The George D. Birkhoff House is a historic house, at 22 Craigie Street,

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. It was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1975 for its association with

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 ...

professor

George David Birkhoff George David Birkhoff (March 21, 1884 – November 12, 1944) was an American mathematician best known for what is now called the ergodic theorem. Birkhoff was one of the most important leaders in American mathematics in his generation, and durin ...

(1881–1944), one of the most important mathematicians of his time. The house is a three-story Second Empire wood-frame structure with a mansard roof. Its date of construction is not known, but is surmised to be before the 1890s. The house is not architecturally distinguished, but its exterior has not been significantly altered since its construction. Changes made to the interior, of center-hall plan, include the additions of a cathedral ceiling to the front parlor conversion and of modern plumbing. George David Birkhoff 1

George David Birkhoff was born in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

and educated at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

and Harvard in mathematics. In 1912 he accepted a teaching position at Harvard, where he remained for the rest of his life. Birkhoff helped to advance mathematics, solving

Henri Poincaré Jules Henri Poincaré ( S: stress final syllable ; 29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912) was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The ...

's "last geometric theorem" and developing the ergodic theorem, a thesis important in statistical physics and the study of

dynamical system In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a ...

s. Virtually every honor available to mathematicians was bestowed on him during his life, and there is a prize named in his honor. Birkhoff lived in this house for eight years, from 1920 to 1928. It was made a

and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1975. and

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Birkhoff, George D. Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Cambridge, Massachusetts National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts

See also

References