George Baron and the Mathematical Correspondent

V. Frederick Rickey

Department of Mathematical Sciences
United States Military Academy
West Point, NY  10996
Email:  fred-rickey@usma.edu

[picture of Baron and title of the MC]

Abstract

The life of George Baron: 

• Born 1769 in England

• 1790s in Hallowell, Maine

• 1801 at West Point

• The first decade of the 19th century in New York City

The work of George Baron: 

• Founded The Mathematical Correspondent, the first mathematics periodical in the US

• Contents of the Mathematical Correspondent

• Primarily a Problems Journal

• Controversy at the Mathematical Correspondent

Bibliography and acknowledgements

Prepared for the MAA Math Fest, Burlington, Vermont, 1-3 August 2002. 

Return to Fred Rickey's Main Page about the History of the Mathematics Department at West Point:  [include URL as this is a hand out]

Return to Fred Rickey's Home Page:

Make the  above into an abstract and outline for hand out. 

George Baron

Of George Baron the man we know very little. He was born in England on September 1, 1769, came to Hallowell in Maine about 1789 (it was then the District of Maine, for it did not become a state until ????), was the zeroeth professor of mathematics at West Point in 1801 ("zeroeth" because the United States Military Academy was not founded until March 16, 1802), moved to New York City and founded the first mathematical periodical published in the United States, The Mathematical Correspondent. He lived in New York City until 1809, but after that we know nothing of him. 

GeorgeBaron in England

George Baron was born in England on September 1, 1769. The only evidence that we have for this date is the engraving of him which was distributed in the ninth and last number of The Mathematical Correspondent and which was intended as a frontispiece for the volume. This date is also gived in the National Union Catalogue of Pre-1956 Imprints, but presumably they got this date from the engraving. The evidence for him being born in England comes from a paper of Benjamin Vaughan from 1805, the manuscript of which I have not seen but which is in the library of the American Philosophical Society [Hogan 1976, p. 403].

Unfortunately we have no evidence about his schooling or any other activity before he came to the United States when he was around the age of twenty. 

Joseph G. Swift reports in his Memoirs that Baron was a colleague of Charles Hutton at the Royal Military Academy at Woolich, England. This "fact" has been widely reported [give several examples in footnote] but there is no evidence for it. 

As we shall see in the next section, Swift interacted with Baron when he first came to West Point as a young man of 15?

 but that is wrong [Crackel 2002, p. 304]. Although it does not explain why this is wrong in Crackel's book, he told me that he checked the published records about Woolich that contain a list of all the faculty in the period when Baron could have been a faculty member. This error seems to have first been made by Swift. 

On 11 April 2001, Jefferson's Secretary of War, Henry Dearborn, wrote Baron asking if he was interested in a job as teacher of mathematics at West Point at an annual salary of $700. Dearborn signs the letter "your friend" indicating that they must have known each other in Maine. Baron declined the position on May 19, complaining that the salary was too low, but that problem must have been solved (there should be another letter from Dearborn to Baron in this interval), for he accepted the position on June 1. Then on 6 June 1801 Dearborn wrote Baron sending him his commission as "Teacher of the Arts and Sciences to the Artillerists and Engineers" and requesting that he purchase "any number of copies not exceeding fifteen or twenty" of Charles Hutton's A Course in Mathematics for use at West Point. It is interesting that the choice of textbook was imposed by Dearborn and was not a decision made by Baron (or later by Jonathan Williams). 

At the end of the first volume of The Mathematical Correspondent there is a list of subscribers. There are 347 names listed for a total of 487 copies. This seems to me to be a large subscription base. There are two large subscribers, Dr. Mackay in London, England, got 50 copies and Thomas Maughan in Quebec got 20. There are nine names that each received six copies and a smattering of names that got from 2 to 4 copies. I would surmise that most of these are book dealers; probably this could be verified by checking city directories. There are only two of the 347 names that are not individuals: the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia got one copy (which is still in their library) and the Register of the Treasury in "Washington City" got two copies. There are only three individuals with the title of professor: Blackburn of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, Patterson of Philadelphia and Webber of Harvard. There is only one name that I recognize as a mathematician, viz., Robert Adrain of Reading, Pennsylvania. There are four individuals from "Hallowell, District of Maine": John Merrick, Samuel Moody, Benjamin Vaughan, and Joshua Wingate. This is of interest for this is the town where George Baron settled when he first came to this country.

In 1875 David S. Hart, a physician, published a "Historical Sketch of American Mathematical Periodicals," in The Analyst, volume 2, Issue 5 (Sept. 1875), 131-138 (this journal is available on JSTOR). He indicates that The Mathematical Correspondent is the first mathematical periodical published in the United States, albeit short lived:

The causes of the discontinuance of this periodical are obvious even upon a slight examination. In the first place, the Editors permit a contributor who calls himself A. Rabbit, to sneer at several works written by American authors, [such] as Shepherd, Pike, Walsh and others. They themselves also speak in the most contemptuous manner of Col. Jared Mansfield, superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point. The writer has a copy of No. 2. stitched in a blue cover, on which is an advertisement of a Lecture delivered in New York by G. Baron, which contains (as he says) "a complete refutation of the false and spurious principles, ignorantly imposed on the public, in the 'New American Practical Navigator,' written by N. Bowditch and published by E. M. Blunt." The sub-editors endorsing the above say, "We agree with the author that he has shown in the most incontrovertible manner, that the principles on which the 'New American Practical Navigator" is founded, are universally false, and gross impositions on the public."

I would dearly love to find a copy of The Mathematical Correspondent "stitched in a blue cover," for such a cover could contain information about the other editors and hints about how the journal was run. It would be interesting to see what other advertisements are on the blue covers besides that for Baron 18xx. 

Also I would not be the least surprised if A. Rabbit were George Baron.

TO DO:

• Need a list of publications by Baron. Since there are only a few papers, Perhaps I should also list problems. 
• Prepare a web file of interesting questions from the MC.
• Search census records and see if I can find out where Baron was when.
• Does Woolich have a list of students?
• Try to find out some information about Baron in England.
• Did he subscribe to the Ladies Journal or any other periodicals?
• Write to whoever I can find in Hallowell, Maine and see what might be available there. Coordinate with Ted.
• Get the few missing pages from the MC, including the paper of Maseres. Try to find out where it came from. 
• Prepare a one page handout for the meeting in Burlington with the Web address of these files and the most basic information about him. 

Contents of The Mathematical Correspondent.

Physical composition of The Mathematical Correspondent.

How to find a copy of The Mathematical Correspondent. 

Individuals who posed and solved problems in the MC.

Some sample problems from The Mathematical Correspondent.

        TO DO:  Need to restore the headings at the top of this page of individuals.