Oswald Veblen and the Capitalization of American Mathematics: Raising Money for Research, 1923-1928 Author(S): Loren Butler Feffer Source: Isis, Vol

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Oswald Veblen and the Capitalization of American Mathematics: Raising Money for Research, 1923-1928 Author(s): Loren Butler Feffer Source: Isis, Vol. 89, No. 3 (Sep., 1998), pp. 474-497 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/237143 . Accessed: 03/05/2011 21:19

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http://www.jstor.org Oswald Veblen and the Capitalization of American Mathematics

Raising Money for Research, 1923-1928

By Loren Butler Feffer*

ABSTRACT

Between the world wars, all the scientific professions in the United States underwent tremendousgrowth. The wartime experiences of scientific leaders whetted their appetites for the continuationof some kind of concentrated,well-funded research programs. Turning not to governmentbut instead to philanthropy,physicists and chemists worked to parlay theirpostwar prestige into greatersupport for unfetteredresearch. Leaders of the American mathematicalcommunity also wantedto expandtheir base of supportbut found themselves facing unique obstacles. Attempts to raise money to support mathematicalresearch had mixed results. This article discusses primarilythe efforts led by Oswald Veblen in the 1920s to collect funds to supportmathematics through Princeton University and the Amer- ican MathematicalSociety in the context of this climate of expansion for the physical sciences. The mathematicalcommunity in Americahas not yet received the level of careful study historianshave appliedto the physics community;this articlealso attemptsto redress that imbalance.

PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH EFFORTS for the government during World War I gave many scientists a sense of buoyant optimism about the future of science in Amer- ica. Robert Millikan, one of the nation's most prominent physicists and soon to be named a Nobel laureate, spoke for his colleagues when he voiced the hope that the lessons the war taught the American people would now bring such great support for science that

in a very few years we shall be in a new place as a scientific nation and shall see men coming from the ends of the earth to catch the inspirationof our leaders and to share in the results which have come from our developmentsin science. If we fail to seize these opportunitiesthen the scepter will pass from us and go to those who are better qualified to wield it.

*163 Lloyd Road, Aberdeen,New Jersey 07747.

474 LOREN BUTLER FEFFER 475

Millikan's vision was quite clear. The decade following war's end was to be a time of expansion for American science and American universities;for the first time, leaders of the scientific communities found themselves within reach of large sums of money that, with proper planning, could be committed to the direct support of research. Wartime research,with its organizationand support,whetted the appetitesfor growth of leaders in Americanphysics, chemistry,and mathematics,and they sought to transformtheir wartime organizationand prestige into access to private capital.' Physicists and chemists enteredpostwar fundraising with a new and distinct advantage, as they could make much of theirimportance to nationalinterests by recallingcontributions to dye synthesis, submarinedetection, and chemical warfare.The RockefellerFoundation was moved to supportphysics and chemistry, first with a programof postdoctoralfellowships for the National Research Council initiated in 1919. With this program,the Rocke- feller Foundationbecame the cornerstoneof a constituency physical scientists worked to assemble during the decade of the 1920s.2 But despite the productiverelationships they established with the Rockefeller organization and other philanthropists,another major sector of the scientists' hoped-for constituency-industry-failed to respond with the desired enthusiasm to supportunfettered university-based scientific research.The collapse of scientists' largest independentinitiative to raise money, the National Research Fund campaign, was clear demonstrationof the difficulties they had in publicizing their disciplines to a wide audience. Rhetoricalstrategies trumpeting the utility of science for progress thathad seemed timely in the culturalclimate of 1920s Americafell shortof persuasion when applied to fundraisingamong industrialists.3 Mathematicianshad also joined enthusiasticallyin wartimeprojects. Some, such as Max Mason, collaboratedon efforts staffed by physicists, chemists, or engineers. Otherstaught special courses for soldiers underthe auspices of the Students' Army TrainingCorps and other organizations.Probably the most significant mathematicalwork, however, was on problems in ballistics and ordnancecarried out in Washington,D.C., and at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.Led by the Princeton University mathematicianOswald Veblen, this group performedtests and calculatedrange tables for the redesignedartillery Americans took with them to fight in Europe. While this work was probablyas valuable as any done by scientistsfor the war effort, mathematicswas includedin neitherthe rhetoric nor the plans of those who looked to muster supportfor physics and chemistry after the

