Archives of American Mathematics Resources

The Archives of American Mathematics (AAM) consists of both personal papers and the records of mathematical organizations from the twentieth century. Major strengths of the AAM are in topology, mathematics education, analysis, number theory, logic, and the mathematical foundations of physics.

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In addition to offering resources for studying the role of mathematics and mathematicians in America over the last century, the Archives also offers resources for the historical study of mathematics education.

The Mathematical Association of America Records, for example, reflect the organization’s active role in college mathematics education, while the School Mathematics Study Group Records document the influential “New Math” primary and secondary curriculum of the 1960s.

Class notes on University of Texas courses from the 1920s and notes on several Harvard University courses from 1910 to 1913, such as courses by G. D. Birkhoff, M. Bôcher, J. L. Coolidge, and W. F. Osgood are present.

Oral histories offer another rich source for study. The R. L. Moore Legacy Collection includes over one hundred interviews with Moore’s students and colleagues recounting personal experiences with him and the Moore Method of teaching. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Oral History Project Records consist of interviews since 2002 of leaders in mathematics education.

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Max Dehn Papers, 1899-1979

The collection documents the career of Max Dehn (1878-1952), relating chiefly to his research in geometry, topology, group theory, and the history of mathematics at Frankfurt University and Black Mountain College, North Carolina. (2 linear feet)

Frederick Lincoln Fuller Papers, 1905-1941

Fuller (1861–1943) was an inventor of cash registers who began his own company, Union Cash Register Co., in 1890. Later he worked for National Cash Register co., Remington Arms Co., and International Business Machines (IBM). An IBM employee from 1927 to 1943, he was best known as the inventor of a “bank proofing machine.” The collection consists of personal scrapbooks, photo­graphs, several letters to relations, and a few pages of technical sketches. (2 linear feet)

Emil Grosswald Papers, 1942-1988

Grosswald (1912-1989) was an analytic number theorist who taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University. The papers contain correspondence, article and book manuscripts, Grosswald’s teaching and lecture notes, and records of his work on the Mathematical Association of America’s Board of Governors and Ford Award Committee. (8 linear feet)

George Bruce Halsted Papers, 1810-1936

George Bruce Halsted (1853-1922) explored foundations of geometry and introduced Non-Euclidean geometry into the United States through his own work and his many important translations. This collection consists of correspondence, ephemera, printed material, photographs, and publications documenting his life and work. (4 linear feet)

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Mathematical Association of America Records, 1916-present

This collection consists of correspondence, printed material, notes, publications, and photographs documenting the work of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). Strongly represented are the files of officers of the association, as well as the editorial files from the MAA’s two major journals, American Mathematical Monthly and Mathematics Magazine. (300 linear feet)

Francis L. Miksa Papers, 1937-1975

Miksa (1901-1975) was an amateur number theorist and combinatorist from Aurora, Illinois. The collection consists correspondence, and calculations and drafts of Mr. Miksa’s work on magic squares, Pythagorean triangles, and other mathematical topics. (40 linear feet)

R. L. Moore Papers, 1875-1975

R. L. Moore (1882-1974), a prominent mathematician, was a professor of mathematics at The University of Texas at Austin for almost fifty years. The R. L. Moore Papers, 1875-1975, consist of correspondence, research notebooks, drafts, teaching material, mathematical notes, printed material, photographs and other material documenting the life and career of Moore. (27 linear feet)

Otton Martin Nikodym Papers, 1925-1981

Nikodym’s (1887-1974) work encompassed a wide range of topics, including the Lebesque-Radon-Nikodym integral, measure theory, abstract Boolean lattices, and the theory of operators in Hilbert space. He taught at schools in Cracow and Warsaw and, eventually, Kenyon College, from 1948 to 1966. His papers consist of notes and drafts for unpublished and published work, lecture and course notes, textbook drafts, and correspondence. (12 linear feet)

George Yuri Rainich Papers, 1941-1968

George Yuri Rainich (1886-1968) was a relativity theorist at the University of Michigan. These papers consist largely of manuscript materials for a proposed book, course notes (for classes at the University of Michigan and the University of Notre Dame), and seminar materials created between 1941 and 1965. (5 linear feet)

