Science & Mathematics

The Museum's collections hold thousands of objects related to chemistry, biology, physics, astronomy, and other sciences. Instruments range from early American telescopes to lasers. Rare glassware and other artifacts from the laboratory of Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, are among the scientific treasures here. A Gilbert chemistry set of about 1937 and other objects testify to the pleasures of amateur science. Artifacts also help illuminate the social and political history of biology and the roles of women and minorities in science.

The mathematics collection holds artifacts from slide rules and flash cards to code-breaking equipment. More than 1,000 models demonstrate some of the problems and principles of mathematics, and 80 abstract paintings by illustrator and cartoonist Crockett Johnson show his visual interpretations of mathematical theorems.

Ira Freeman was a professor of physics at Rutgers University, and Mae Freeman an active author of beginner's books on a variety of topics.
Description
Ira Freeman was a professor of physics at Rutgers University, and Mae Freeman an active author of beginner's books on a variety of topics. Before 1957 the couple had collaborated on such popular science books as Fun With Chemistry (1944) and Fun With Astronomy (1953).
With the launch of Sputnik , the Freemans began writing books related to space travel. You Will go to the Moon and The Sun, the Moon and the Stars were both published in 1959. They also began to write scientific books for use in the home. Fun With Science (1958) was quickly followed by Fun With Scientific Experiments (1960).
Fun With Scientific Experiments was supplemented with the "Ed-U-Cards of Science."
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1960
maker
Random House, Inc.
ID Number
2007.0041.02
catalog number
2007.0041.02
accession number
2007.0041
During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. Caleb Gattegno popularized his methods in Great Britain and the United States.
Description
During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. Caleb Gattegno popularized his methods in Great Britain and the United States. This small paperback, Book C of Gattegno’s explanation, was copyrighted in 1958 and 1961.
For a set of Cuisenaire rods, see 1987.0542.01. For related documentation see 1987.0542.02 through 1987.0542.07.
For further information about the donor of the materials, see 1987.0542.01.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1961
maker
Gattegno, Caleb
ID Number
1987.0542.04
accession number
1987.0542
catalog number
1987.0542.04
This paperback book is part of the College Outline Series published by Barnes & Noble. It contains five-place tables of the common logarithms of numbers and of logarithms of sines, cosines, tangents and cotangents for every second of arc.
Description
This paperback book is part of the College Outline Series published by Barnes & Noble. It contains five-place tables of the common logarithms of numbers and of logarithms of sines, cosines, tangents and cotangents for every second of arc. There is also a shorter table of natural trigonometric functions from minute to minute. Further short tables assist in conversion from common logarithms to natural logarithms, give values and logarithms of haversines, and assist in converting between degrees and radians.
The mathematician Kaj L. Nielsen (1914-1992) was born in Denmark in 1914, came to the United States in 1926, and studied at the University of Michigan and Syracuse University before obtaining a PhD. at the University of Illinois. In addition to teaching at Syracuse, Illinois, Brown, Louisiana State University, and Butler University; he worked in the Mathematics Division of the Naval Ordnance Plant in Indianapolis and also at the Battelle Memorial Institute there. He published a wide array of books relating to practical mathematics, especially numerical analysis. The first edition of this book appeared in 1943. This is a reprint from 1965 of the second edition of 1961.
Mechanical engineer Edward L. Heller (1912–2007) donated this book of tables to the Smithsonian. From 1956 to 1959, Heller worked as a nuclear project engineer for H. K. Ferguson Co. He was a technical manager for General Dynamics Corporation from 1959 to 1967.
References:
American Men and Women of Science, 12th ed., New York: J. Cattell Press, 1972, iii: p. 2620 (on Heller).
“Kaj L. Nielsen,” Math Times, Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois, Fall 1992, p. 7.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1943
1965
maker
Nielsen, Kaj L.
ID Number
1984.3078.01
nonaccession number
1984.3078
catalog number
1984.3078.01
During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. John V. Trivett, a mathematics educator trained in England, wrote two paperback books to introduce teachers to the use of Cuisenaire rods.
