The World Stage 

The Cold War 

The Information Age

Resources

The objects shown on this site reflect over fifty years of collecting at the Smithsonian. They represent a small fraction of the museum's holdings relating to mathematics education. Recent research on the history of this area enriches our understanding of these materials. Some useful published sources are listed below.

In the 1990s, the World Wide Web emerged as a new resource for math teachers, students, patents and historians. A few Web sites of interest are also noted.

Web Sites Useful in Mathematics Education

Parents, teachers and students all now use the World Wide Web as a resource for math education.  The following list is meant as a starting point for further exploration.

Problems to solve

• www.dep.anl.gov/aattack.htm--Arithmetic problems to be solved in 60 seconds.

• figurethis.org/challenges/challenge_index.htm--National Council of Teachers of  Mathematics site with problems for middle school students.
  
  

• www.teachingideas.co.uk/maths/contents.htm--A British commercial site with classroom activities.
  
  

• www.cut-the-knot.com/content.html--An American commercial site, that boasts Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles.

Polyhedra and Manipulatives

• www.math.utah.edu/~alfeld/math/polyhedra/polyhedra.html--A site on regular, 3-dimensional polyhedra.
  
  

• info.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ma/gallery/hyper/index.html--A site that shows a rotating 4-dimensional hypercube.
  
  

• matti.usu.edu/nlvm/enu/navd/index.html--National Library of Virtual Man ipulatives, Utah State University.
  
  

• www.georgehart.com/pavilion.html--Commercial site of George W. Hart.

Lists of Links to Other Web sites

• mathforum.org/--The Math Forum at Drexel University.





•  www.ams.org/new-in-math/museums.html--American Mathematical Society list of mathematics-related virtual exhibits.

Mathematics-teaching related sites

• www.mste.uiuc.edu/html.f/resource.xml--List of Web sites for teaching various topics in mathematics and science.
  
  www.ams.org/notices/199502/devlin.pdf--An index from National Council of Teachers of Mathematic of software reviews and related columns for the period 1988-1994. (pdf format).

Web Sites Relating to the History of American Math Teaching

History of Mathematics and Education Generally

• www.merlot.org/Home.po--A resource especially for faculty and students in higher education.
  
  

• www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/index.html--History of American Education Web Project - a listing of sources concerning many areas of American education.
  
  

• digital.library.pitt.edu/nietz/webbibn.html--Using Textbooks as a Research Resource: A Bibliography - a bibliography of published books and journal articles on the history of textbooks.  Only a few concern mathematics.
  
  

• www.socsci.kun.nl/ped/whp/histeduc/index.html--The History of Education and Childhood at Nijmegen University, the Netherlands--an international site.
  
  

• www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/--The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive.
  
  

• americanhistory.si.edu/teachingmath/--Web site for this exhibition.

The Early Republic

• www.ccmr.cornell.edu/~weeds/SchoolPages/welcome.html--One of several sites relating to one-room schools.

The World Stage

• www.chicagohs.org/AOTM/sept98/sept98artifact.html--An account of the early schools of Chicago, with lesson plans.

The New Math

• www.nas.edu/sputnik/index.htm--Proceedings of a symposium hosted by the Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education in October, 1997.  Included are papers on several educational reform movements, including the New Math.

The Information Age

• www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed433192.html--Technology in Mathematics Education: Internet Resources. ERIC Digest - a listing of several Web sites from the U.S. Department of Education.
  
  

• standards.nctm.org - Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, as prepared by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Publications

The Early Republic

• Cajori, Florian. The Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States. Washington,D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1890.
   

• Cremin, Lawrence. American Education, the National Experience, 1783-1876. New York: Harper and Row, 1980.
  
  

• Karpinski, Louis Charles. Bibliography of Mathematical Works Printed in America through 1850.  Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press; London: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1940.                                                                   

The World Stage

• Cremin, Lawrence. The Transformation of the School; Progressivism in American Education, 1876-1957. New York:  Knopf, 1961.
  
  

• Parshall, Karen Hunger, and David E. Rowe. The Emergence of the American Mathematical Research Community, 1876-1900: J. J. Sylvester, Felix Klein, and E. H. Moore. Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society; London: London Mathematical Society, 1994.
  
  

• Roberts, David L., “Albert Harry Wheeler (1873-1950): A Case Study in the Stratification of American Mathematical Activity,” Historia Mathematica 23 (1996), 269-287.
  
  

• Roberts, David L., “E. H. Moore’s Early Twentieth-Century Program for Reform in Mathematics Education,” The American Mathematical Monthly 108 (2001), 689-696.

The Cold War

• Bjork, Daniel W. B. F. Skinner: A Life. New York: Basic Books, 1993.
  
  

• Kaestle, Carl F. “The Public Schools and the Public Mood,” American Heritage (February 1990), 66-80.
  
  

• Miller, Jeffrey W. “Whatever Happened to New Math?” American Heritage (December 1990), 76-83.
  
  

• Ravitch, Diane. The Troubled Crusade : American Education, 1945-1980. New York: Basic Books, 1983.
  

The Information Age

• Devlin, Keith, and Nancy Wilson. “Six-Year Indices of ‘Computers and Mathematics,’” Notices of the AMS, February 1995, vol. 42, no. 2, 248-254.  An index to software reviews and related columns for the period 1988-1994. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics, 1989.

Contact Information
For further information please e-mail mathematics@si.edu, or write to: Mathematics, NMAH 5125, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560-0671

Copyright
Unless otherwise noted, all text and images are copyright © National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Credits
This exhibition is a collective effort by staff of the National Museum of American History, Behring Center, and the Smithsonian Institution. Historical exhibitions are complex undertakings, and the history they present is an interpretation of historical evidence informed by knowledge and experience.

EXHIBITION CURATOR
Peggy Kidwell

EXHIBITION DESIGNER
Stevan Fisher

PROJECT MANAGER
Kathryn Campbell

EDITOR
Nancy Growald Brooks

WEB SITE MANAGER
C. W. Prather

WEB SITE DESIGN
Crabtree + Company

PRODUCTION AND INSTALLATION
Offices of Production; Exhibition Maintenance; Exhibition Technology; Collections Management Services

PHOTOGRAPHY
Rolfe Baggett, Patrick Brown, Harold Dorwin, Brenda Gilmore, Eric Long, Richard Strauss, Hugh Talman