Hannah Adams and Emmy Noether:
Pioneer Legacies
Barbara Hale
Missouri University
of Science & Technology
Hannah Adams
Authoress:
first American woman
to receive financial
gain from her
writing.
Born: October 2, 1755,
Medfield, Massachusetts
Died: December 15, 1831
Brookline, Massachusetts
Age 76
Chester Harding Portrait 1827
Hangs in the Boston Athenaeum
Hannah Adams
1755 - 1831
•
descendant of historic Adams family;
• self-taught, home tutored in Greek, Latin by Harvard
student boarders; frail, timid, socially inexperienced;
left penniless at age 17 as father lost family inheritance.
• She set out to earn money from writing; by 1790 became
prolific authoress; wrote histories of religion, New
England and of the Jewish people. She was noted for
her unbiased presentation of religious sects.
•
Lobbied for first Federal copyright law. Became famous
in America and in England.
“she worked with a such a passion
that she suffered loss of eyesight ..”
Some of her works:
“An Alphabetical Compendium
of the Various Sects”
(1784)
“A Summary History of New-England”
(1799)
“The Truth and Excellence
of the Christian Religion Exhibited”
(1804)
“History of the Jews” (1812)
“A Memoir of Miss Hannah Adams”
(1831)
….
University of Virginia Press, 2004
Birthplace of Hannah Adams, Medfield, MA
Hannah Adams was supported by a circle
of intellectual and influential Bostonians,
some of whom arranged to provide her
with annual patronage so that she could
continue writing.
Hannah spent two weeks as the guest of
President John Adams, using his library.
He commented on her persistence ..
reading, working and writing …
and marveled that she simultaneously
conversed with him in his library.
Hannah rests in peace in Mt. Adnah Cemetery,
Cambridge, MA – and has recently become of
interest to women’s rights advocates.
She would be surprised!
Hannah Adams’ stone
Emiliana (Emmy) Noether
Mathematician who pioneered
the connection between
symmetry in nature
and conservation laws
in physics.
Born: March 23, 1882
Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany,
Died: April 14, 1935
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Age 53
Photo c 1910
Emmy Noether
1882 - 1935
• Father was Mathematics Professor at the University of
Erlangen; Jewish; mother from wealthy Cologne
family; both brothers became mathematicians.
• Was denied University admission; she requested permission to audit
the courses and in two years passed the exams with such honors
they granted her a degree. She was admitted to the graduate
program and in 1907 received a Ph.D. in mathematics – one of the
first awarded to a woman by a German university.
•
1916: she published the famous “Noether’s Theorem”
which some say is the foundation of modern physics.
It establishes the relationship between symmetries of nature
and conservation laws – and is the basis of Gauge Field Theories,
upon which the story of our early universe rests.
Noether’s Famous Theorem
– in simple words: 1916
Wherever you find a
symmetry in nature, some
predictability or homogeneity
of parts, you’ll find lurking in
the background a
corresponding conservation
— of momentum, electric
charge, energy or the like.
Noether’s theorem provides
a foundation for
the study of symmetry
in our Universe – and
gives rise to ideas like
the Higgs particle,
and inflation.
Described by Albert Einstein as
the most important woman in
the history of mathematics, she
revolutionized the theories of
rings, fields and algebras.
She was working with David
Hilbert at Göttingen when she
published her famous theorem.
It was not until 1919 that Emmy
Noether was permitted to
officially teach at Göttingen.
Emmy Noether c. 1925
She received no compensation for
her work until 1922.
Emmy Noether (1882–1935),
“Germany’s most famous
female Mathematician”
Because Emmy Noether was Jewish, in
1933 she was forbidden from teaching
under Nazi rule.
Following her dismissal, Emmy
Noether obtained a visiting professorship
at Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia
and received a full salary for the first time.
She died two years later of complications
from the removal of a tumor.
To the Editor of the New York Times
On the death of Emmy Noether
The efforts of most human beings are consumed in the
struggle for their daily bread. But most who are relieved of
this struggle are absorbed in improving their worldly lot. ..
There is, fortunately, a minority .. who recognize that the
most beautiful and satisfying experiences … are bound up
with the development of the individual’s own feeling,
thinking and acting …
However inconspicuously the life of these individuals runs its
course … the fruits of their endeavors are the most valuable
contributions one generation can make to its successors.
Albert Einstein
Princeton University
May 1, 1935
They pursued their work
– never giving a thought
to any other course.
Thank you!
Addendum
grandson of Lucy Adams Hill
Birthplace of Hannah Adams
and sister, Lucy Adams
James Maverick Hill
Mary Armenia Hill Foster
Katherine Louisa Foster Nelson
Paul Rufus Nelson
Father of B.H.