Levi Leonard Conant (March 3, 1857,

Littleton, Massachusetts Littleton (historically Nipmuc: ''Nashoba'') is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,141 at the 2020 census. For geographic and demographic information on the neighborhood of Littleton Common, please se ...

– October 11, 1916,

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

specializing in

trigonometry Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics that studies relationships between side lengths and angles of triangles. The field emerged in the Hellenistic world during the 3rd century BC from applications of geometry to astronomical studies. T ...

Education and career

He attended

Phillips Academy ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover , state = Ma ...

, Andover and

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

(B.A., 1879, A.M., 1887) and later

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

(Ph.D., 1893), studying mathematics. He was professor of mathematics at the Dakota School of Mines from 1887 to 1890, then attended

Clark University Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the ...

for a year before beginning teaching at

Worcester Polytechnic Institute '' , mottoeng = "Theory and Practice" , established = , former_name = Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science (1865-1886) , type = Private research university , endowme ...

(WPI) in

in 1891, where he taught for the remainder of his life. He was head of the Mathematics Department at WPI from 1908 until his death, and was interim president from 1911 to 1913. He married twice, first in 1884 to Laura Chamberlain (died 1911) and again in 1912 to Emma B. Fisher. On October 11, 1916, aged 59, he was struck by a truck in front of his home and was killed.

The Number Concept

Conant's most significant work was his 1896 book ''The Number Concept: Its Origin and Development''. This was a seminal work in the

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

and

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...

study of

numerals A numeral is a figure, symbol, or group of figures or symbols denoting a number. It may refer to: * Numeral system used in mathematics * Numeral (linguistics), a part of speech denoting numbers (e.g. ''one'' and ''first'' in English) * Numerical d ...

, focusing on the analysis of Native American number systems from a generally cultural evolutionist theoretical perspective. Conant's

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

data generally reflected the limited development of anthropology at the time. Conant's characterization of the numeral systems of Native American languages as 'primitive' or 'savage' is not widely accepted today. Conant's work, however, influenced scholars such as

Lucien Lévy-Bruhl Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (10 April 1857 – 13 March 1939) was a French scholar trained in philosophy who furthered anthropology with his contributions to the budding fields of sociology and ethnology. His primary field interest was ways of thinking. ...

, and represented the first systematic comparative analysis of numeral systems of North America.

Legacy

Conant left $10,000 to 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 his will, which was disbursed in 1976 following the death of Conant's second wife. In 2000 the Society established a yearly prize (

Levi L. Conant Prize The Levi L. Conant Prize is a mathematics prize of the American Mathematical Society, which has been awarded since 2000 for outstanding expository papers published in the ''Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society'' or the ''Notices of the Amer ...

) in his name to honor the best expository paper published in the Bulletin of the AMS or the Notices of the AMS in the past five years.

Major works

*''The Number Concept: Its Origin and Development'' (1896) *''Original Exercises in Plane and Solid Geometry'' (1905) *''Plane and Spherical Trigonometry'' (1909)

References

*Anonymous. 1916. Notes and news. ''American Mathematical Monthly'' 23(10): 401. *Marquis, Albert Nelson, ed. 1908–09. ''Who's Who in America: a Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States.'' Chicago: Marquis.

External links

WPI Mathematical Sciences Department - History
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Mathematics Genealogy Project record
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conant, Levi L. 1857 births 1916 deaths Conant family 19th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians People from Littleton, Massachusetts People from Worcester, Massachusetts Dartmouth College alumni Syracuse University alumni Clark University alumni Worcester Polytechnic Institute alumni Worcester Polytechnic Institute faculty Mathematicians from New York (state)