
Instructing the Mathematical Imagination
Charlotte Angas Scott and Bryn Mawr College, 1880s to 1920s
Jemma Lorenat(Author)
American Mathematical Society (Publisher)
Published on 15. December 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
260 pages
978-1-4704-7493-5 (ISBN)
Description
This book examines the creation and character of mathematical training at Bryn Mawr College between 1885 and 1926 under the leadership of Charlotte Angas Scott. Though designated as a college, Bryn Mawr boasted the world's first graduate degree programs in which women taught women. Through detailed analysis of Scott's publications, student dissertations, and institutional records - including the college's Journal Club Notebooks - the author reconstructs how a sustained, collaborative, and visually grounded style of mathematics emerged in this setting. Rather than focusing on biographical exceptionalism, the study situates Scott and her students within broader shifts in the American mathematical community, including changing access to education, publication, and professional networks.
Following Scott's own trajectory from England to the United States, the chapters explore the development of the mathematics department and trace themes such as algebraic representation in geometry, refined visual intuition, and early topology. The work addresses institutional constraints and the pedagogical means through which students learned to do original mathematics in a time of limited professional opportunity.
The book rewards those interested in the disciplinary, epistemological, and material conditions of mathematical research. The technical content is within the reach of advanced undergraduate students. It is of particular value to historians of science, historians of gender, scholars of mathematics education, and practicing geometers and topologists curious about the histories of their fields.
Following Scott's own trajectory from England to the United States, the chapters explore the development of the mathematics department and trace themes such as algebraic representation in geometry, refined visual intuition, and early topology. The work addresses institutional constraints and the pedagogical means through which students learned to do original mathematics in a time of limited professional opportunity.
The book rewards those interested in the disciplinary, epistemological, and material conditions of mathematical research. The technical content is within the reach of advanced undergraduate students. It is of particular value to historians of science, historians of gender, scholars of mathematics education, and practicing geometers and topologists curious about the histories of their fields.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Providence
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
ISBN-13
978-1-4704-7493-5 (9781470474935)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jemma Lorenat, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA.
Content
A Girton girl and the lady wrangler
Generals without armies: Mathematics at Cambridge beyond the Tripos
To organize a department of mathematics
Bryn Mawr in the mathematical landscape toward the end of the nineteenth century
Motivation: To trace an unsuspected connection
Theme: Distinguishing between appearance and reality
Technique: Curve tracing
Better off in Noah's Ark: Bryn Mawr and professional mathematical societies
Pure imaginaries in the Mathematical Journal Club Notebook
Branches, knots, and topological research
The other half of the Bryn Mawr mathematics department
Readers, administrators, and professoresses
Remembering Bryn Mawr mathematics
Bibliography
Index
Generals without armies: Mathematics at Cambridge beyond the Tripos
To organize a department of mathematics
Bryn Mawr in the mathematical landscape toward the end of the nineteenth century
Motivation: To trace an unsuspected connection
Theme: Distinguishing between appearance and reality
Technique: Curve tracing
Better off in Noah's Ark: Bryn Mawr and professional mathematical societies
Pure imaginaries in the Mathematical Journal Club Notebook
Branches, knots, and topological research
The other half of the Bryn Mawr mathematics department
Readers, administrators, and professoresses
Remembering Bryn Mawr mathematics
Bibliography
Index