Geometric Model of a Regular Icosahedron by A. Harry Wheeler or One of His Students
date: label: date made
content: ca 1926
notes: label: Description
content: Greek mathematicians knew in ancient times that there are only five polyhedra that have identical faces with equal sides and angles. These five regular surfaces, called the Platonic solids, are the regular tetrahedron (four equilateral triangles as sides), the cube (six square sides), the regular octahedron (eight equilateral triangles as sides), the regular dodecahedron (twelve regular pentagons as sides) and the regular icosahedron (twenty equilateral triangles as sides). This is an early 20th-century model of a regular icosahedron. The sides are covered with sateen and brocade fabrics of various designs and colors, in the style of late 19th-century piece work. Catch stitches are along the edges.
label: Description
content: The model is unsigned, but associated with the Worcester, Massachusetts, schoolteacher A. Harry Wheeler. Wheeler taught undergraduates at Wellesley College, a Massachusetts women’s school, from 1926 until 1928. It is possible that one of his students there made the model.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Judy Green and Jeanne LaDuke, <I>Pioneering Women in American Mathematics: The Pre-1940 PhD’s</I>, Providence: American Mathematical Society, 2009, p. 21.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Worcester
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Women's History
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content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Women Teaching Math
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Mathematical Association of America Objects
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Louise D. Campbell
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.0102.188
label: accession number
content: 1979.0102
label: catalog number
content: 1979.0102.188
objectType: label: Object Name
content: geometric model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cloth (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4.8 cm x 6.3 cm x 6 cm; 1 7/8 in x 2 15/32 in x 2 3/8 in