Uta Caecilia Merzbach (February 9, 1933 – June 27, 2017) was a German-American historian of mathematics who became the first curator of mathematical instruments at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

Early life

Merzbach was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, where her mother was a

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...

and her father was an economist who worked for the

Reich Association of Jews in Germany The Reich Association of Jews in Germany (german: Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland), also called the ''new one'' for clear differentiation, was a Jewish umbrella organisation formed in Nazi Germany in February 1939. The Association branc ...

during World War II. The Nazi government closed the association in June 1943; they arrested the family, along with other leading members of the association, and sent them to the

Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination ca ...

on August 4, 1943. The Merzbachs survived the war and the camp, and after living for a year in a refugee camp in Deggendorf they moved to

Georgetown, Texas Georgetown is a city in Texas and the county seat of Williamson County, Texas, United States. The population was 67,176 at the 2020 census. It is 30 miles (48 km) north of Austin. Founded in 1875 from four existing colleges, the oldest ...

in 1946, where her father found a faculty position at

Southwestern University Southwestern University (Southwestern or SU) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas. Formed in 1873 from a revival of collegiate charters granted in 1840, Southwestern ...

Education

After high school in

Brownwood, Texas Brownwood is a city in and the county seat of Brown County, Texas, United States. The population was 18,862 at th2020 census Brownwood is located in the Northern Texas Hill Country and is home to Howard Payne University that was founded in 1889. ...

, Merzbach entered Southwestern, but transferred after two years to the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, where she graduated in 1952 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. In 1954, she earned a master's degree there, also in mathematics. Merzbach became a school teacher, but soon returned to graduate study at

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 highe ...

. She completed her Ph.D. at Harvard in 1965. Her dissertation, ''Quantity of Structure: Development of Modern Algebraic Concepts from Leibniz to Dedekind'', combined mathematics and the history of science; it was jointly supervised by mathematician

Garrett Birkhoff Garrett Birkhoff (January 19, 1911 – November 22, 1996) was an American mathematician. He is best known for his work in lattice theory. The mathematician George Birkhoff (1884–1944) was his father. Life The son of the mathematician Ge ...

and historian of science I. Bernard Cohen.

Career

Merzbach joined the Smithsonian as an associate curator in 1964 (later curator), and served there until 1988 in the

National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...

. As well as collecting mathematical objects at the Smithsonian, she also collected interviews with many of the pioneers of computing. In 1991, she co-authored the second edition of ''A History of Mathematics'', originally published in 1968 by Carl Benjamin Boyer. After her retirement she returned to Georgetown, Texas, where she died in 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merzbach, Uta 1933 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians 20th-century German mathematicians American historians of mathematics University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences alumni Harvard University alumni People from Berlin People from Georgetown, Texas 20th-century women mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians Theresienstadt Ghetto survivors German emigrants to the United States 20th-century American women 21st-century American women American women curators German women curators