1 Robert Millikan, "The New Opportunityin Science," Science, 1919, 50:285-297, on p. 297. On American science duringWorld War I see, e.g., Daniel Kevles, The Physicists: A ScientificCommunity in ModernAmerica (New York: Random House, 1979), pp. 102-154; and Robert Yerkes, The New World of Science-Its Devel- opmentduring the War (New York: Century, 1920). 2 The literatureon the Rockefeller Foundationis extensive. Recent work directly relevantto understandingits role in the developmentof American scientific communities includes Alexi Assmus, "The Creationof Postdoc- toral Fellowships and the Siting of American Scientific Research,"Minerva, 1993, 31:151-183; Roger Geiger, To Advance Knowledge:The Growthof AmericanResearch Universities,1900-1940 (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1986); and Robert Kohler, Partners in Science: Foundations and Natural Sciences (Chicago: Univ. Chi- cago Press, 1991). On the negotiationsbehind the establishmentof the fellowships see Nathan Reingold, "The Case of the DisappearingLaboratory," in Science, American Style (New Brunswick,N.J.: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1991), pp. 224-246. 3 The National Research Fund Campaign,begun in 1925, aimed to raise $2 million from industryto support scientific research.Led by Secretaryof Commerce HerbertHoover along with George Ellery Hale and Robert Millikan, fundraisingefforts continued until 1930. But corporatesupport fell far below expectations, and the fund ultimately collapsed by 1932. The National Research Fund campaign is treatedin detail in Ronald Tobey, The American Ideology of National Science, 1919-1930 (Pittsburgh:Univ. PittsburghPress, 1971). See also Lance E. Davis and Daniel J. Kevles, "The National Research Fund: A Case Study in the IndustrialSupport of Academic Science," Minerva, 1974, 12:213-220; and Kevles, Physicists (cit. n. 1), pp. 185-187. 476 OSWALD VEBLEN AND THE CAPITALIZATIONOF AMERICANMATHEMATICS war. Fellow scientists, such as the psychologist Robert Yerkes, did not mention the mathematicians' contributionswhen enumeratingwartime achievements, and mathematicswas not among the fields included in the postdoctoralfellowship programunderwritten by the Rockefeller Foundationfor the National Research Council. Despite an ongoing commitment to disciplinary autonomy and a dearth of shared research interests or borderland research, mathematiciansaligned themselves with the more publicized fields of physics and chemistryas one importantstrategy in their efforts to secure funds.4 While they failed to constructdependable constituencies of their own to supportinde- pendent institutional initiatives and were reluctant to accept government support, both mathematiciansand scientists had better luck within the context of universitycampaigns. There, willing cadres of donors had only to be persuadedto supportscience and mathematics as partof general plans for institutionalexpansion and improvement.An important part of the story of the capitalizationof American mathematicscan be told featuringthe efforts of the PrincetonUniversity mathematician Oswald Veblen. Veblen took his wartime experience and connections, fused them to his personal vision for the futureof American mathematics,and devoted a greatdeal of time and energy duringthe early 1920s to raising money to supportmathematical research through the AmericanMathematical Society and PrincetonUniversity. The place of professionalmathematics within Americanscience, and American society, is reflected in the successes and failures met by Veblen's efforts.5

MATHEMATICS AND THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL FELLOWSHIPS

The mathematicalcommunity in the United States experiencedmarked growth beginning in the 1880s, when mathematicalpractitioners first coalesced into a professionalcommu- nity. Looking for paradigms-examples of fruitful topics of research-ambitious Amer- ican mathematicianspursued research programs in dynamic areas of "pure"mathematics such as algebraicgeometry, group theory, and abstractanalysis that were of interestto the established mathematicalresearchers of Europe. While this helped enhance the status of Americanmathematical research, it effectively ended an earliertradition of Americanwork in mathematicalphysics and mathematicalastronomy-the premier fields of "applied"

