Edward Burr Van Vleck (June 7, 1863, Middletown,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

– June 3, 1943,

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

Early life

Van Vleck was born June 7, 1863, Middletown,

. He was the son of astronomer John Monroe Van Vleck, he graduated from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

in 1884, attended Johns Hopkins in 1885–87, and studied at

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

(Ph.D., 1893). He also received 1 July 1914 an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

of the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). He was assistant professor and professor at

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

(1895–1906), and after 1906 a professor at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

, where the mathematics building is named after him.Sterling Hall map
Van Vleck Hall is adjacent to Sterling Hall, where the Sterling Hall bombing occurred in August 1970, but Van Vleck Hall suffered merely broken windows. His doctoral students include H. S. Wall. In 1913 he became president 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, ...

, of whose '' Transactions'' he had been first associate editor (1902–05) and then editor (1905–10). He was the author of ''Theory of Divergent Series and Algebraic Continued Fractions'' (1903), and of several monographs in mathematical journals. His son, John Hasbrouck Van Vleck, was a notable physicist who received the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

in 1977.

Japanese art collector

E. B. Van Vleck is also important art collector, particularly in the medium of Japanese woodblock prints (principally ''

Ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk t ...

''), known as ''Van Vleck Collection''. He began collecting around 1909, but became a serious collector in the late 1920s, when he acquired approximately 4,000 prints that had been owned by

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

. His collection, one of the largest in the world outside the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

, features more than 2,000 prints by

Utagawa Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige (, also ; ja, 歌川広重 ), born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format l ...

as well as many prints by Hokusai, and fine examples of ''

shin hanga was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan, during the Taishō and Shōwa periods, that revitalized the traditional ''ukiyo-e'' art rooted in the Edo and Meiji periods (17th–19th century). It maintained the traditional ''ukiyo-e'' co ...

'' (new prints) made well into the 20th century. His collection now resides at the

Chazen Museum of Art The Chazen Museum of Art is an art museum located at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. The Chazen Museum of Art is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. History Until 2005, the Museum was known regularly as th ...

.''E. B. Van Vleck Collection''
, Chazen Museum of Art

Writings

* * * *
Selected topics in the theory of divergent series and of continued fractions
(New York; MacMillan, 1905).

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Vleck, Edward Burr 1863 births 1943 deaths People from Middletown, Connecticut Wesleyan University alumni 19th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Presidents of the American Mathematical Society American art collectors Mathematicians from Connecticut

Early life

Japanese art collector

Writings

See also

Notes

External links