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 unofficia ...

from 1897 to 1916.

Early life

Burrell was born in Lockport, New York, 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 and Charlotte Fitch Roberts. She went to Germany for further studies at Göttingen in 1896 and 1897.

Career

Burrell taught at

Rockford Seminary Rockford University is a private university in Rockford, Illinois. It was founded in 1847 as Rockford Female Seminary and changed its name to Rockford College in 1892, and to Rockford University in 2013. History Rockford Female Seminary was ...

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 Ellen Amanda Hayes (September 23, 1851October 27, 1930) was an American mathematician and astronomer. She was a controversial figure, not only because of being a female college professor, but also for embracing many radical causes. Early life Ha ...

, she was made head of the Department of Pure Mathematics (and Hayes became head of Applied Mathematics). Her department included professors

Roxana Vivian Roxana Hayward Vivian (December 9, 1871 – May 31, 1961) was an American mathematics professor.. Biography on p.618-620 of thSupplementary MaterialaAMS/ref> She was the first female recipient of a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Pe ...

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 Manha ...

. 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 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 Paul Gustav Heinrich Bachmann (22 June 1837 – 31 March 1920) was a German mathematician. Life Bachmann studied mathematics at the university of his native city of Berlin and received his doctorate in 1862 for his thesis on group theory. He th ...

'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