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| image = Margaret Maltby, ca 1908.jpg
| alt = A photograph of Margaret Eliza Maltby circa 1908. She has dark hair parted down the middle and pulled back in a bun. a white lacy blouse is buttoned all the way up to her throat and secured with a brooch. a dark semi-transparent jacket overlays the blouse.
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1860|12|10}}
| birth_place = [[Bristolville, Ohio]]
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Physicist and [[History of science|historian of science]] [[Katherine Sopka]] wrote that her students greatly admired her. One wrote to Sopka that: "Professor Maltby was my mentor—a gracious lady—a friend and a counselor. Her most memorable advice to me was not to forego marriage for a career—which I followed and lived happily ever after."<ref name="Sopka">{{Cite book |last1=Sopka |first1=Katherine |title=Making Contributions: An Historical Overview of Women's Role in Physics |publisher=American Association of Physics Teachers |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-917853-09-8 |editor-last=Lotze |editor-first=Barbara |location=College Park, Maryland |chapter=Women Physicists in Past Generations}} pp. 11-13</ref> Although Maltby supported the ability of other female academics to marry, she personally did not believe that marriage would be beneficial between two scientists. She wrote to [[Svante Arrhenius]] on the occasion of his divorce that she believed that it was inevitable that one personality would subsume the other in a marriage of two scientists, and so she herself never wanted to get married.<ref name="personal" />
In the summer of 1906, while Maltby was chair of the physics department, [[Harriet Brooks]] announced that she planned to marry. Although Brooks assumed she would be able to keep her position, Laura Gill, the Dean of Barnard College at the time, was strongly opposed. In the early 1900s it was very common for female academics to leave their employment at women's colleges upon marriage. Maltby spoke up on behalf of Brooks, arguing to Gill that Brooks was a talented teacher and researcher and would be able to keep up with her duties. However, Maltby was not able to convince Gill, and Brooks left the college later that year.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Rossiter |first=Margaret W. |title=Women scientists in America: struggles and strategies to 1940 |date=1992 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-0-8018-2509-5 |edition=Paperbacks ed., 3. printing |location=Baltimore |pages=16, 25, 43, 366}}</ref> Gill argued to Maltby that marriage would be too great a drain on a female professor's time, despite knowing that Maltby had adopted a child. Gill likely viewed marriage as a form of disloyalty by a female instructor to the college, in contrast to motherhood which was an appoved role.<ref name="personal" /> [[File:Margaret Eliza Maltby (1860-1944) (12483529573).jpg|thumb|
The first edition of ''[[American Men of Science]]'' (AMS), published in 1906, recognized Maltby's name with a star. A star indicated that the individual was one of the country's top scientists.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/jstor-1633828 |title=American Men of Science: A Biographical Directory |date=1906 |publisher=Science Press |editor-last1=Cattell |editor-first1=James McKeen |edition=1st |location=New York |page=208}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> Maltby's listing was recognized with a star in the following six editions of the AMS as well.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Maltby, Margaret E. (1860–1944) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/maltby-margaret-e-1860-1944 |access-date=2024-07-13 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref>
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In 1901 Maltby adopted a boy, Philip Randolph Meyer, whom she claimed was the orphaned son of a close friend. This claim was accepted throughout both Maltby's and Meyer's lives.<ref name="Sopka" />
[[File:Margaret Maltby and Philip Meyer-2.jpg|thumb|alt=Margaret Maltby sits drinking tea at a table with Philip Randolph Meyer. The interior is decorated with fine objects. in the background is a wardrobe. Maltby has her hair back in a bun and leans on to one side, resting her head on her hand while gazing at the camera. Meyer is young and dressed in a World War I army uniform. He gazes downward at an open book as if reading.|
In 2014, [[Autosomal DNA]] tests of Meyer's two daughters through [[Ancestry.com]] showed strong links to known descendants of Maltby's mother and of her father. The results of the tests indicated that Philip Randolph Meyer was Maltby's natural son.<ref name="Gill" /> He was born in June 1897, six months after Maltby's sudden resignation from Wellesley College. Maltby likely resigned to hide her pregnancy and preserve her career.<ref name="personal" /> When Maltby returned to a research position in Germany in 1898, she left her son in the care of a friend who had a nursery. Upon taking up a post at Barnard College, Maltby reunited with Meyer.<ref name="Gill" />
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