4Borderland was a term commonly used by early twentieth-centuryAmerican scientists to describe work relevant to two or more disciplines. For a historical discussion of some institutionalissues that confrontedsuch research see Glenn Bugos, "ManagingCooperative Research and BorderlandScience in the National Research Council, 1922-1942," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 1989, 20:1-32. On mathematicians' war work see D. A. Rothrock,"American Mathematicians in War Service,"American Mathematical Monthly, 1919, 26:40-44; LeonardDickson, "Mathematicsin War Perspective,"Bulletin of the AmericanMath- ematical Society, 1919, 25:289-311; and MathematicalAssociation of America, "Conferenceon WartimeEx- periences,"Amer. Math. Mon., 1919, 26:92-103. See also Karen Parshalland David Rowe, The Emergence of the American MathematicalResearch Community,1876-1900: J. J. Sylvester, Felix Klein, and E. H. Moore (Providence, R.I.: American MathematicalSociety, 1994) (hereaftercited as Parshall and Rowe, Emergence of the American Mathematical Research Community),p. 444. 5The American mathematicalcommunity is now beginning to receive careful study by historians. A major recent work is Parshalland Rowe, Emergence of the AmericanMathematical Research Community.Other con- tributionsinclude William Aspray, "The Emergenceof Princetonas a World Centerfor MathematicalResearch, 1896-1939," in History and Philosophy of Modern Mathematics, ed. Aspray and Phillip Kitcher (Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 11) (Minneapolis: Univ. Minnesota Press, 1988), pp. 346-366; Karen Parshalland David Rowe, "AmericanMathematics Comes of Age," in A Centuryof Mathematicsin America, ed. Peter Duren (Providence,R.I.: American MathematicalSociety, 1988), pp. 3-28; and John Servos, "Math- ematics and the Physical Sciences in America, 1880-1930," Isis, 1986, 77:611-629. LOREN BUTLER FEFFER 477 mathematicsin the late nineteenthand early twentieth centuries. Communityleaders and others took note of this growing imbalance,but few steps were taken to correctit.6 In 1919 the Division of Physical Sciences of the National Research Council (NRC) undertooka study of the status of applied mathematicsin the United States; the war had brought a new sense of urgency to concerns about the lack of applied mathematicalresearch. A circular letter produced for distributionto mathematicsdepartment chairmen throughoutthe country outlined the perceived shortcomingsof domestic work in applied mathematicsand strongly suggested that mathematicianstake immediate steps to redress the imbalancebetween pure and applied subjects in their teaching and research.The NRC spokesmen expressed concern for the future development of experimental science and technological industries."Theory should go hand in hand with experiment,as is the case in Europe,"to sustain ongoing progress. Most important,students must be encouragedto take up applied subjects as they begin their research.The letter closed with the following statement:"there is no desire on the part of the Council to depreciatethe study of pure mathematics,but ratherto stimulateit by suggesting at least a partialreturn to the earlier methods, by which many of the most importantdevelopments of the subject have origi- nated in the study of physical problems,thus maintaininga fresh supply of lines of inves- tigation and produce [sic] closer contact with other branches of science."7The message that even pure mathematicsis truly derivativefrom, as well as importantto, ongoing work in science-and its inverse, that all of science and technology has roots in mathematicswould be taken up by mathematiciansmany times throughoutthe next decade as they sought greaterfinancial supportand prestige for their work. It was applied soon and with great success in an appeal back to the NRC itself. Oswald Veblen was, by the conclusion of World War I, one of the nation's most influ- ential mathematicians(see Figure 1). Veblen (nephew of the social theorist Thorstein Veblen) was recognized early in his careeras a promisingresearcher, receiving a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago under the supervision of E. H. Moore in 1903. He joined the faculty at Princeton in 1905 and soon established himself as a departmentalleader. His involvement in wartimeresearch and his nominationto the NationalAcademy of Sciences (NAS) in 1919 broughtVeblen into a circle of powerful and ambitiousscientists centered in Washington.It was a milieu that suited him well; his fellow mathematicianRaymond Archibalddescribed Veblen's work on behalf of mathematicsin Washingtonas "service which he alone was qualifiedto render."8 In 1923 Oswald Veblen successfully lobbied the Rockefeller Foundationand the Na- tional ResearchCouncil to extend their postdoctoralfellowship programto include mathematics. These fellowships, designed to provide young scientists with supportso that they could devote themselves completely to scientific research, were a valued and visible en-

