Ellen Louisa Burrell (June 12, 1850 – December 3, 1938) was an American mathematics professor, head of the Department of Pure Mathematics at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

from 1897 to 1916.

Early life

Burrell was born in

Lockport, New York Lockport is both a city and the Lockport (town), New York, town that surrounds it in Niagara County, New York, Niagara County, New York (state), New York. The city is the Niagara county seat, with a population of 21,165 according to 2010 census ...

, the daughter of Myron Louis Burrell and Mary Jones Burrell. She earned a bachelor's degree from Wellesley College in 1880, in the same class as her future colleagues

Katharine Lee Bates Katharine Lee Bates (August 12, 1859 – March 28, 1929) was an American author and poet, chiefly remembered for her anthem "America the Beautiful", but also for her many books and articles on social reform, on which she was a noted speaker. Bat ...

and

Charlotte Fitch Roberts Charlotte Fitch Roberts (February 13, 1859 – December 5, 1917) was an American chemist best known for her work on stereochemistry. Life Roberts was born on February 13, 1859, in New York City to Horace Roberts and Mary Roberts (''née'' Hart). ...

. She went to Germany for further studies at

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

in 1896 and 1897.

Career

Burrell taught at Rockford Seminary in Illinois for several years, from 1881 to 1886. She returned to Wellesley to teach in 1886. In 1897, as a solution to her contentious relationship with fellow mathematics professor Ellen Hayes, she was made head of the Department of Pure Mathematics (and Hayes became head of Applied Mathematics). Her department included professors Roxana Vivian and Helen Abbott Merrill. She and Hayes both retired from Wellesley in 1916, and the departments were reunited. She was also curator of the college's herbarium. Her class notes were privately published as "The Number System" and "Synthetic Projection Geometry". Burrell attended the fourth colloquium 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, ...

in Boston in 1903, and another 1903 meeting of the society held at

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 ...

. She was also active in the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New England. She visited the American School for Girls in Constantinople in 1907.

Personal life

Burrell enthusiastically voted for

Warren G. Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...

for president in 1920. She died in 1938, aged 88 years, in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Her papers are in the Wellesley College Archives.

References

External links

Ellen L. Burrell's copy
of Paul Bachmann's ''Die Elemente der Zahlentheorie'' (1892), at the Mathematical Association of America website {{DEFAULTSORT:Burrell, Ellen 1850 births 1938 deaths People from Lockport, New York Wellesley College alumni Wellesley College faculty Mathematics educators American women mathematicians