Mary Frances Winston Newson facts for kids
Mary Frances Winston Newson (born August 7, 1869 – died December 5, 1959) was an amazing American mathematician. She made history by becoming the first American woman to earn a PhD in mathematics from a university in Europe. This was at the University of Göttingen in Germany. She was also the first person to translate Hilbert's problems, which are famous math challenges, into English.
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Mary's Early Life
Mary Frances Winston was born in Forreston, Illinois. Her friends and family called her May. Her father, Thomas Winston, was a country doctor who came from Wales. Her mother, Caroline Eliza Mumford, was a teacher before she got married. Caroline taught French, art, and math.
Mary was one of seven children. Her mother taught her at home. Caroline even learned Latin and Greek herself so she could prepare her children for college! She also studied geology through a special course.
School Days and Learning
Mary and her older brother started at the University of Wisconsin in 1884. She was only 15 years old! She studied mathematics and graduated with high honors in 1889.
After college, Mary taught at Downer College in Wisconsin. In 1890, she applied for a special scholarship at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. The math professor there, Charlotte Scott, encouraged Mary to try again when she didn't get it the first time. Mary taught for another year and then won the scholarship!
She spent the year 1891-92 at Bryn Mawr. Then, she chose to continue her studies at the University of Chicago, which was just opening in 1892. She received another scholarship to study there for a year.
Studying in Germany
In 1893, Mary met a famous mathematician named Felix Klein at a big math meeting in Chicago. He told her she should study at the University of Göttingen in Germany.
With help from Christine Ladd-Franklin, Mary went to Germany. Two other American students, Margaret Eliza Maltby and Grace Chisholm Young, arrived at the same time. Mary's first math paper was published in 1894. It was about something called hypergeometric functions.
She received another scholarship to help her study in Germany during 1895–96. Mary earned her PhD in 1897. Her special paper was about "Lamé differential equations." She got her degree with "magna cum laude," which means "with great honor."
Mary was the second woman to get a PhD from Göttingen. The first was Grace Chisholm in 1895. But Mary was the first American woman to achieve this!
Mary published one more important article. It was the first English translation of a famous lecture by David Hilbert. In this lecture, he presented his ten most famous math problems. This translation was published in the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society in 1902.
Life and Career After Göttingen
After returning to the United States, Mary taught at St. Joseph's High School in Missouri in 1896. A year later, she became the head of the math department at Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University). She was the only person in the department!
In 1900, she left that job. On July 21, 1900, she married Henry Byron Newson in Chicago. Henry was the head of the math department at the University of Kansas.
Mary and Henry had three children: Caroline (born 1901), Josephine (born 1903), and Henry Winston (born 1909). Sadly, Henry Newson died in 1910 from a heart attack.
Even though she wasn't working as a mathematician during this time, Mary translated Hilbert's "Mathematical Problems" into English. This important translation was published in 1902.
Later Teaching Years
In 1913, Mary Newson found a teaching job at Washburn University in Kansas. She was one of eight teachers who signed a petition to support a professor who was fired for his political views. All of these teachers, including Mary, left Washburn soon after.
Mary then became the head of the math department at Eureka College in her home state of Illinois. She worked there until she retired in 1942. In 1940, she wrote a review of a book about Thomas Jefferson and mathematics.
Later Life and Death
After retiring from Eureka College, Mary Newson moved to Lake Dalecarlia in Lowell, Indiana. She loved this village by a beautiful lake and had spent many vacations there.
In 1956, when she was 87, she moved to a nursing home in Maryland to be closer to her daughter, Caroline. Mary passed away on December 5, 1959.
Honors and Legacy
Mary Newson was one of only 22 women to join the American Mathematical Society before the year 1900. This shows how special her achievements were!
In 1940, she was honored by the Women's Centennial Congress. She was recognized as one of a hundred women who held positions that were not open to women a century earlier.
Mary Newson loved learning about international relations. Her three children started the Mary Winston Newson Memorial Lecture on International Relations at Eureka College to honor her memory.