6 For samples of the concern voiced about the lack of applied mathematicsin the United States see E. H. Moore, "On the Foundationsof Mathematics,"Bull. Amer. Math. Soc., 1903, 9:402-424; and Earl Hedrick, "The Significance of Mathematics,"Amer. Math. Mon., 1917, 27:401-406. The founding of the Mathematical Association of America in 1915 in part reflected this concern, as well as worries about the balance between teaching and research. See Kenneth May, ed., The MathematicalAssociation of America: Its First Fifty Years (Washington,D.C.: MathematicalAssociation of America, 1972), pp. 17-21; see also Servos, "Mathematicsand the Physical Sciences," p. 618. 7"The Status of Applied Mathematicsin the United States,"National ResearchCouncil, ca. 1919, Department of MathematicsRecords, HarvardUniversity Archives, NathanMarsh Pusey Library,Harvard University, Cam- bridge, Massachusetts. I RaymondArchibald, A SemicentennialHistory of the AmericanMathematical Society (New York:American MathematicalSociety, 1938) (hereaftercited as Archibald, Semicentennial History of the AMS), p. 209. On Veblen's early promise see Parshalland Rowe, Emergenceof the AmericanMathematical Research Community, pp. 384-386. 478 OSWALD VEBLEN AND THE CAPITALIZATIONOF AMERICANMATHEMATICS

Figure 1. Oswald Veblenin the 1920s. (Courtesyof NationalAcademy of Sciences Archives, Washington, D.C.)

dorsement of the importanceof the physical sciences. In letters to Simon Flexner of the Rockefeller Foundation and others, Veblen made use of the strategies outlined in the NRC's assessment of the shortcomings of mathematicsin the United States. But where the NRC missive had emphasized the lack of research by Americans in areas of mathematics increasinglyrelevant to physical science and technology,Veblen stressedthe overall LOREN BUTLER FEFFER 479 importanceof mathematicsto these vital fields, opening with a strong assertion of the centralityof mathematicsto all of the sciences:

In consideringthe proposalto enlargethe scopeof the fellowshipsin Physicsand Chemistry so as to includeMathematics, I should think it is desirableto haveclearly in mindthe close interdependenceof all the sciences.It is well-known,of course,how Medicine constantly uses the resultsof Physicsand Chemistry, and how, in return,the problemsarising from Medicine stimulateresearch in Physicsand Chemistry. The relationship between Mathematics on theone handand Physics and Chemistry on the other,is of preciselythis sort.

Claims about the contributionsof physics and chemistry to medicine had been used to convince the Rockefeller Foundation,previously pledged only to the supportof medicine and public health, to include those disciplines among the recipientsof theirphilanthropy.9 Veblen incorporatedthis accepted assertioninto a longer syllogism: medicine needs physics and chemistry, physics and chemistry depend upon mathematics,therefore medicine needs mathematics,and mathematicsshould receive commensuratesupport. Veblen was not only seeking financial resources for his discipline. He recognized that mathematicswould have a difficult time sustaining interest or supportfrom independent sources without strong and obvious connections to physics and chemistry,and he made it clear that inclusion was as valuable as monetarysupport:

The questionmight be asked:"Why should not a separateboard be createdto look afterfel- lowshipsin Mathematics?"In the interestof mathematics,I thinkit is very desirablethat fellowshipsin this scienceshould be administeredby a Boardwhich contains both physicists andchemists, because this will tendto keepcloser contact and will havethe effect of stimulating intereston the partof mathematicsin physicsand chemistry. This sortof a broadeningof the interestsof the mathematiciansis very desirable at the presenttime.

