Alice Bache Gould facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alice Bache Gould
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As a young graduate
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| Born | January 5, 1868 Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
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| Died | July 25, 1953 (aged 85) Simancas, Spain
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Bryn Mawr College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Newham College, University of Chicago |
| Known for | Columbus' "crew list" (tripulantes) |
| Awards | Cross of Alfonso the Wise (1924) Election to the Spanish Royal Academy of History (1942) Order of Isabella the Catholic (1952) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Historian |
| Doctoral advisor | E. H. Moore in mathematics, but she never completed the thesis or received the degree. |
Alice Bache Gould (born January 5, 1868 – died July 25, 1953) was an American mathematician, a generous helper of good causes (philanthropist), and a historian. She spent a lot of her life in Puerto Rico, South America, and Spain. Her family lived in Argentina for a while when she was a child. Her father was an astronomer there.
Alice came back to the U.S. for her schooling. She studied mathematics and even taught for a short time at Carleton College. She started graduate studies at MIT but could not finish her PhD. It was hard for her to find work as a mathematician after that.
Because she spoke Spanish well, Alice started to follow her real passion: studying Spanish-American history. She worked in Puerto Rico's education system for several years. She then decided to focus on history, researching how Spain colonized the Americas. During World War I, she volunteered at the American Embassy in Madrid. Later, she returned to Spain and continued her research. She published many articles and a book. When the Spanish Civil War started, she went back to the U.S. She returned to Spain after the war, which was the most important time in her career.
As a historian, Alice studied Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella I of Castile. Her work led to the most complete list of Columbus's crew members ever made. In 1942, she became the only woman to be a corresponding member of the Real Academia de la Historia (Spanish Royal Academy of History). In 1952, she received the Order of Isabella the Catholic, a very high honor. Alice never married or had children. She kept in touch with a few close female friends through letters.
Contents
Early Life and Schooling
Alice Bache Gould was born on January 5, 1868, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her parents were Benjamin Apthorp Gould and Mary Apthorp Quincy Gould. Her mother came from the important Quincy political family. Her father was an astronomer who led the Argentine National Observatory. Alice lived briefly with her family in Córdoba, Argentina before returning to Cambridge in 1871. She lived with relatives there. Alice mostly lived in the U.S. but often visited Argentina.
Alice studied at the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women in Cambridge (now Radcliffe College) in 1885. From 1886 to 1889, she attended Bryn Mawr College. She became good friends with Emily Greene Balch there. Alice graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1889 with a degree in mathematics and physics. She then studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Newnham College, Cambridge in England from 1890 to 1893. Newnham allowed women to attend classes, but they could not get degrees yet.
After teaching briefly at Carleton College, she became a graduate student in mathematics. This was at the University of Chicago in 1894, where she studied with E. H. Moore. However, her father died in 1896, and her scholarship ended. She also had health issues. These problems stopped her from finishing her thesis on Brocardian geometry. She went back to Cambridge to get better.
In 1897, Alice helped fulfill one of her father's wishes. She gave $20,000 to the National Academy of Sciences. This money created the Benjamin Apthorp Gould Fund. It was meant to support researchers and help "advance the science of astronomy." The New York Times called it "one of the largest funds in the country" at that time.
Work in Puerto Rico
In 1901, Alice published a historical book about Louis Agassiz. People praised her descriptions of Agassiz's personality and the beautiful landscapes of Brazil.
In 1903, Alice traveled to Puerto Rico. She spent much of the next seven years there. Around 1905, she started a "Porto Rico Teachers' Fund." This fund raised money for a nursing school. She also helped the Kissinger Relief Fund, which studied yellow fever in 1907. Later in life, between 1941 and 1947, Alice donated about 1,500 items about Puerto Rico to the United States Library of Congress.
Research in Spain
While in South America, Alice became very interested in how the Americas were colonized. She started writing an article about the early colonization of Barbados. In 1911, she went to Spain. There, she began researching Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella I of Castile. She worked at the Archivo de Simancas and other Spanish archives. She spent most of the rest of her life doing research in Spain.
Helping During World War I
During World War I, Alice volunteered at the United States Embassy in Madrid. She worked in the office that gathered information (espionage office). She also helped send female office workers to the embassy. In March 1918, she returned to Boston. She thought she would only stay for a few months. When she realized she couldn't go back to Spain soon, she looked for war work in the U.S. She wanted to use her math skills.
There were not many choices. She could help Forest Ray Moulton in Washington, D.C., doing "routine and monotonous" math work. Or, she could help her old teacher, E. H. Moore, teach navigation to Navy students at the University of Chicago. She chose to work with Moore. She enjoyed helping with the war effort. She became very interested in the math of great-circle navigation. She even started writing her own book on the topic. By 1919, her help was no longer needed at the University of Chicago. She did not finish her book.
Studying Christopher Columbus
Alice's first published paper about Spanish colonization came out in 1924. It was in the Bulletin of the Real Academia de la Historia (the Bulletin of the Spanish Royal Academy of History). In 1925, she returned to Spain to continue her research on Columbus. For the next 42 years, most of her research was published there. In 1984, all her publications were put together in a book called Nueva lista documentada de los tripulantes de Colon 1492.
Spanish Civil War Impact
During the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Alice briefly returned to Boston. While there, she supported another good cause. In 1937, she gave a lot of money to help save the historic Josiah Quincy House. It became property of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. After the Spanish Civil War ended, Alice went back to Spain.
Discoveries About Columbus's Crew
Thanks to her research, Alice was able to identify the exact crew members who sailed with Columbus in 1492. She described them and their lives in detail. She also corrected many historical mistakes. Her articles identified 87 of the 90 crewmen. Her studies showed that only four of Columbus's crew had legal problems. This proved wrong the idea that most of them were criminals. She also showed that no English, Irish, or other North European sailors were on Columbus's ships. She proved that Pedro de Lepe, whose existence was doubted, had sailed on the Santa María.
Alice found a certified copy of a document that recognized Columbus's family rights. She was especially praised for being able to read the old handwriting of court writers. People say she saved documents that might have been thrown away.
Samuel Eliot Morison, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his book about Columbus, Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942), described Alice. He called her a "distinguished, gray-haired lady...striding resolutely into the Archive of the Indies to find some document for me that the archivist insisted did not exist." He greatly admired her scholarship. He thought it was "the most valuable piece of Columbian research in the present [20th] century."
Awards and Honors
In 1942, Alice became the only woman to be a corresponding member of the Real Academia de la Historia. In 1947, she became an honorary member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. She was the first woman to join this group. In 1952, she received the Order of Isabella the Catholic. This award was given to her in Seville by Joaquin Ruiz Jimenez, the Spanish Minister of Education.
Later Life and Legacy
Six years before she passed away, Alice collapsed from sunstroke. She was told to work less. Alice died from a brain bleed (cerebral hemorrhage) on July 25, 1953. She was in the garden at Simancas Castle, near the archives where she worked. She was a Protestant, so she was buried in the English Cemetery of Madrid. This cemetery is for non-Catholics. A stone book on her grave has her name carved into it.
After she died, a special plaque was placed at the archive entrance. It honored "Miss Alice B. Gould, famous North American researcher and a great friend of Spain. She worked in this archive for forty years and died at its entrance on the 25 of July 1953.” A square in Simancas, Spain, was also named after her.
Works
Alice Gould's papers and collected materials are kept in several archives. These include the Massachusetts Historical Society, the United States Library of Congress, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library in New York City, and the Spanish Royal Academy of History.
See also
In Spanish: Alice Gould para niños