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William T. Reid Papers, 1926-1977

Reid (1907-1977) was an analyst at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Iowa, and the University of Oklahoma. The collection contains papers from his undergraduate studies to the year of his death. They include material related to conferences and symposia in which he presented papers, documentation of his work with mathematics education during World War II, and research notes. (28 linear feet)

J. Barkley Rosser Papers, 1938-1989

Rosser’s (1907-1989) areas of expertise were in symbolic logic, ballistics, numerical analysis, and rocket development. He taught at Princeton, Harvard, and Cornell, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His papers include correspondence, manuscripts of publications and lectures, notes, reprints, calculations, and books. (11 linear feet)

Alfred Schild Papers, 1944-1977

The papers of the physicist Alfred Schild (1921–1977) represent his research, teaching and administration in physics, and his interests in the arts and politics. He studied under Leopold Infeld at Toronto and was co–author of Tensor Calculus (1949) with J.L. Synge with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. He was the founder and director (1962–72) of the Center for Relativity Theory at the University of Texas at Austin and the collection is especially strong in documenting the formation and activities of the Texas group of relativists. (13 linear feet)

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I. J. Schoenberg Papers, 1900-1993

Schoenberg (1903-1990) was a student of Diophantine approximations, total positivity, distance geometry, integral transforms, approximation theory at Swarthmore, Colby College, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Wisconsin. The collections contains correspondence, manuscripts, teaching materials, and photographs. (26 linear feet)

School Mathematics Study Group Records, 1958-1977

These records document the history of the School Mathematics Study Group (SMSG), the major force of the “New Math” movement. The records, which include the writing, implementation, and evaluation of the SMSG curriculum, consist largely of the files of the director, Edward G. Begle; together with a collection of SMSG textbooks and other publications. (130 linear feet)

Norman Earl Steenrod Papers, 1948-1970

Norman Earl Steenrod (1910-1971) was an algebraic topologist at Princeton University. Records pertaining to his books, research grants, lectures, and work with several mathematical organizations comprise the collection. (20 linear inches)

C. Truesdell Papers, 1939-1989

Clifford Ambrose Truesdell III (1919-2000) was a specialist in rational mechanics and its history at Indiana University and Johns Hopkins University, as well as the founder of the Archives for History of Exact Sciences. Papers document Truesdell’s research in rational mechanics and its history, and his role in the development of the field since the late 1940s. Included are correspondence, lecture and course notes, lists of publications and lectures, drafts, galleys and page proofs of publications, grant proposals, reports, reprints, and photographs. (25 linear feet)

Jean Van Heijenoort Papers, 1946-1992

John van Heijenoort (1912-1986) was a logician and historian of logic at New York University and Brandeis University. Van Heijenoort’s papers contain his writings, correspondence, research notes, records concerning From Frege to Gödel, and reprints. (16 linear feet)

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H. S. Vandiver Papers, 1899-1977

H. S. Vandiver (1882-1973) was a number theorist at the University of Texas in Austin. The collection consists of correspondence, research notes, bibliographies, lecture notes, notebooks, drafts of publications, reprints, and photographs documenting his career. (17 linear feet)

William M. Whyburn Papers, 1923-1972

William M. Whyburn (1901-1972) was a National Research Fellow at Harvard University, before joining the faculty of the University of California-Los Angeles, where he became Mathematics Department chairman. He later served as President of Texas Technological College and taught at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC). The collection includes records pertaining to his administrative work at UNC, as well as other correspondence, lectures, and documents from his government consulting work. (10 linear feet)

Raymond Louis Wilder Papers, 1914-1982

R. L. Wilder’s (1896-1982) papers reflect the topologist’s career. Wilder, R. L. Moore’s fourth doctoral student at the University of Texas, was on the University of Michigan faculty from 1926 to his retirement in 1966, after which he moved to the University of California-Santa Barbara. Materials include correspondence, notes and drafts for publications, course, lecture and seminar notes, clippings, photographs, and reprints. (19 linear feet)

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