Ellen Louisa Burrell (June 12, 1850 – December 3, 1938) was an American mathematics professor, head of the Department of Pure Mathematics at
Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...
from 1897 to 1916.
Early life
Burrell was born in
Lockport, New York
Lockport is both a city and the Lockport (town), New York, town that surrounds it in Niagara County, New York, Niagara County, New York (state), New York. The city is the Niagara county seat, with a population of 21,165 according to 2010 census ...
, the daughter of Myron Louis Burrell and Mary Jones Burrell. She earned a bachelor's degree from Wellesley College in 1880, in the same class as her future colleagues
Katharine Lee Bates
Katharine Lee Bates (August 12, 1859 – March 28, 1929) was an American author and poet, chiefly remembered for her anthem "America the Beautiful", but also for her many books and articles on social reform, on which she was a noted speaker.
Bat ...
and
Charlotte Fitch Roberts
Charlotte Fitch Roberts (February 13, 1859 – December 5, 1917) was an American chemist best known for her work on stereochemistry.
Life
Roberts was born on February 13, 1859, in New York City to Horace Roberts and Mary Roberts (''née'' Hart).
...
. She went to Germany for further studies at
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
in 1896 and 1897.
Career
Burrell taught at
Rockford Seminary in Illinois for several years, from 1881 to 1886. She returned to Wellesley to teach in 1886. In 1897, as a solution to her contentious relationship with fellow mathematics professor
Ellen Hayes, she was made head of the Department of Pure Mathematics (and Hayes became head of Applied Mathematics).
Her department included professors
Roxana Vivian and
Helen Abbott Merrill. She and Hayes both retired from Wellesley in 1916, and the departments were reunited. She was also curator of the college's herbarium.
Her class notes were privately published as "The Number System" and "Synthetic Projection Geometry".
Burrell attended the fourth colloquium of the
American Mathematical Society
The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
in Boston in 1903, and another 1903 meeting of the society held at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. She was also active in the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New England. She visited the American School for Girls in Constantinople in 1907.
Personal life
Burrell enthusiastically voted for
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...
for president in 1920.
She died in 1938, aged 88 years, in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
Her papers are in the Wellesley College Archives.
References
External links
Ellen L. Burrell's copyof
Paul Bachmann's ''Die Elemente der Zahlentheorie'' (1892), at the Mathematical Association of America website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burrell, Ellen
1850 births
1938 deaths
People from Lockport, New York
Wellesley College alumni
Wellesley College faculty
Mathematics educators
American women mathematicians