Anna Adelaide Stafford Henriques (1905-2004) was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1905. She became interested in mathematics as a young woman and pursued her undergraduate studies at the Western College for Women where she graduated with a double major in mathematics and Greek in 1926. Henriques pursued a career in teaching while continuing to pursue graduate studies at the University of Chicago. She received a Master's degree from Chicago in 1931 and subsequently pursued a doctorate in topology. She completed her doctoral degree under Mayme Logsdon at the University of Chicago and finished her dissertation Knotted Varieties in 1933.

Following the completion of her thesis, Henriques applied to and was rejected from Princeton University where she had hoped to study with distinguished topologists and Institute for Advanced Study Facuty Oswald Veblen and James Alexander. Princeton University rejected Henriques' application on the grounds of gender. However, Henrqiues appealed directly to Oswald Veblen and Veblen encouraged Henriques to apply to the nascent School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Henriques came the Institute for Advanced Study in October 1933 where she was employed as a Worker (the predecessor to today's Members). While at the Institute, she held a teaching position at a nearby school and is said to have attended lectures and worked alongside the Institute's earliest Faculty. Henriques remained with the Institute until 1935, at which point, she accepted a position as an instructor at the University of Nebraska and subsequently the University of Utah. She went on to teach at St. Michael's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the University of New Mexico. Henriques retired as an Emeritus in 1971 and lived with her family in Virginia until her death in 2004.