The early history of the Cornell Mathematics Department: A case study in the emergence of the American mathematical research community

DOI10.1006/HMAT.1997.2183MaRDI QIDQ1273191zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Gary G. Cochell

Publication date 23 February 1999

Published in Historia Mathematica (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1006/hmat.1997.2183

zbMATH Keywords

co-educationCornell universityJ. E. OliverV. Snyder

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 19th century (01A55) History of mathematics at specific universities (01A73)

Review text

This well-documented study reports in its first part the foundation of Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) by telephone magnat Ezra Cornell (1807-1874) and historian Andrew Dickson White (1832-1918) in 1868. In its main part the paper examines the ensuing development of mathematics at Cornell from predominant undergraduate education up to German-inspired research level mathematics since around 1900. The decisive men in the math department were James Edward Oliver (1827-1895) and Virgil Snyder (1869-1950). Still, the typical problems of early American mathematics -- over-burdening with teaching and a lack of zeal for research or at least for the publication of the results -- prevented Cornell from stepping into a leadership role in the American mathematical research community after the relative decline of the first leader-department at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore), which had resulted from J. Sylvester's departure in 1883. Cornell had, however, a pioneering role in the education of women since the 1890s.

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Cites work

• A century-old snapshot of American mathematics
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• Virgil Snyder, 1869-1950

Cited in

(10)

• ``A proper spirit is abroad: Peirce, Sylvester, Ward and American mathematics, 1829-1843
• America's first school of mathematical research: James Joseph Sylvester at The Johns Hopkins University 1876--1883
• A prosopographical analysis of the early American mathematics publication community
• Straddling centuries: the struggles of a mathematician and his university to enter the ranks of research mathematics, 1870--1950
• Eliakim Hastings Moore and the founding of a mathematical community in America, 1892–1902
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5005836 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4091439 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4091454 (Why is no real title available?)
• Perspectives on American mathematics
• ‘Lectures for Women’ and the Founding of Newnham College, Cambridge

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