Description
During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. John V. Trivett, a mathematics educator trained in England, wrote two paperback books to introduce teachers to the use of Cuisenaire rods. This is the revised edition of the first of them, copyrighted in 1962 and published by the Cuisenaire Company of America, then in Mount Vernon, New York. Trivett would go on to become a professor of education at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.
For a set of Cuisenaire rods, see 1987.0542.01. For related documentation see 1987.0542.02 through 1987.0542.07.
For further information about the donor of the materials, see 1987.0542.01.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1962
maker
Trivett, John V.
ID Number
1987.0542.06
accession number
1987.0542
catalog number
1987.0542.06
This gray six-ringed binder contains instructions for adjusting Friden calculating machines and adding machines on sale as of May 15, 1963. It is divided into sixteen sections, two of which are empty.
Description
This gray six-ringed binder contains instructions for adjusting Friden calculating machines and adding machines on sale as of May 15, 1963. It is divided into sixteen sections, two of which are empty. A mark inside the front cover reads: PROPERTY OF FRIDEN, INC.
Received with a Friden model SBT 10 calculating machine with catalog number 1983.0475.01.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1963
maker
Friden, Inc.
ID Number
1983.0475.02
accession number
1983.0475
catalog number
1983.0475.02
Edwin Thacher, the inventor of the cylindrical slide rule bearing his name, published instructions for using the instrument as Thacher's Calculating Instrument or Cylindrical Slide-Rule (New York: Van Nostrand, 1884).
Description
Edwin Thacher, the inventor of the cylindrical slide rule bearing his name, published instructions for using the instrument as Thacher's Calculating Instrument or Cylindrical Slide-Rule (New York: Van Nostrand, 1884). Keuffel & Esser of New York, which distributed and, later, manufactured Thacher slide rules, reprinted the booklet in 1903 and 1907 as Directions for Using Thacher's Calculating Instrument. This copy was printed in 1907 and sold for one dollar.
The booklet explained the processes for calculations involving multiplication, division, proportion, powers, and square and cube roots. Thacher also provided solved examples for practice. He suggested "special applications" for his instrument, including conversion of weights and measures; currency exchange; pro-rating among accounts; calculating taxes, investment returns, and payrolls; and physical computations such as mechanical power, centrifugal force, and mensuration. K&E's Improved Reckoning Machine is advertised at the back of the booklet.
See also MA.327886.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1907
maker
Keuffel & Esser Co.
ID Number
MA.271855.01.03
accession number
271855
catalog number
271855.01.03
The citation information for this spiral-bound book is: Maurice Kidjel, The Kidjel Ratio System 5.333/1 (Honolulu, 1962).
Description
The citation information for this spiral-bound book is: Maurice Kidjel, The Kidjel Ratio System 5.333/1 (Honolulu, 1962). It was received with an example of Kidjel's Cali-Pro proportional dividers (MA.333876), and a warranty card for the Cali-Pro is inside the front cover of the book. After a biographical note, Kidjel provided supposed solutions to the three classic construction problems of Greek antiquity (trisecting the angle, squaring the circle, and doubling the cube).
Although the Cali-Pro was not needed for these attempted solutions, in part two of the book Kidjel explained how to make these and other, more standard, solutions with the device. Next, he discussed how his ratio applied to the human body. Finally, he explained how to use the Cali-Pro in various fields of industrial design, such as architecture and publishing. A brief biography of Kidjel's business partner, Kenneth W. K. Young, is found inside the back cover. The back cover reproduces a portion of then-U.S. Representative Daniel Inouye's remarks about the Kidjel ratio system, read into the Congressional Record of the 86th Congress.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1962
author
Kidjel, Maurice
Young, Kenneth W. K.
ID Number
MA.304213.03
accession number
304213
catalog number
304213.03
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, when paper was still expensive and textbooks not generally available, students who learned arithmetic sometimes wrote out their own texts by hand.
Description
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, when paper was still expensive and textbooks not generally available, students who learned arithmetic sometimes wrote out their own texts by hand. This volume, covered with yellow, black, and red wallpaper, is such a “cipher book.”
