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Raymond Clare Archibald, 1922 MAA President

Born: October 7, 1875, South Branch, Stewiacke, Colchester County, Nova Scotia, Canada
Died: July 26, 1955, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada

Raymond Clare Archibald was a mathematics professor, mathematics historian, and mathematical librarian.

Presidency: 1922

At the 1922 summer meeting, Huntington drew attention to the National Research Council's new committee on the mathematical analysis of statistics, of which Rietz had been appointed chair.

The December 1922 annual meeting included talks by Cajori, Coolidge, and Rietz. Archibald gave a presidential address on "Mathematicians and Music" at the summer meeting in 1923.

Education and Career

1894 Mount Allison College (now Mount Allison University), B.A.
1895 Mount Allison College, artist's diploma in violin
1896 Harvard University, B.A.
1897 Harvard University, M.A.
1900 Universität Straßburg, Dr. phil. nat.

After earning his Ph.D., Archibald returned to Mount Allison Ladies' College as a professor of mathematics. In his seven years there, he also served as librarian and head of the violin department and started the Mary Mellish Archibald Memorial Library.

Archibald joined Brown University in 1908 as an instructor and had become a full professor by 1923. He transformed the mathematical library at Brown into "the most useful single source available in America." He also was librarian of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) from 1921 to 1941 and on the council of the AMS from 1918 to 1941. He retired from Brown in 1943.

Archibald was a charter member of the MAA, a member of the first MAA executive council, editor-in-chief of the American Mathematical Monthly (1919-21), vice president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science twice, and a member of the mathematical and physical sciences executive committee for the National Research Council.

Archibald's interest in mathematical tables led him to found the journal Mathematical Tables and Other Aids to Computation. He initiated the Undergraduate Mathematics Clubs section of the Monthly in January 1918 and edited it for several years.

External Resources

MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive biography

American Mathematical Monthly obituary

Mathematical Tables and Other Aids to Computation biographical sketch

Records of editors, presidents, and secretaries from MAA headquarters, R.C. Archibald, 1929-1952 at the Archives of American Mathematics

Raymond Clare Archibald Papers, 1911-1955

Raymond Clare Archibald fonds

The Mathematics Genealogy Project