History of Mathematics Events Calendar

Joint Mathematics Meetings, Washington DC

International Conference: Beyond Books: Instruments and Knowledge in Libraries, Musée d’histoire des sciences, Geneva

Nowadays, most library users are unaware that for centuries, libraries have combined written and ‘hands–on’ dimensions of knowledge by collecting instruments and objects of all kinds.

In the Middle Ages, library collections frequently included astrolabes, quadrants, and sundials alongside treatises explaining their construction and use. Theories of libraries in the Renaissance already anticipated the inclusion of ‘mathematical instruments’. With the emergence of curiosity cabinets, between the 16th and 18th centuries the array of objects was continuously extended. Libraries acquired more and more maps, portraits, coins, medals, natural specimens, models, and exotic artefacts intended to engage with and enrich the libraries’ vast encyclopaedic knowledge.

The presence of a cabinet and the interaction between instruments and books became a crucial material and epistemological concern in the management of libraries, whether private or ‘public’, from the 17th century onwards.

Objects were stored close to books, or in adjoining rooms, and fulfilled various functions. Instruments were regarded as both ornaments and complements to written knowledge, three-dimensional representations of knowledge that could be handled. They therefore played a crucial role in understanding scientific texts, serving as examples or as mnemotechnic tools.

With the exception of a few studies, the presence of instruments in libraries has received little attention in the general history of libraries. The history of education, reading practices, architecture and institutions have taken precedence. The international conference Beyond Books: Instruments and Knowledge in Libraries aims to re-evaluate these historiographical assessments and reconnect libraries, instruments, and books. In a deliberately multidisciplinary and diachronic approach, the event will interrogate the acquisition, status and use of instruments in libraries across different time periods, geographical areas, and knowledge cultures.

Proposals of 300 words max. — in French or English — should be sent to Rossella Baldi and Samuel Gessner. The deadline for submissions is 15th June 2025.

Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics (PASHoM), Villanova University

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The PASHoM seminar meets both in person and virtually on Zoom, with one speaker per month each semester. In the January talk Anna Englesone, Villanova University, will present WIlliam Sealy Gosset. All seminar talks will begin at 6:30 pm ET.

William Sealy Gosset (1876 - 1937) was a statistician, a chemist and -- according to Ronald Fisher, who had few good things to say about anyone’s intelligence apart from his own -- one of the most original thinkers of his time. A prolific scholar, Gosset published all his work under a pseudonym because his employer, the Guinness Brewing Company, did not want their brewers to divulge company secrets. In this talk, we will discuss some of Gosset’s important contributions to statistics, such as his work on experimental design, his contributions to the theory of statistical significance and his discovery of the Student T distribution that forms the basis of many statistical tests. We will also speak of William Sealy Gosset the person -- husband, father, friend, colleague, someone remembered for his kindness, his joie de vivre and his unconventional ways.

Contact Alan Gluchoff for parking or Zoom details.

The TRIUMPHS Society has planned some exciting activities for its members in 2026. Foremost among these, we are launching a members-only Primary Source Virtual Reading Group (VRG). The VRG will meet quarterly (in January, April, July and October) with each Friday-Saturday session to include two 2-hour components: Friday afternoon/evening (6–8pm ET) and Saturday morning (11am–1pm ET). Sessions will be designed to work through texts that are not very well-known but speak to core mathematical ideas.

This inaugural session of the Society’s Primary Source VRG is hosted by Dominic Klyve and Danny Otero. The topic will be either “Euclid’s Elements, Book II,” or Archimedes’ “The Sand Reckoner.”

Additional information is on the Programming page: https://triumphssociety.org/programming.

The Ohio River Early Sources in Mathematical Exposition (ORESME) Reading Group will meet at Xavier University. We will read Abel’s proof that the quintic equation cannot be solved, in general, by radicals.

Contact Dan Curtin for more information.

