Sophia Foster Richardson

Sophia Foster Richardson (1855–1916) was an American mathematician affiliated with Vassar College. Her 1897 essay, "Tendencies in athletics for women in colleges and universities", continues to be used as source material for the history of women's college athletics.[1] She was also the author of a 1914 textbook on solid geometry.[2]

Life and work

Richardson was born on October 9, 1855, in McMinnville, Tennessee. She was educated at Vassar College, where she graduated in 1879. She became a teacher at The Rutherford Institute, a private school in New Jersey, in 1879, and was its principal from 1882 to 1885.[3][4]

In 1885, she returned to Vassar as an instructor of mathematics. During this period she spent several summers studying advanced mathematics, including two summers at the University of Chicago, another at Newnham College, Cambridge, and the summer of 1914 in Munich. Although she did not earn an advanced degree, she was promoted to assistant professor in 1914 on the basis of the publication of her textbook.[3][4]

After this work, she began research on a generalization of Pascal's theorem. Pascal's theorem concerns six points on a conic curve, and her work considered a three-dimensional generalization involving seven points on a twisted cubic; however, she never completed this.[5] She proposed to retire in 1916, but died on February 2, 1916, before her retirement could take effect.[3][4]

Selected publications
  • Richardson, Sophia Foster (February 1897), "Tendencies in athletics for women in colleges and universities", Popular Science Monthly, vol. 50
  • Richardson, S. F. (1907), "Note on systems of in- and circumscribed polygons", Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 13: 177–182
  • Richardson, Sophia Foster (1914), Solid Geometry, Ginn and Company

References
  1. Modern works with extended quotes from "Tendencies in athletics for women in colleges and universities" include:
    • Bulger, Margery A. (Fall 1982), "American sportswomen in the 19th century", Journal of Popular Culture, 16 (2): 1–16, ProQuest 1297350278
    • Shattuck, Debra A. (Summer 1992), "Bats, balls and books: baseball and higher education for women at three eastern women's colleges, 1866–1891", Journal of Sport History, 19 (2): 91–109, JSTOR 43610534
    • Smith, Gene (July–August 1994), "The girls of summer", American Heritage, vol. 45, no. 4
    • Markels, Robin Bell (Spring 2000), "Bloomer basketball and its suspender suppression: women's intercollegiate competition at Ohio State, 1904-1907", Journal of Sport History, 27 (1): 31–49, JSTOR 43609948
    • Park, Roberta J. (May 2012), "Contesting the norm: women and professional sports in late nineteenth-century America", The International Journal of the History of Sport, 29 (5): 730–749, doi:10.1080/09523367.2012.675205
  2. Reviews of Solid Geometry:
    • Copeland, Lennie P. (December 1916), The American Mathematical Monthly, 23 (10): 383–384, JSTOR 2971828{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Robbins, Rainard B. (May 1915), "Review", Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 21 (8): 414–415
    • The Mathematics Teacher, 7 (4): 174, June 1915, JSTOR 27949893{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  3. "Sophia Foster Richardson", Annual Report, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1916, p. 147
  4. "Sophia Foster Richardson", The Vassar Miscellany Monthly, p. 299, June 1916
  5. Wylie, Laura Johnson (May 1, 1916), "In memoriam: Sophia Foster Richardson", Vassar Quarterly
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