Webster Wells

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Webster Wells
Webster Wells.png
Born(1851-09-04)September 4, 1851
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedMay 23, 1916(1916-05-23) (aged 64)
Arlington, Massachusetts, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Signature
Signature of Webster Wells.png

Webster Wells (1851–1916) was an American mathematician known primarily for his authorship of mathematical textbooks.

Early life and career[]

Webster Wells was born at Roxbury, Massachusetts on September 4, 1851.[1] His parents, Thomas Foster Wells (1822–1903) and Sarah Morrill Wells (1828–1897), initially named him Thomas Wells, but presumably after the death of the statesman Daniel Webster in 1852, renamed him Daniel Webster Wells,[2] and from at least 1860, he was known as Webster Wells.[3] Samuel Adams, the Boston brewer and patriot, was a great-great-grandfather, and the poets Thomas Wells (1790–1861) and Anna Maria (Foster) Wells (1795–1868) were grandparents. The architect Joseph Morrill Wells was his brother.

Webster Wells studied at the West Newton English and Classical School (aka The Allen School), West Newton, Massachusetts, and then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from which he graduated in 1873 with a Bachelor of Science degree. Wells taught mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was an instructor (1873–1880), and later became successively an assistant professor (1883), an associate professor (1885), and a full professor (1893-1911).[4]

Personal life[]

Wells married at Boston on June 21, 1876 Emily Walker Langdon.[5]

Webster Wells died at Arlington, Massachusetts on May 23, 1916 from the complications of Huntington's Chorea.[6] He was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, Medford, Massachusetts.

Textbooks[]

Wells' textbooks were used in many schools and colleges in the United States. Among the titles were:

  • Elementary Treatise on Logarithms (1878)
  • University Algebra (1878)
  • Plane and Spherical Trigonometry (1884)
  • Plane and Solid Geometry (1887)
  • Higher Algebra (1889)
  • College Algebra (1890)
  • Academic Arithmetic (1893)
  • Complete Trigonometry (1900)
  • New Plane Geometry (1909)
  • New High School Algebra (1912)

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29L-812M : 10 November 2020), Thomas Wells, 4 Sep 1851; citing Birth, Roxbury, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 004240782.
  2. ^ "Massachusetts State Census, 1855," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQ4W-6PH : 11 March 2018), Daniel W Wells in household of Thomas F Wells, Ward 04, Roxbury, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States; State Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 953,955.
  3. ^ "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZHJ-WXR : 18 February 2021), Webster Wells in entry for T F Wells, 1860.
  4. ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. XVII. James T. White & Company. 1920. p. 124. Retrieved January 1, 2021 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH8C-CYS : 10 November 2020), Webster Wells, 21 Jun 1876; citing Marriage, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 004276926.
  6. ^ "Death of Prof Wells". The Boston Globe. May 24, 1916. p. 10. Retrieved January 1, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.

Bibliography[]

External links[]

Retrieved from ""