Emily Coddington Williams (born Emily Matilda Coddington, October 21, 1873 – August 8, 1952) was an American

historian of mathematics The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the mathematical methods and notation of the past. Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments ...

, translator, novelist, playwright, and biographer.

Early life and education

Coddington was born on October 21, 1873, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

; her parents were of well-off colonial stock. Her father, a lawyer, died in 1876, and she came to live in

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

with her mother and grandmother. She passed the entrance examination for

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1891, allowing her to study at the Harvard Annex, a precursor to

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

. Instead, she went to the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

from 1894 to 1896, and earned a bachelor's degree there. In 1898,

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 ...

awarded her a master's degree in mathematics, minoring in mechanics and Greek, based on a thesis she wrote at the end of her studies in London concerning the history of

determinant In mathematics, the determinant is a scalar value that is a function of the entries of a square matrix. It characterizes some properties of the matrix and the linear map represented by the matrix. In particular, the determinant is nonzero if and ...

s. She completed a Ph.D. at Columbia in 1905. Her dissertation, ''A Brief Account of the Historical Development of Pseudospherical Surfaces from 1827 to 1887'', concerned the history of

non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean geo ...

and the

pseudosphere In geometry, a pseudosphere is a surface with constant negative Gaussian curvature. A pseudosphere of radius is a surface in \mathbb^3 having curvature in each point. Its name comes from the analogy with the sphere of radius , which is a surface ...

, also including material on a paper of

Albert Victor Bäcklund Albert Victor Bäcklund (11 January 1845 – 23 February 1922) was a Swedish mathematician and physicist. He was a professor at Lund University and its rector from 1907 to 1909. He was born in Malmöhus County, now Skåne County, in southern Swe ...

hyperbolic geometry In mathematics, hyperbolic geometry (also called Lobachevskian geometry or Bolyai– Lobachevskian geometry) is a non-Euclidean geometry. The parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry is replaced with: :For any given line ''R'' and point ''P'' ...

, which she translated from Swedish into English. Beginning in 1909 Coddington studied law at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, gaining admission to the bar in 1912 and earning a law degree in 1913. Although Coddington did not become a professional mathematician or lawyer, she remained a lifelong member 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, ...

, and attended the 1908 and 1912

International Congresses of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the Nevanlinna Prize (to be rename ...

in England and Italy, respectively.

Later life

Coddington married businessman William Henry Williams in 1917, and her subsequent publications were under the name Emily Coddington Williams. She participated in several clubs concerning gardening and

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

, and traveled frequently to Europe. With her husband, she continued to live in New York, summering in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

. They were childless, although her husband had adopted Irma Williams, his niece, after Irma's mother died in childbirth in 1901. Williams was the author of two one-act plays, ''Then'' (1914) and ''Pals'' (1925), two novels, ''Homing Pigeon'' (1927) and ''Quest for Love'' (1929) and a 1941 biography of

William Coddington William Coddington (c. 1601 – 1 November 1678) was an early magistrate of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and later of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He served as the judge of Portsmouth and Newport, governor of Portsmouth ...

(1601–1678), governor of Rhode Island. Her husband died in 1943. In 1952, Williams set sail for Europe on the RMS ''Queen Mary'', but she broke her hip while on board, and died in a hospital in Paris on August 8, 1952, leaving a large legacy to her godchildren and the societies she belonged to. Her Newport estate, Villa Rosa, was sold to a real estate developer who demolished it and replaced it with a condominium complex.

Works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Emily Coddington 1873 births 1952 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American historians American women historians American historians of mathematics Novelists from New York (state) American women novelists Alumni of the University of London Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni New York University School of Law alumni Swedish–English translators 20th-century American women mathematicians