Jesse Harmon Alexander, who was born in 1810 and lived in Rockland, Delaware, prepared this manuscript exercise book in 1825. Each page contains one or two columns of problems and commentary. The first topic considered was the Single Rule of Three. Alexander went in the wrong direction on the very first problem, but he did reach the solution on subsequent problems. His style was typical of the 18th and early 19th centuries. For example, in division problems, he wrote the divisor, dividend, and quotient in a row from left to right. The remaining topics were also typical of the time: tare and tret (adjustments to the price of goods for the weight of the container and for imputities), the Double Rule of Three, direct and inverse proportion, interest, insurance commission and brokerage, compound interest, discount, equation of accounts, barter, loss and gain, foreign exchange, measurement of surfaces, vulgar fractions, reduction of decimals, alligation, single and double position, involution and evolution, extraction of square roots, cube roots, arithmetical and geometrical progression, annuities, and promiscuous questions.
Alexander's teacher was likely guided by one of the many old-fashioned arithmetic textbooks still in wide use in the 1820s. He (in 1825 most teachers teaching boys in the mid-Atlantic states were men) would have expected Alexander to memorize rules and examples and thus learn how to carry out the mathematical operations Alexander would use in business. The "vulgar fractions" section is one example of this teaching method, as Alexander copied down case after case rather than any general principles governing all fractions. The teacher probably also hoped Alexander would copy the material neatly. This not only offered practice his penmanship but prepared a reference book the boy could use as an adult.
Alexander clearly returned to this exercise book later in his life, for dates from the 1830s dates are scattered throughout the book. New computations are written on the fourth page of the "interest" section. It is not clear, though, that Alexander's cramped handwriting and failure to clearly mark many of the solutions were any easier to read in the 19th century than now, when bleeding ink and worn page corners have also damaged the textual content.
Several pages that are not from the original exercise book have been placed inside the front cover. These contain newspaper clippings (mainly poems and obituaries) pasted over accounts from 1831 and 1832.
Reference:
For an appreciation of the importance of cipher books in arithmetic education, see: Nerida Ellerton and M.A. (Ken) Clements, Rewriting the History of School Mathematics in North America 1607-1861: The Central Role of Cypher Books, Dordrecht: Springer, 2012.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1825
maker
Alexander, Jesse Harmon
ID Number
MA.322685.01
accession number
322685
catalog number
322685.01
In this publication, copyrighted in 1985, authors Paul Wallach and Dan Hearlihy describe a variety of drawing instruments. There is space for a few practice drawings.
Description
In this publication, copyrighted in 1985, authors Paul Wallach and Dan Hearlihy describe a variety of drawing instruments. There is space for a few practice drawings. There is no attempt at computer-aided instruction, as there soon would be (see 1987.0589.07).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1985
maker
Wallach, Paul
Hearlihy, Daniel A.
ID Number
1987.0589.08
accession number
1987.0589
catalog number
1987.0589.08
Astronomers have created and used tables since antiquity. In 1767, the British government began issuing an annual
Description
Astronomers have created and used tables since antiquity. In 1767, the British government began issuing an annual for use by mariners. In the early years of the United States, Americans relied on foreign almanacs – particularly those from Great Britain - for astronomy and navigation. However, in 1849 the U.S. Congress established the Nautical Almanac Office, which soon was publishing The American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac. The ephemeris provided data for astronomers and surveyors, while the nautical part of the almanac was for mariners. From 1960, the computations in the British and American publications were identical, with different title pages and introductory material. This is The American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac for 1964.
This example of the publication was owned by the German- American statistician, mathematician and computer pioneer Carl Hammer (1914-2004).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1962
editor
Comrie, Leslie J.
maker
U.S. Government Printing Office
ID Number
1988.3105.28
nonaccession number
1988.3105
catalog number
1988.3105.28
During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. John V. Trivett, a mathematics educator trained in England, wrote two paperback books to introduce teachers to the use of Cuisenaire rods.
Description
During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. John V. Trivett, a mathematics educator trained in England, wrote two paperback books to introduce teachers to the use of Cuisenaire rods. This is the revised edition of the second of them, copyrighted in 1963 and published by the Cuisenaire Company of America, then in New York, New York. Trivett would go on to become a professor of education at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.
For a set of Cuisenaire rods, see 1987.0542.01. For related documentation see 1987.0542.02 through 1987.0542.07.
