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H. S. Vandiver Papers

Archives of American Mathematics ? H. S. Vandiver Papers

By Kristy Sorensen

The H. S. Vandiver Papers at the Archives of American Mathematics are open for research after the completion of an extensive preservation and access project. The AAM?s archival assistant, Nikki Thomas rehoused the papers and photographs into archival-quality folders and boxes, and removed paperclips and staples to ensure their continued preservation. In addition to the preservation of the papers, Thomas created a more detailed inventory of the papers that will assist our researchers in researchers in accessing this extensive collection.


H.S. Vandiver with his son Frank ca. 1930. From the H.S. Vandiver Papers at the Archives of American Mathematics, Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
These papers consist of correspondence, research notes, bibliographies, lecture notes, notebooks, drafts of publications, reprints, and photographs documenting the career of Harry Schultz Vandiver. Vandiver (1882-1973) was a number theorist who is best known for his work on Fermat?s Last Theorem, Bernoulli numbers, and his expository writing on mathematics. He was a professor at the University of Texas at Austin from 1924 until his retirement in 1966.

The collection includes Vandiver?s writings, notes, and bibliographies on Fermat?s Last Theorem, as well as documentation and correspondence relating to the early use of computers in this research. By far the richest section of the H. S. Vandiver Papers is his correspondence, containing over 2500 letters written from 1910 to 1965. Correspondents include A. A. Albert, E. T. Bell, R. Bellman, G. D. Birkhoff, S. G. Bourne, R. Brauer, L. Carlitz, A. Church, H. S. M. Coxeter, L. E. Dickson, H. H. Hasse, I. M. Herstein, S. Lefschetz, D. N. Lehmer, E. H. Moore, C. A. Nicol, E. L. Post, B. L. van der Waerden, and A. L. Whiteman.


Postcard from H. Hasse to H.S. Vandiver, with mathematical notes from Vandiver 1928. From the H.S. Vandiver Papers at the Archives of American Mathematics, Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

The preservation and cataloging work completed on this collection will ensure that it is available to our researchers for many years to come.

An inventory for the H. S. Vandiver Papers is available here: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00303/cah-00303.html

The Archives of American Mathematics is located at the Research and Collections division of the Center for American History on the University of Texas at Austin campus. Persons interested in conducting research or donating materials or who have general questions about the Archives of American Mathematics should contact Kristy Sorensen, Archivist, k.sorensen@mail.utexas.edu, (512) 495-4539.