As the prestige and power to attractfunds of physics and chemistryincreased in the years following the war, Veblen was among a numberof mathematicianswho realized that in orderto bolsterthe resourcesof theirown discipline, connectionsto the physical sciences- both actualand merely rhetorical-would have to be emphasized,but withoutjeopardizing the privileged place of unfetteredmathematical research.10 The encouragementof autonomousresearch in "pure"mathematics had been an im- portantpriority for the organizationalleaders of professional mathematicsin the United

I9Oswald Veblen to Simon Flexner, 11 Oct. 1923, Oswald Veblen Papers, Libraryof Congress Manuscript Division, Washington,D.C., Box 28. Flexner's role in the establishmentof the postdoctoralprogram is discussed in Reingold, "DisappearingLaboratory" (cit. n. 2). See also Assmus, "Creationof PostdoctoralFellowships" (cit. n. 2), pp. 165-168; and Kohler, Partners in Science (cit. n. 2), p. 87. '0 Veblen to Simon Flexner, 11 Oct. 1923. While Veblen was a particularlyvocal advocate, the value of links between mathematics and the physical sciences was often discussed by mathematicalleaders in the postwar years. For another example see E. H. Moore to University President Harry Pratt Judson, 8 Mar. 1919, E. H. Moore Papers,Department of Special Collections, Regenstein Library,University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Box 4; and E. H. Moore to EdwardBurr Van Vleck, 23 Nov. 1918, E. H. Moore Papers, Box 3. But there was much ambivalenceabout how to make such links while still retainingautonomy. "Mathematics cannot afford to isolate itself and should heartily welcome the brotherly hand of co-operation held out to it by the physical sciences. Let us accept the offer to take our place beside those sciences in such high repute. The [American Mathematical]Society can and will retain its control of mathematicalquestions. Mathematics,of all sciences, can not afford to remain isolated, without friends. I am in favor of a league of mathematicsand the related sciences, with reservations(i.e., with retentionof controlover things mathematical)":Leonard Dickson to "Com- mittee to considerproposed American Section of an InternationalUnion of Mathematics,"5 Feb. 1920, American MathematicalSociety Records, Brown University Library,Providence, Rhode Island, Box 21. 480 OSWALD VEBLEN AND THE CAPITALIZATIONOF AMERICAN MATHEMATICS

States. A relatively robustresearch tradition in mathematicalastronomy and mathematical physics-represented by practitionerssuch as Simon Newcomb, George Hill, and Josiah Willard Gibbs-was displaced in the early years of the twentieth century by a new, ag- gressive commitmentto "pure"mathematics fostered in young scholarswho received their mathematicaltraining at Europeancenters such as Gottingen and Paris during the 1880s and 1890s. Those mathematicians,including Eliakim Hastings Moore of the University of Chicago, Henry BurchardFine of Princeton, and William Fogg Osgood of Harvard,devoted themselves to the establishmentof mathematicsdepartments where young Ameri- cans could study to become researchersat the frontiersof modem mathematicalthought.11 Trainedin these departmentsand thoroughlyindoctrinated in the primacy of pure mathematics research, neither Veblen nor any of the other mathematicalleaders of his own generationseriously questioned that mathematicsresearchers in the United States should continue to pursue researchvalued for its mathematicalqualities alone. But in his rhetorical encouragementof links between mathematics and the physical sciences, Veblen was also not being entirely cynical. Excitementabout the "new"theories of quantumand, especially, relativity physics seized a numberof mathematicians,including Veblen, who devoted a great deal of his research effort during the 1920s and early 1930s to investigations related to general relativity theory that sought to advance both physics and pure mathematics.12 Optimismabout this work, and the expectationof future, fruitful entanglementsof physics with interesting,abstract mathematics, helped to create a climate of confidence about the relationshipbetween mathematicsand the physical sciences that augmented-although it did not displace-pragmatic concerns and strategies.