The History of Mathematics Virtual Group (HMVG) will take a brief pause from our regular reading schedule to welcome Esther Kassel (University of Cambridge), who will present on and lead a discussion of key themes from the AMS Special Session on History of Mathematics at the recent Joint Mathematics Meetings. Contact E. A. Hunter for details. Meeting begins a 1pm CST.

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Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics (PASHoM), Villanova University

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The PASHoM seminar meets both in person and virtually on Zoom, with one speaker per month each semester. In the January talk Cliff Landesman, PhD, University, will speak on Leibniz’s Nova Methodus Pro Maximus et Minimus. All seminar talks will begin at 6:30 pm ET.

Leibniz’s Nova Methodus Pro Maximus et Minimus was the first paper to systematically introduce the method of differentials to problems in mathematics. Dirk Struik comments that this work “opens the modern period in the history of the calculus.” Leibniz presented the idea of the differential, gave the basic rules for differentiation and worked through several examples. He first did a routine but lengthy exercise in the algorithmic use of the rules, then gave a derivation of Snell’s law, treated the slope of curves in a class of generalized ellipses, and finally presented the solution to a problem posed by De Baune to Descartes. This last problem had remained unsolved for nearly fifty years. The determination of maxima and minima following the setting of a differential to \(0\) is discussed in general.

Contact Alan Gluchoff for parking or Zoom details.

The Archmedes Reading Group (ARG) will be meeting at 1pm CST to discuss The Sphere and the Cylinder. The readings are available here. Contact E. A. Hunter for more information.

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The TRIUMPHS Society will meet from 2:00—3:00PM (Eastern) to discuss the question: Implementing Primary Source Projects (PSPs): What does this look like in the classroom?

Everyone who has used a PSP in the past are invited to share their experiences at this session, while those who are new to the practice are invited to join in to learn more about the benefits that this powerful pedagogy offers to students and how best to take advantage of those benefits.

The session will be hosted by the organizers, Dominic Klyve and Danny Otero.

Additional information is on the Programming page: https://triumphssociety.org/programming.

British Society for the History of Mathematics, Research in Progress Meeting, Queen’s College, Oxford, England

BSHM’s annual meeting that provides an opportunity for graduate students in any area of the history of mathematics to present their work to a friendly and supportive audience. Abstracts are due to Christopher Hollings by 30 November 2025.

The Saluda High School Department of Mathematics of South Carolina will present the Unspoken History of Mathematics in a Special Session at 105th MAA SE Conference.

For more information contact Zachery Keisler.

The Primary Source Virtual Reading Group (VRG) of the TRIUMPHS Society will meet Friday afternoon/evening (6–8pm ET) and Saturday morning (11am–1pm ET) to discuss Isadore of Seville’s “Etmologies.”

The session will be hosted by Dominic Klyve and Danny Otero.

Additional information is on the Programming page: https://triumphssociety.org/programming.

The Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics, (CSHPM), Toronto, Ontario, Canada is holding its annual conference in conjunction with the 2026 meetings of the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science (CSHPS), the Canadian Philosophical Association and the Canadian Society for the Study of Practical Ethics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Primary Source Virtual Reading Group (VRG) of the TRIUMPHS Society will meet Friday afternoon/evening (6–8pm ET) and Saturday morning (11am–1pm ET) to discuss Bramagupta’s “Brāhmasphuțasiddhānta” (the Eulcidean algorithm, Diophantine equations).

The session will be hosted by Dominic Klyve and Danny Otero.

Additional information is on the Programming page: https://triumphssociety.org/programming.

The European Summer University on History and Epistemology in Mathematics Education will take place in the Department of Mathematics of the University of Aveiro.

The Primary Source Virtual Reading Group (VRG) of the TRIUMPHS Society will meet Friday afternoon/evening (6–8pm ET) and Saturday morning (11am–1pm ET) to discuss Omar Khayyam’s “Algebra” (on cubic equations).

The session will be hosted by Dominic Klyve and Danny Otero.

Additional information is on the Programming page: https://triumphssociety.org/programming.