David Eugene Smith (January 21, 1860 – July 29, 1944) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

mathematician, educator, and editor.

Education and career

David Eugene Smith is considered one of the founders of the field of mathematics education. Smith was born in Cortland, New York, to Abram P. Smith, attorney and surrogate judge, and Mary Elizabeth Bronson, who taught her young son Latin and Greek. He attended

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 ...

, graduating in 1881 (Ph. D., 1887; LL.D., 1905). He studied to be a lawyer concentrating in arts and humanities, but accepted an instructorship in mathematics at the Cortland Normal School in 1884 where he attended as a young man. While at the Cortland Normal School Smith became a member of the Young Men's Debating Club (today the

Delphic Fraternity The Delphic Fraternity, Inc., also known as Delphic of Gamma Sigma Tau (), is a historic multicultural fraternity originally founded in New York State in 1871 and re-established in 1987. The fraternity can trace its origin back to the ''Delphic S ...

.) He became a professor at the

Michigan State Normal College Eastern Michigan University (EMU, Eastern Michigan or simply Eastern), is a public research university in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School, the school was the fourth normal school established in the United Sta ...

in 1891 (later Eastern Michigan University), the principal at the State Normal School in

Brockport, New York Brockport is a village in the Town of Sweden, with two tiny portions in the Town of Clarkson, in Monroe County, New York, United States. The population was 7,104 at the 2020 U.S. Census. The name is derived from Heil Brockway, an early settler ...

(1898), and a professor of mathematics at

Teachers College, Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties and ...

(1901) where he remained until his retirement in 1926. Smith became president of the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

in 1920 and served as the president of the

History of Science Society The History of Science Society (HSS) is the primary professional society for the academic study of the history of science. It was founded in 1924 by George Sarton, David Eugene Smith, and Lawrence Joseph Henderson, primarily to support the publi ...

in 1927. He also wrote a large number of publications of various types. He was editor of the ''Bulletin'' 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, meeting ...

; contributed to other mathematical journals; published a series of textbooks; translated

Felix Klein Christian Felix Klein (; 25 April 1849 – 22 June 1925) was a German mathematician and mathematics educator, known for his work with group theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and on the associations between geometry and grou ...

's ''Famous Problems of Geometry'', Fink's ''History of Mathematics'', and the

Treviso Arithmetic The ''Treviso Arithmetic'', or ''Arte dell'Abbaco'', is an anonymous textbook in commercial arithmetic written in vernacular Venetian and published in Treviso, Italy, in 1478. The author explains the motivation for writing this textbook: The ...

. He edited Augustus De Morgan's '' A Budget of Paradoxes'' (1915) and edited ''A Source Book in Mathematics'' (1929). He wrote many books on Mathematics which are listed below. He served as Mathematics Editor of the 14th edition of the

Encyclopedia Britannica An encyclopedia ( American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articl ...

, 1929. ''Abacus'' and ''Algebra'' were his own contributions to the first volume.

Revival

In 2020,

Francis Su Francis Edward Su is an American mathematician. He joined the Harvey Mudd College faculty in 1996, and is currently Benediktsson-Karwa Professor of Mathematics. Su served as president of the Mathematical Association of America from 2015–2017 ...

published ''Mathematics for Human Flourishing'', in which he cites Smith's speech entitled "Religio Mathematici" (Latin: faith of a mathematician), his farewell address delivered to the

in 1921. An annotated collection of Smith's writings was published in 2022. It includes postcards (digitized by the Cortland Historical Society), poetry, speeches, and various excerpts from his works. In the foreword,

writes of Smith: "He rekindled the awe I experienced when I first saw the beauty and depth of mathematics, an awe that I—as a mathematician who now takes these things for granted—might have long since forgotten."

Works

Books

* ''Plane and Solid Geometry'' (1895), with Wooster Woodruff Beman * ''History of Modern Mathematics'' (1896
4th edition, 1906
reissued as a separate work
Cornell Historical Math Monographs
* ''The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics'' (1900
Cornell Historical Math Monographs
* ''

Geometric Exercises in Paper Folding ''Geometric Exercises in Paper Folding'' is a book on the mathematics of paper folding. It was written by Indian mathematician T. Sundara Row, first published in India in 1893, and later republished in many other editions. Its topics include paper ...

'' (originally by T. Sundara Row, 1893; revised and edited by Smith with Wooster Woodruff Beman, 1901) * ''Intermediate Arithmetic'' (1905

* ''The Teaching of Arithmetic'' (1909; revised edition, 1913) * ''The Teaching of Geometry'' (1912) * ''Rara Arithmetica'' (1908) *
The Hindu-Arabic Numerals
' (1911), with

Louis Charles Karpinski Louis Charles Karpinski (5 August 1878 – 25 January 1956) was an American mathematician. Background Louis Charles Karpinski was born on August 5, 1878, in Rochester, New York. His parents were Henry Hermanagle Karpinski of Warsaw, Poland, ...

* ''A Bibliography on the Teaching of Mathematics'' (1912), with Charles Goldziher
''A History of Japanese Mathematics''
(1914), with Yoshio Mikami
''Number Stories of Long Ago''
(1919)
''Elements of Projective Geometry''
(1922), with G. H. Ling & George Wentworth * ''Mathematics'' In series ''Our Debt to Greece and Rome''. (1923
Michigan Historical Math Collection
* ''History of Mathematics'': 2 Volumes (1923/5). Reprinted Dover, 1958. * ''A History of Mathematics in America before 1900'' (1934), with Jekuthiel Ginsburg; Carus Mathematical Monographs * ''Le comput manuel de Magister Anianus.'' (1928) * ''In the Shadow of the Palms: The Selected Works of David Eugene Smith'' (2022), edited by Tristan Abbey

Selected articles

References

Lao Genevra Simons Lao Genevra Simons (1870–1949) also referred to as Lao G. Simons, was an American mathematician, writer, and historian of mathematics known for her influential book ''Fabre and Mathematics and Other Essays''. Simons was head of the mathemati ...