PLANNING AN ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN FOR THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

During the 1920s, the physical sciences attractedan unprecedentedamount of financial supportfrom the majorphilanthropic foundations. This came in the form of direct support for individual scientists throughpostdoctoral fellowships for study at home and abroad, including the NRC fellowships, and throughlarge grantsto universitiesfor the expansion of researchfacilities and personnel on their campuses. Fundraisingefforts also took place in other contexts, such as the campaignfor the independentNational Research Fund begun in 1925. In 1923 the American Mathematical Society (AMS) began efforts to raise a relatively modest endowment of approximately$100,000, hoping to provide a financial cushion for dramaticallyrising publication costs. Previous attemptsto raise money had been focused primarilyon increasing the membershipof the society and the subscription rolls for its journals. While membershipgrew steadily, and especially rapidly after 1920, even with higher dues the rising cost of the society's several publications could not be met.13 Mathematicalleaders hoped that the campaignwould actually serve a dual purpose. In describing it for the society's semicentennialvolume fifteen years later, RaymondArchi- bald recalled, "the campaign was to be more than an attempt to put the finances of the

11 On the early leaders of American mathematicssee Parshalland Rowe, Emergence of the American Math- ematical Research Community. 12 Veblen's researchin general relativity and, later, on the problem of unifying gravitationaland electromag- netic phenomena grew out of his long-standing interest in projective geometry. On Veblen and mathematical physics see Loren Butler Feffer, "MathematicalPhysics and the Planning of American Mathematics:Ideology and Institutions,"Historia Mathematica, 1997, 24:66-85, esp. p. 75. 13 Archibald,Semicentennial History of the AMS, p. 29. LOREN BUTLER FEFFER 481

Society on a firmbasis; it was to be also a campaignof educationof the public concerning the basic characterof mathematicsin our present civilization and the importanceof mathematical research in advancing that civilization."14 Dissatisfied with the attention given their discipline by others and well aware of the attempts by physicists and chemists to educate the public about the vital importanceof those fields, the AMS leadershipbelieved it essential that they find a way to claim for themselves a piece of the general enthusiasm for science that flourishedin the years following the war. Veblen was presidentof the AMS for 1923/1924, and he selected the HarvardUniversity mathematicianJulian Coolidge to be chairmanof the committeeon endowment.The initial phase of the campaign,which lasted through 1923, was aimed at the approximately1,200 members of the society. While the organizersdid not expect to raise much money from society members,they countedupon using a strong show of supportfrom mathematicians, with their modest incomes, as a helpful public relations tool. The next phase of the campaign, lasting through 1925, was aimed at the philanthropicfoundations, individuals outside the society, and "industriesdependent on mathematics."'15 Although the AMS retainedthe public relations services of the John Price Jones Cor- porationto assist in the campaign, by far the biggest efforts on behalf of the endowment were made by a small group of the society's own leaders. In addition to Veblen and Coolidge, they included R. G. D. Richardson,secretary of the AMS, and Arnold Dresden, G. C. Evans, RobertHenderson, and George Roosevelt. Once solicitationof society members was under way, efforts turnedto general publicity. Veblen targetedScience Service, a science features news syndicate underwrittenby newspaperpublisher Edward Scripps, and individual magazine and newspaper editors to try to generate interest in articles on mathematicsin general and the endowmentcampaign in particular.In September1923 the society voted to establish an annual lectureship in honor of the physical chemist Josiah Willard Gibbs that was intendedto give "a largerpublic, in semi popularform, some idea of aspects of mathematicsand its application."16 In using the name of Gibbs, the leaders of the AMS were laying claim to a share of America's proudest scientific heritage and publicly announcingan interest in the applicationsof mathematicsto physics as well as to practicalproblems such as insurance. In an attemptto underscorethe connectionsbetween mathematicalresearch and practical needs, the first Gibbs address(in February1924) was given by Michael Pupinof Columbia University. A "chartermember" of the AMS as well as the American Physical Society, Pupin was best known for his contributionsto the development of the telephone. His lecture,rather mysteriously entitled "Coordination"(it was laterprinted in Scribner'sMag- azine underthe magisterialtitle "FromChaos to Cosmos"), attemptedto sketch for popular

