Profile profile for kidwellp
Ph.D. (1979), Yale University M. Phil. (1974), Yale University B.A. (1971), Grinnell College
Research Specialties:
- History of mathematics
- History of computing
- Women in science
- History of astrophysics
Projects:
Current projects:
- A history of mathematical recreations in the United States
Past projects:
- A book on the material culture of American mathematics teaching
- Small exhibitions on such topics as the metric system in the United States, mathematical instruments of Spain and Spanish America, the history of the term "computer bug," and mathematics teaching apparatus.
- Collecting mathematical instruments, software, and teaching devices.
Professional Affiliations:
- History of Science Society
- American Physical Society
- Mathematical Association of America
- IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Editorial Board
- Historical Astronomy Division, American Astronomical Society
Blog Posts
Grace under pressure
September 25, 2018
Pi Day: An American celebration
March 13, 2017
A curator goes to the movies: The stuff of "Hidden Figures"
February 9, 2017
Engaging minds: American mathematics 100 years ago
December 14, 2015
50 years of the computer language BASIC
August 5, 2014
50 years of running COBOL
December 6, 2010
Publications
Tools of American Mathematics Teaching, 1800-2000
with Amy Ackerberg-Hastings and David Lindsay Roberts, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
Surveys changes in the material culture of American mathematics teaching. Tells stories about objects from the blackboard and the textbook to the protractor and the slide rule to the graphing calculator and computer software.
“The Material Culture of Scientific and Technical Information Systems in the United States—Patent Models to Computers,”
Proceedings of the 2002 Conference on the History and Heritage of Scientific and Technical Information Systems, eds. Mary Ellen Bowden and W. Boyd Rayward, Chemical Heritage Foundation, 2004.
“'Yours for Improvement'—The Adding Machines of Chicago, 1884–1930,”
Annals of the History of Computing, 2001, 23: 3–21.
“Stalking the Elusive Computer Bug,”
Annals of the History of Computing, 1998. 20: 5–9.