Academic Hood of Frances Ellen Baker
date: label: date made
content: 1934
label: date used
content: 1934
name: label: user
content: Baker, Frances E.
notes: label: Description
content: This hood belonged to Frances Ellen Baker (1902–1995), who received her PhD in mathematics from the University of Chicago in 1934. The color of the velvet on the hood represents the type of doctorate awarded, with dark blue used for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The color of the reverse (interior) side of the hood, maroon, represents the school that awarded the degree, i.e., the University of Chicago whose colors are maroon and white. A matching hood (1985.0820.02) was awarded to Baker’s father, Richard Philip Baker (1866-1937), when he received his PhD in mathematics from Chicago in 1910.
label: Description
content: Frances Baker’s PhD dissertation, <I>A Contribution to the Waring Problem for Cubic Functions</I>, was directed by L. E. Dickson, the first doctoral student of E. H. Moore, who directed her father’s PhD dissertation, <I>The Problem of the Angle-Bisectors</I> (1985.3145.01). Her younger sister, Gladys Elizabeth Baker (1908–2007) earned a doctorate in botany and mycology from Washington University in St. Louis in 1935.
label: Description
content: Frances Baker spent most of her career, 1942–68, teaching mathematics at Vassar College. She came to Vassar two years after her sister Gladys arrived there to teach botany. There Frances Baker directed several honors papers and served as an officer of the local chapters of the academic honor society, Phi Beta Kappa, and the science honor society, Sigma Xi.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: web subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Women's History
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Women Mathematicians
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Gladys E. Baker and Frances E. Baker
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0820.03
label: accession number
content: 1985.0820
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0820.03
objectType: label: Object Name
content: hood
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: satin (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: velvet (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 117 cm x 63 cm x 2 cm; 46 1/16 in x 24 13/16 in x 25/32 in