4Ibid., p. 31. 15Ibid. By early December, subscriptionsfrom members totaled only $13,713. Mindful of the value of ap- pearances,Coolidge instructedVeblen: "I do not at present favor making an additionalappeal to the Society in general, even to featurethe one argumentof a general response.... In almost every case [in approximatelyfifty letters to local agents who were given the responsibilityof soliciting from their own departmentsand regions] I stressed the idea that we wanted a one hundredper cent response. I had ratherleave the matterso than to cross the wires by additionalappeals from this office." Julian Coolidge to Veblen, 3 Dec. 1923, Veblen Papers, Box 3. 16 Archibald,Semicentennial History of the AMS, p. 88. The Jones Corporation,which worked for most major university campaigns during this decade, was probablyexpecting a returnof about 6 percent, or up to $6,000, for efforts on behalf of the AMS. Correspondenceamong the leaders of the campaign indicates some dissatis- faction with the texts preparedby the Jones Corporationand concern aboutthe cost of their services. See Veblen to Coolidge, 11 Sept. 1923, Veblen Papers,Box 20; and Coolidge to Veblen, 15 Feb. 1924, Veblen Papers,Box 3. On Science Service and efforts with other editors see Veblen to Coolidge, 19 Sept. 1923, Veblen Papers,Box 3. 482 OSWALD VEBLEN AND THE CAPITALIZATIONOF AMERICAN MATHEMATICS view a picture of the aesthetics of modem physics, with only the vaguest of referencesto the contributionsof science and mathematicsto materialprogress. But this did not stop the zealous campaignersfrom using it in support of their cause: as part of a concerted effort to gain supportamong engineers, solicitation letters-signed by Pupin-were sent out, accompaniedby a campaignleaflet and a reprintof Pupin's Gibbs lecture.17 The second Gibbs lecturer,endowment committee memberRobert Henderson, stressed a more mundanearena of mathematicalapplications drawn from his own field of expertise: "life insuranceas a social science and as a mathematicalproblem." Many Gibbs lectures during the following decade emphasized new fields in theoretical physics and featured well-known physicists, includingAlbert Einstein, Percy Bridgman,and the physical chemist Richard Tolman. While the selection of the two earliest speakers seems to represent the society's desire to shore up public opinion of its connectionsto industryand commerce during its campaign, the subsequentemphasis on physics speaks to what was perhaps a deeperwish to encouragebetter connections between mathematiciansand ongoing research in theoreticalphysics. In connection with the campaign,Veblen also sought ways to stim- ulate the Bulletin of the AmericanMathematical Society to publish more articlesin applied mathematics,but without success.'8

THE AMS, THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, AND MATHEMATICAL PUBLICATIONS

It is no surprisethat the AMS turnedto the Rockefeller philanthropiesearly in its endowment campaign. Even before he was certain of his success in getting them to underwrite National ResearchFellowships in mathematics,Veblen encouragedCoolidge to approach "Rockefellerinterests" for assistance.Well awareof the preferredfunding strategies,Veb- len suggested that the AMS request $50,000, conditional on raising a matching amount from other sources. He initially left his own role in the negotiationsopen: "I think it may be possible that I can be of use in approachingthe Rockefeller interests on behalf of the EndowmentFund on the general principle 'To him that hath, it shall be added.' On the other hand, if they turn the fellowship project down, I don't think that it would be wise to use me as an avenue of approach."Veblen's long association with the NRC gave him considerablesavvy in dealing with this particularphilanthropic patron. Through personal meetings and numerouswritten appeals over several months, Veblen and Coolidge pressed their connections within the RockefellerFoundation. Although they impressedsome foundation officials individually,the AMS requestfor $50,000 was tabled at a meeting in May 1924 and never reconsidered.19

