Gauss and Jacobi. As aconsequence, he did not pass the propedeutical examination. Renewed attemptsin 1875 and 1876 failed. His father, aware of the particular situationof his son, contacted his friend, Prof. H.G. van de Sande-Bakhuyzen, directorof the Leiden Observatory. In April 1877 Thomas was appointed calculator attheObservatory, officially "assistant for astronomical calculations".Thomas devoted almost all free time tomathematics. Through his work on celestial mechanics he got in contact withCh.Hermite in Paris. His first letter to Hermite was dated November 8, 1882. Theletter was followed by a correspondence between Stieltjes and Hermiteconsisting of 432 letters. The last letter of Hermite to Stieltjes waswritten December 15, 1894, fourteen days before Stieltjes' death. It is to thecredit of the director, H.G. van de Sande-Bakhuyzen, that he freed Stieltjes,on request, on January 1, 1883 from doing observation work. In May 1883 Thomasmarried Elizabeth (Lilly) Intveld, who was a tremendous stimulus for hismathematical work. From September till December of that year he substitutedProf. F.J. van den Berg in Delft, who had fallen seriously ill, and lecturedanalytical anddescriptive geometry. On December 1, 1883 Thomas resigned from the Observatoryto devote himself completely to mathematics.

On January 15, 1884 Stieltjes wrote to Hermite :

One has offered me, some days ago, aprofessorship in analysis (differential and integral calculus) at theUniversity of Groningen. I have accepted this offer and I believe that thisposition will permit me to be more useful. I owe much, in this situation, tothe extreme kindness of my old chief Mr. Bakhuyzen, the director of theobservatory. One of these days, my nomination will become definitive.(translated from French)

On March 13, 1884 he wrote to Hermite :

The Groningen Faculty has indeed put me in first place for the vacancy,but the Minister has named one of the others. Probably the reason will havebeen thatI having had no occasion to follow the ordinary route, I have not obtained anydegree at the University. (translated from French)

From archives of the University of Groningen it appears, that thefollowing nomination was made in 1883: 1. Prof. dr. D.J. Korteweg, 2. Mr. T.J.Stieltjes. When asked, Prof. Korteweg said he would not consider to move toGroningen. Stieltjes however declared that he would accept anappointment. A new nomination was then made: 1. T.J. Stieltjes, 2. F. (Floris)de Boer; the latter was appointed by Royal Decree of March 12, 1884.

In May 1884, Hermite met the Dutch professor in Mathematics, Bierens de Haan,at the celebration of the fifth centenary of the University of Edinburgh. Adebate was devoted to the Stieltjes' poor circumstances. It isverylikely that the wish to confer a doctorate honoris causa upon Stieltjescame into existence during this debate. On June, 1884 a doctorate inmathematics and astronomy, honoris causa, was conferred upon Stieltjes byLeiden University, following the nomination by D. Bierens de Haan and H.G. vande Sande-Bakhuyzen. In the archives of the Senate of LeidenUniversity we found, dated May 27, 1884:

The rector reports that a request has been received from the Faculty ofMathematics and Physics to confer the degree of doctor honoris causa inMathematics and Astronomy upon Mr. T.J. Stieltjes, a former employee of theLeiden Observatory. On behalf of the Faculty Mr. Lorentz explains the meritsof Mr. Stieltjes and indicates the motives which have lead to the proposal. Itis decided to form a conclusion in the next meeting of the Senate.(translated from Dutch)

Following is Stieltjes' reply to the officialletter of the Senate of Leiden University (in translation):

To the Senate of Leiden University.

The undersigned wishes to thank you for the honourable distinction,conferredupon him by Your College, and to assure you that the distinction is highlyappreciated. Due to a regrettable misunderstanding he was not aware of theintention of a public ceremony on last Tuesday June 17 at 3 o'clock.

Leiden, June 19, 1884

T.J. Stieltjes

In April 1885 Stieltjes' family settled in Paris.In 1889, Stieltjes was appointed professor of differential and integralcalculus at the Faculty of Science of Toulouse.On June 18, 1894 a survey of his most importantpaper was published in the Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences:Recherches sur les fractions continues.An extended version of this paper was published in the Annales de laFaculté des Sciences de Toulouse, in 1894/95. This article, where heintroduced theStieltjes integral, was awarded a prize by the Académie des Sciences.On December 31, 1894 Stieltjes passed away inToulouse, at the age of 38. The tomb of T.J. Stieltjes can be found atthe cemetery of Terre Cabade in Toulouse (no. 828, section II, division 4). Ithas been restored by his family in 1990. The burial actually took placeJanuary 2, 1895.

Note:

A more extended text is included in the Stieltjes' Collected Papers,published by Springer Verlag on the occasion of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the death of Stieltjes.

For another short text, see this one.