For further information about the donor of the materials, see 1987.0542.01.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1963
maker
Trivett, John V.
ID Number
1987.0542.07
accession number
1987.0542
catalog number
1987.0542.07
This softcover volume shows the product of the drawing instrument dealer Hearlihy & Company for 1987. An image of computer-aided instruction (though not computer-aided design) is on the cover.Currently not on view
Description
This softcover volume shows the product of the drawing instrument dealer Hearlihy & Company for 1987. An image of computer-aided instruction (though not computer-aided design) is on the cover.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1987
maker
Hearlihy & Company
ID Number
1987.0589.10
accession number
1987.0589
catalog number
1987.0589.10
In the early twentieth century, calculating machines began to replace logarithms as a common tool of those doing computations. Rather than adding and subtracting logarithms of functions to multiply and divide, people entered values of the functions themselves into machines.
Description
In the early twentieth century, calculating machines began to replace logarithms as a common tool of those doing computations. Rather than adding and subtracting logarithms of functions to multiply and divide, people entered values of the functions themselves into machines. This encouraged the production and sale of new books of mathematical tables. Some of these were compiled by Johann Theodor Peters (1869-1941) of the astronomical computing institute in Berlin. In 1918, Peters published Siebenstellige Werte der trigonometrischen Funktionen von Tausendstel zu Tausendstel des Grades. It would be reprinted in German in 1930 and 1938. This is the 1942 English edition of the book.
The volume contains values of trigonometric functions for every thousandth of a degree, to seven places. The first table give sines and cosines, the second tangents and cotangents. Information in the margins assists in interpolating between values in the tables, and the introduction describes how to do this.
According to the title page, the volume was “published and distributed in the public interest by authority of the alien property custodian under license #A1.” The Alien Property Custodian was an official of the United States Government responsible for assets of enemy powers seized during World War I and again during World War II. This included the copyright to the trigonometric tables of Peters.
This example of the publication is from the library of the donor, computer pioneer Carl Hammer.
Reference:
R.C. Archibald, Mathematical Table Makers, New York: Scripta Mathematica, 1948, pp. 68-71.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1942
maker
Peters, Johann Theodor
ID Number
1988.3105.21
nonaccession number
1988.3105
catalog number
1988.3105.21
This paper-covered illustrated manual was received with an IBM 24 card punch (see 1987.0528.01). It has form number 225-6535-5.Currently not on view
Description
This paper-covered illustrated manual was received with an IBM 24 card punch (see 1987.0528.01). It has form number 225-6535-5.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation
ID Number
1987.0528.03
accession number
1987.0528
catalog number
1987.0528.03
By the late eighteenth century, those carrying out extensive calculations routinely multiplied and divided numbers by adding and subtracting logarithms of those numbers.
Description
By the late eighteenth century, those carrying out extensive calculations routinely multiplied and divided numbers by adding and subtracting logarithms of those numbers. Mathematicians prepared tables of logarithms of ordinary numbers as well as trigonometric functions such as sines, cosines, and tangents. The Slovenian-born mathematics teacher and artillery officer Georg Vega (1754-1802) published his first book of tables in 1793. Ten years later, he published in both German and Latin the first edition of this book, the Logarithmisch trigonometrisches Handbuch. His publisher, the firm of Weidemann, would publish German editions of it into the 1960s. This example is the seventy-fifth edition, published in Berlin in 1894. The title page mentions not only Vega but two later authors, Karl Bremiker (1804-1877), who edited the volume from at least 1856 until his death, and Friedrich Tietjen (1834-1895). Bremiker was an official at the Prussian Board of Trade and later director of the Prussian Geodetical Institute. Tietjen was a longtime associate of the Berlin Observatory, rising to the rank of University Professor of Astronomy and director of the Computing Bureau there.
The volume contains an introduction describing the procedures used in computing the tables, a table of common logarithms of the integers from 1 to 100,000 (to seven places), and a table of the logarithms of sines and tangents (and cosines and cotangents) from second of arc to second of arc from 0 to 45 degrees. A brief appendix gives tables relating to the refraction of starlight.
This example of the publication is from the library of the donor, computer pioneer Carl Hammer.
