Ellen Burrell facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ellen Burrell
|
|
|---|---|
Ellen Burrell, from the 1915 yearbook of Wellesley College
|
|
| Born |
Ellen Louisa Burrell
June 12, 1850 Lockport, New York
|
| Died | December 3, 1938 Roxbury, Massachusetts
|
| Occupation | Mathematics professor |
Ellen Louisa Burrell (born June 12, 1850 – died December 3, 1938) was an important American math teacher. She led the Pure Mathematics Department at Wellesley College for many years, from 1897 to 1916.
Ellen's Early Life
Ellen Burrell was born in Lockport, New York. Her parents were Myron Louis and Mary Jones Burrell.
She went to Wellesley College and earned her bachelor's degree in 1880. Her classmates included Katharine Lee Bates and Charlotte Fitch Roberts, who would also become her colleagues. Later, in 1896 and 1897, she traveled to Germany to study more at the University of Göttingen.
Her Teaching Career
Ellen Burrell started her teaching career at Rockford Seminary in Illinois. She taught there for several years, from 1881 to 1886.
In 1886, she returned to Wellesley College to teach. In 1897, she became the head of the Pure Mathematics Department. Another math professor, Ellen Hayes, became the head of Applied Mathematics. This helped them work better together.
Her department had other great teachers like Roxana Vivian and Helen Abbott Merrill. Both Ellen Burrell and Ellen Hayes retired from Wellesley in 1916. After they left, the two math departments were combined again.
Beyond the Classroom
Besides teaching, Ellen Burrell also helped manage the college's herbarium. An herbarium is a special collection of dried plants. She helped take care of these plant samples for study.
She also wrote her own class notes. These notes were later published as small books called "The Number System" and "Synthetic Projection Geometry."
Ellen Burrell was very involved in the math community. In 1903, she attended a big meeting for mathematicians in Boston. It was called the American Mathematical Society colloquium. She also went to another meeting of the society at Columbia University that same year. She was active in a group called the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New England. In 1907, she even visited the American School for Girls in Constantinople.
Her Later Years
Ellen Burrell was very interested in politics. In 1920, she was excited to vote for Warren G. Harding to become president.
She passed away in 1938 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, when she was 88 years old. Her personal papers and notes are kept safe at the Wellesley College Archives.
