You are here

Mathematical Treasure: Smith and Karpinski’s Hindu-Arabic Numerals

Author(s): 
Frank J. Swetz (The Pennsylvania State University)

The mathematics educator and book collector David Eugene Smith (1860–1944) and the mathematician and book cataloguer Louis Charles Karpinski (1878–1956), both Americans, teamed up to prepare this history of The Hindu-Arabic Numerals (1911). Note the inscription on the title page to John Henry Tanner (1861–1940), a mathematics professor at Cornell University.

Title page of The Hindu-Arabic Numerals (1911) by Smith and Karpinski, with inscription to J. H. Tanner.

The preface and table of contents describe their plan for the work.

First page of preface for The Hindu-Arabic Numerals (1911) by Smith and Karpinski.

Page iv from The Hindu-Arabic Numerals (1911) by Smith and Karpinski.

Table of contents for The Hindu-Arabic Numerals (1911) by Smith and Karpinski.

Pages showing the evolution of number symbols.

Page 140 from The Hindu-Arabic Numerals (1911) by Smith and Karpinski.

Page 143 from The Hindu-Arabic Numerals (1911) by Smith and Karpinski.

A full digitization of the copy owned by Cornell University is available at HathiTrust. The production note there suggests the book was printed on the highly-acidic paper stock of the early 20th century that crumbles over time. Hsiu-man Lin’s blog entry, Paper Acid-Deterioration: The Era of Bad Paper, provides an overview of this phenomenon.

Index to Mathematical Treasures

Frank J. Swetz (The Pennsylvania State University), "Mathematical Treasure: Smith and Karpinski’s Hindu-Arabic Numerals," Convergence (January 2023)