References:
MacTutor History of Mathematics website.
Eberhard Knobloch, “Vega and the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin,” Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences, 2008, vol. 58, pp. 171-184.
Accession file.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1894
maker
Vega, Georg
Bremiker, Karl
Tietjen, Friedrich
ID Number
1988.3105.02
nonaccession number
1988.3105
catalog number
1988.3105.02
During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. Caleb Gattegno popularized his methods in Great Britain and the United States.
Description
During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. Caleb Gattegno popularized his methods in Great Britain and the United States. This small paperback, Book A of Gattegno’s explanation, was copyrighted in 1958 and 1961.
For a set of Cuisenaire rods, see 1987.0542.01. For related documentation see 1987.0542.02 through 1987.0542.07.
For further information about the donor of the materials, see 1987.0542.01.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1961
maker
Gattegno, Caleb
ID Number
1987.0542.03
accession number
1987.0542
catalog number
1987.0542.03
During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. Caleb Gattegno popularized his methods in Great Britain and the United States.
Description
During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. Caleb Gattegno popularized his methods in Great Britain and the United States. This small paperback, Book D of Gattegno’s explanation, was copyrighted in 1958 and 1961.
For a set of Cuisenaire rods, see 1987.0542.01. For related documentation see 1987.0542.02 through 1987.0542.07.
For further information about the donor of the materials, see 1987.0542.01.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1961
maker
Gattegno, Caleb
ID Number
1987.0542.05
accession number
1987.0542
catalog number
1987.0542.05
From the sixteenth century, computing people relied on printed mathematical tables in performing routine mathematical calculations.
Description
From the sixteenth century, computing people relied on printed mathematical tables in performing routine mathematical calculations. This volume, compiled by the Applied Mathematics Division of the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., was conceived in 1954 as “a Handbook of Tables for the Occasional Computer” (at the time a computer was usually a person). It includes formulas and graphs used in computation as well as a wide range of tables.
The first editor, Milton Abramowitz (1913-1958), began working with tables as a member of the Mathematical Tables Project in New York City. This was a program of the U.S. government’s Works Project Administration, begun in 1937 to provide work for the unemployed. Abramowitz had studied physics at Brooklyn College, but initially had no particular background in table making or numerical analysis. He would go on to earn a PhD. in mathematics from New York University. The second editor, Irene A. Stegun (1919-2008), joined the program in 1943, after she had received a master’s degree from Columbia University. By that time, the WPA had been terminated, and staff from project were doing computations needed by U.S. Navy and the Office of Scientific Research and Development for World War II efforts.
After the war ended, the Mathematical Tables Project moved to Washington, D.C., where it was incorporated into the Computation Laboratory of the newly established Applied Mathematics Division of the N.B.S. Project staff hoped to produce a compact set of tables that would provide a digest of work they had carried out over the past ten years. With advice from an outside panel and sponsorship from the National Science Foundation, Abramowitz, Stegun, and the collaborators began this volume, which was finally published in June of 1964, some years after Abramowitz had died.
The Handbook proved popular. A second printing appeared in November of 1964. This is an example of that printing. It was owned by Professor Charles T. G. Looney, who taught engineering at the University of Maryland. Looney stamped the edges of the book with his name and signed it just inside the cover, but did not add further annotations.
References:
Scans of various editions of the Handbook are available online.
Ronald F. Boisvert and Daniel W. Lozier, “Handbook of Mathematical Functions,” in David R. Lide, ed., A Century of Excellence in Measurements, Standards, and Technology: A Chronicle of Selected NBS/NIST Publications, 1901-2000, NIST Special Publication 958, 2001, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, pp. 135-139.
David Alan Grier, “Irene Stegun, the Handbook of Mathematical Functions, and the Lingering Influence of the New Deal,” American Mathematical Monthly, 113 #7, August-September 2006, pp. 585-597.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1964
maker
Abramowitz, Milton
Stegun, Irene A.
ID Number
1988.3092.01
nonaccession number
1988.3092
catalog number
1988.3092.01
From ancient times, bureaucrats have kept numerical records of people and property. Those working for the Inca emperor in 16th-century Peru recorded data on arrangements of knotted strings known as quipus.
