Book, Mathematical Puzzles and Pastimes
date: label: date made
content: 1957
notes: label: Description
content: The book <I>Mathematical Puzzles and Pastimes</I> was obtained by Olive C. Hazlett (1890–1974) on May 27, 1965. Hazlett was one of America's leading mathematicians during the 1920s. She taught at Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Illinois, after which she moved to Peterborough, New Hampshire. This volume, as well as other puzzle books and puzzles she owned, was collected from a community of Discalced Carmelite brothers who had lived in New Hampshire and who had befriended Hazlett there.
label: Description
content: The puzzles and pastimes of the book were gathered and edited by Philip Haber and illustrated by Stanley Wyatt. The book was published by The Peter Pauper Press of Mount Vernon, New York, in 1957. Haber collected problems that he wrote could “be solved primarily by clear thinking, arithmetic or algebra.” The book contains 113 problems with solutions given to some of them. Haber refers to the last four problems as “famous” and gives their names as: The Impossible Division Problem, The Unit Problem, The Apple Problem, and The Problem of Problems (Archimedes’ Cattle Problem).
label: Description
content: Hazlett wrote “$1. for 3” on the title page of this book. There is one other book in the museum collections, <I>The Little Riddle Book</I> (2015.3004.02), that was also published by The Peter Pauper Press and also obtained by Hazlett on May 27, 1965. In that book she wrote “3 for $1.” Hazlett signed her name “O. C. Hazlett” on the dustcover of both books. She made other handwritten marks in <I>Mathematical Puzzles and Pastimes</I>, including several whose meanings are not clear.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, Mount Vernon
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Mathematical Recreations
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content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Women Mathematicians
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Mathematical Association of America Objects
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Hermitage of St. Joseph
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2015.0027.03
label: accession number
content: 2015.0027
label: catalog number
content: 2015.0027.03
objectType: label: Object Name
content: book
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cloth (binding material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1.1 cm x 11.5 cm x 19.2 cm; 7/16 in x 4 17/32 in x 7 9/16 in