How it was to study and to teach mathematics in Cornell at the end of

Abstract

Cornell University's Kroch Library Rare Book and Manuscript Division has a collection called "Department of Mathematics records 1877-1976". It was used already as case studies of the emergence of mathematical research at Cornell University in several publications; but I will talk about my experience going through these records and trying to imagine what mathematics students had learned before entering Cornell University (looking at entrance exams they were given). The earlier publications reported that mathematics entrance requirements to Cornell "were minimal by today's standards" but I found that this was not the case. Many of the students taking the entrance exams were engineering students. At that time the Reuleaux kinematic models collection was used to bring mathematical ideas into engineering curriculum. Preliminary report partially supported by National Science Foundation's National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Digital Library (NSDL) Program under grant DUE-0226238. (Based on a talk given at AMS- MAA Joint Conference Special Session in History of Mathematics, January 18, 2003, Baltimore.)