Description
From ancient times, bureaucrats have kept numerical records of people and property. Those working for the Inca emperor in 16th-century Peru recorded data on arrangements of knotted strings known as quipus. The devices may also have been used as aids to memory in recounting histories of Inca exploits—the Incas had no written language.
Particularly from the 1880s, collections in South America, Europe, and the United States began to include quipus, usually recovered from the graves of makers or users. The devices were of great interest to historian of mathematics Leslie Leland Locke, a charter member of the Mathematical Association of America. Locke (1875–1943), a native of Grove City, Pennsylvania, received his A.B. from Grove City College in 1896 and his M.A. in 1900. He studied further at Pennsylvania State University, Cornell University, and Columbia. He came to Brooklyn to teach at Adelphi College and then worked from 1908 to 1933 at Maxwell Training School for Teachers, later moving to Brooklyn Technical High School. He also taught in the evening session at Brooklyn College.
Around 1909, while studying under historian of mathematics David Eugene Smith at Teachers College of Columbia University, Locke became interested in the quipu. He examined several examples at the American Museum of Natural History in detail. In a 1912 paper, Locke argued that the knots on the strings of a quipu represented the decimal digits of numbers, arranged vertically by place value. He extended this research in this volume, published by the American Museum of Natural History in 1923. It includes excerpts of numerous early Spanish and other European texts relating to the quipu, and lists forty-five surviving examples. Locke deemed five of these modern or spurious. He obtained and published illustrations of over thirty of the objects, laying the foundation for further studies.
Locke also took great interest in more modern innovations in computing, particularly the calculating machine. He inscribed and presented this copy of his book to Dorr E. Felt, the head of Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company. Felt had invented, and Felt & Tarrant manufactured, the Comptometer, a leading adding machine of its day. The book, along with the rest of Felt’s library relating to the history of mathematical instruments, was given to the Smithsonian Institution by Victor Comptometer Corporation, the successor to Felt & Tarrant.
In addition to joining the MAA when it was established, Locke was a charter member of the History of Science Society and active in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
References:
Marcia Ascher and Robert Ascher, Mathematics of the Incas: Code of the Quipu, Mineola, New York: Dover, 1997. This is a corrected republication of the book Code of the Quipu: A Study in Media, Mathematics, and Culture, published in 1981 by the University of Michigan Press.
Stefanie Gaenger. Relics of the Past: The Collecting and Study of pre-Columbian Antiquities in Peru and Chile,1837–1911, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014, esp. 101–159.
L. L. Locke, “The Ancient Quipu, A Peruvian Knot Record,” American Anthropologist, n.s. vol. 14, #2 (1912), pp. 325–332.
“Teacher 45 Years: Educator in Mathematics and an Expert on Calculating Machines Dies. . .,” New York Times, August 30, 1943, p. 15 (this is an obituary of Locke).
For a recent database of quipus, see the Khipu Database Project at http://khipukamayuq.fas.harvard.edu.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1923
maker
Locke, L. Leland
ID Number
1991.3107.08.15
nonaccession number
1991.3107
catalog number
1991.3107.08.15
P. S. Duval and Company (ca 1840s-1858) of Philadelphia produced this chromolithographic print from an original illustration by John M. Stanley (1814-1872).
Description (Brief)
P. S. Duval and Company (ca 1840s-1858) of Philadelphia produced this chromolithographic print from an original illustration by John M. Stanley (1814-1872). The image of "Wooden Ware, etc." was published as Plate X in Volume 2, following page 116 of Appendix E (Indian Antiquities) by Thomas Ewbank (1792-1870) in the report describing "The U.S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere during the Years 1849, 1850, 1851, and 1852" by James M. Gillis (1811-1865). The volume was printed in 1855 by A. O. P. Nicholson (1808-1876) of Washington, D.C.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1855
original artist
Wallis, O. J.
Dreser, William
Herbst, Francis
graphic artist
Sinclair, Thomas
Dougal, William H.
Duval, Peter S.
printer
Nicholson, A. O. P.
publisher
United States Navy
original artist
Richard, John H.
