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Constance Marks and the Educational Times

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Women in Mathematics

Part of the book series: Association for Women in Mathematics Series ((AWMS,volume 10))

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Abstract

From 1902 to 1915, Constance Marks edited the last years of the mathematical department of the Educational Times, a monthly journal that in its over-sixty-year existence published more than 18,000 mathematics questions from amateurs as well as established university mathematicians. Marks carried on her editorial mission until 1918 through the monthly journal entitled Mathematical Questions, with their Solutions in Continuation of the Mathematical Columns of “The Educational Times.” This chapter will give a short history of the Educational Times, and it will explore Marks’ editorial career and her unusual position as a female mathematician and editor of a mathematics journal at the beginning of the twentieth century.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In the midst of these changes, the Ladies Diary was briefly edited by a woman. Elizabeth Beighton, wife of longtime editor Henry Beighton, co-edited the Diary in 1744 after her husband’s unexpected death [5, p. 18].

  2. 2.

    For a table containing a sample of 34 of these journals, dates of existence, formats, and features, see [15, pp. 55–59].

  3. 3.

    During the 1850s, the mathematical department usually occupied a page and a half per each 24-page issue [34, p. 70].

  4. 4.

    About 650 problems and 300 solutions were attributed to pseudonyms. This practice rapidly declined after 1870 [33].

  5. 5.

    It does not seem that Sarah was related to Constance Marks [28].

  6. 6.

    It would be very difficult to give enough mathematical examples from the ET and MQ to provide a representative sample of the range and types of questions one could find there for over 70 years. Therefore, the author encourages readers to explore the MQ through copies readily available online. See https://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/47280158.html and https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000552164. Along with Jim Tattersall and her computer scientist colleague Mark Holliday, the author is in the process of putting together an online database with which one can search by author through the mathematical content of the ET and MQ. As this is still a work in progress, please email the author with any questions or interest.

  7. 7.

    Marks died unmarried on 12 October 1940. She willed her 650 pounds worth of effects to her sister Gertrude and her brother Percy [16].

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Acknowledgment.

The author would like to thank Jim Tattersall for his indefatigable efforts to catalog and categorize the solvers, posers, and problems of ET and MQ and his generosity in sharing this information.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC, USA

    Sloan Evans Despeaux

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  1. Sloan Evans Despeaux
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Correspondence to Sloan Evans Despeaux .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, University of Redlands, Redlands, California, USA

    Janet L. Beery

  2. Department of Mathematics, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA

    Sarah J. Greenwald

  3. Department of Mathematics, Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas, USA

    Jacqueline A. Jensen-Vallin

  4. Department of Mathematics, Fordham University, Bronx, New York, USA

    Maura B. Mast

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Despeaux, S.E. (2017). Constance Marks and the Educational Times . In: Beery, J., Greenwald, S., Jensen-Vallin, J., Mast, M. (eds) Women in Mathematics. Association for Women in Mathematics Series, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66694-5_12

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