|
|
Re: [HM] Nineteenth-century textbooks
Posted:
Dec 1, 2002 5:37 PM
|
|
Dear Roger,
"Farrar" is presumably John Farrar, 1779-1853, who
did a curricular reform in science and mathematics
at Harvard College (where he had been a student).
There were two series: Cambridge Mathematics
and Cambridge Natural Philosophy.
The former included English versions of Lacroix,
Legendre, Bezout, Euler, etc. John Farrar was
Hollis Professor at Harvard and thus was recognized
by his own institution in his own time.
A good brief account of his life and influence may
be found in Brooke Hindle's article on Farrar in
the Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
There's also a book on him by his wife.
YOu may also find useful, on the general questions
you address, Dirk Struik's Yankee Science in the Making,
Stanley Guralnick, Science and the
Antebellum American College, and Florian Cajori's
monumental The Teaching and History of Mathematics
in the United States.
A short introduction to the relevant period is
my own "Mathematics in America: The First Hundred
Years" in Dalton Tarwater, ed., The Bicentennial
Tribute to American Mathematics. The bibliographies
of the articles in that volume will be helpful.
Good luck with your very interesting project.
Judith V. Grabiner
Flora Sanborn Pitzer Professor of Mathematics
Pitzer College (909) 607-3160
|
|