Stanley, John Mix
Siebert, Selmar
author
Cassin, John
Ewbank, Thomas
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Gilliss, James Melville
ID Number
2007.0204.01
accession number
2007.0204
catalog number
2007.0204.01
The book Silent Spring by biologist and nature writer Rachel Carson was published in 1962.
Description
The book Silent Spring by biologist and nature writer Rachel Carson was published in 1962. Carson's research on the effect of insecticides (specifically DDT) on bird populations coupled with her moving prose made Silent Spring a best-seller, though chemical companies attacked it as unscientific. While noting the benefits of pesticides in fighting insect-borne disease and boosting crop yields, Carson warned about the invisible dangers of indiscriminate insecticide use and its unintended effect on nature. The publication of Silent Spring led to an increased public awareness of humanity’s impact on nature and is credited as the beginning of the modern environmental movement, leading to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and the banning of DDT in 1972.
Location
Currently not on view
date published
1962
author
Carson, Rachel
ID Number
2013.3104.01
nonaccession number
2013.3104
catalog number
2013.3104.01
This paperbound book contains eighty crossword puzzles. The puzzles are almost all worked in ink, with a variety of annotations. The editor of the book was Margaret Petherbridge, and the publisher Pocket Books, Inc.
Description
This paperbound book contains eighty crossword puzzles. The puzzles are almost all worked in ink, with a variety of annotations. The editor of the book was Margaret Petherbridge, and the publisher Pocket Books, Inc. A mark on the cover reads: pb (/) The POCKET BOOK of (/) CROSSWORD (/) PUZZLES (/) 100 HOURS of PUZZLE PLEASURE. A mark inked on the title page reads: #210 (/) O.C. Hazlett.
The mathematician Olive C. Hazlett once owned tne book.
For related transactions see 2015.0027 and 1998.0314.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1943
maker
Petherbridge, Margaret
ID Number
2015.3004.03
nonaccession number
2015.3004
catalog number
2015.3004.03
This cloth-bound book of riddles was published by the Peter Pauper Press and illustrated by Henry R. Martin.For a book by the same publisher, see 2015.0027.03.The book, once owned by the mathematician Olive C.
Description
This cloth-bound book of riddles was published by the Peter Pauper Press and illustrated by Henry R. Martin.
For a book by the same publisher, see 2015.0027.03.
The book, once owned by the mathematician Olive C. Hazlett, has her signature on the front and on the back cover.
For related transactions, see 2015.0027 and 1998.0314.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1954
ID Number
2015.3004.02
nonaccession number
2015.3004
catalog number
2015.3004.02
The book Mathematical Puzzles and Pastimes was obtained by Olive C. Hazlett (1890–1974) on May 27, 1965. Hazlett was one of America's leading mathematicians during the 1920s.
Description
The book Mathematical Puzzles and Pastimes was obtained by Olive C. Hazlett (1890–1974) on May 27, 1965. Hazlett was one of America's leading mathematicians during the 1920s. She taught at Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Illinois, after which she moved to Peterborough, New Hampshire. This volume, as well as other puzzle books and puzzles she owned, was collected from a community of Discalced Carmelite brothers who had lived in New Hampshire and who had befriended Hazlett there.
The puzzles and pastimes of the book were gathered and edited by Philip Haber and illustrated by Stanley Wyatt. The book was published by The Peter Pauper Press of Mount Vernon, New York, in 1957. Haber collected problems that he wrote could “be solved primarily by clear thinking, arithmetic or algebra.” The book contains 113 problems with solutions given to some of them. Haber refers to the last four problems as “famous” and gives their names as: The Impossible Division Problem, The Unit Problem, The Apple Problem, and The Problem of Problems (Archimedes’ Cattle Problem).
Hazlett wrote “$1. for 3” on the title page of this book. There is one other book in the museum collections, The Little Riddle Book (2015.3004.02), that was also published by The Peter Pauper Press and also obtained by Hazlett on May 27, 1965. In that book she wrote “3 for $1.” Hazlett signed her name “O. C. Hazlett” on the dustcover of both books. She made other handwritten marks in Mathematical Puzzles and Pastimes, including several whose meanings are not clear.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1957
ID Number
2015.0027.03
accession number
2015.0027
catalog number
2015.0027.03

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