17 Michael Pupin, "FromChaos to Cosmos," Scribner's Magazine, 1924, 76:3-10. On campaigners'efforts to use the lecture see Veblen to Coolidge, 21 Mar. 1924, Veblen Papers,Box 3. On Pupin's work on the telephone see Archibald,Semicentennial History of the AMS, p. 4. 18 Henderson's lecture was given in December 1924 and published as Robert Henderson, "Life Insuranceas a Social Science and as a MathematicalProblem," Bull. Amer.Math. Soc., 1925, 31:227-252. See also Archibald, SemicentennialHistory of the AMS, p. 88. At least between 1926 and 1936, Gibbs lecturerswere selected each year by a committee of three to five members. See "Committeeto recommendto the Council a lecturerfor the Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectureship,"R. L. Moore Papers, Archive for the History of American Mathematics, University of Texas, Austin, Box 30; and Archibald,Semicentennial History of the AMS, pp. 88-89. On efforts to encourage articles in applied mathematicssee Coolidge to Veblen, 6 Mar. 1924, Veblen Papers, Box 3. 19Veblen to Coolidge, 1 Dec. 1923, Veblen Papers,Box 3. For one favorablevoice see TrevorArnett to H. J. Thorkelson, 11 May 1924, Folder 3678, Box 357, Series 1, General Education Board Archives, Rockefeller Archives Center, North Tarrytown,New York: "I think the GEB might well consider making a pledge large enough to enable them to reach their goal. Practicallyall sciences depend upon mathematics."Abraham Flexner was continually pressed by Coolidge to be a personal advocate for the mathematicians'cause; see Coolidge to AbrahamFlexner, 18 Sept. 1924, Veblen Papers, Box 3. LOREN BUTLER FEFFER 483

But hope was not lost. While the Rockefeller Foundation officials were reluctantto supportan endowmentfor an organizationlike the AmericanMathematical Society, whose permanencecould not be assured, they had received enough appeals for the support of scholarlypublications of variouskinds that they believed it timely to considerthe problem more generally. Through a series of discussions and correspondencewith General Edu- cation Board (GEB) head Wickliffe Rose, Veblen learned that the foundationwas interested in consideringthe supportof scientific publicationsmore generally throughthe Na- tional Academy of Sciences.20Veblen secured a place on the committee formed by the NAS to considerpublication issues (and to administerfunds), and in May 1925 the General EducationBoard of the Rockefeller Foundationvoted to grantthe NAS a $10,000 annual subvention for publications,renewable for three years. The AMS received $3,100 from the initial grant (additionalmoney went to supportmathematics journals that were independent of the AMS).21 Small annual subventions did not, however, cure the society's publication ills. The mathematicalpublications were perpetuallyinsolvent-a situation that eventually exas- peratedtheir supporterswithin the Rockefeller Foundationas well as the National Acad- emy of Sciences. Once taken as unequivocal evidence for the maturationof American mathematics,the increase in the amountof mathematicalresearch published and the con- comitant spiraling costs through the 1920s and into the 1930s drew critics, inside and outside the mathematicalcommunity, to charge mathematicianswith excessive publishing of materialof dubious quality. Despite his tireless efforts on their behalf, Veblen himself developed doubtsabout the quantityof researchbeing publishedin Americanmathematical journals. Soon after the conclusion of the endowment campaign in 1928 the AMS once again found itself in financial difficulty and forced to examine the cost of maintainingits four journals. Veblen was a member of the committee called together to examine the situation.In a letter to E. V. Huntingtonhe expressed strong skepticism:

Thereis anotherquestion which I thinkought to be discussedby ourcommittee and that is the questionwhether an increasein the totalnumber of pagesin the mathematicaljournals in the U.S. is advisable.I believeyou will findthat the totalnumber of pagesin the mathematical researchjournals ... is somethinglike a thousandpages in excessof thetotal number of pages devotedto the publicationof researchin Physics.If investigationshows that this statementis correctI thinkwe oughtto askwhether such a stateof affairsis justifiablein view of the fact thateveryone recognizes that the presentis the "goldenage of Physics."22

The American MathematicalSociety finally gave up seeking outside supportfor its ex- pandingpublications in the mid 1930s and (with guidance and assistancefrom the Rocke- feller Foundation)turned to a scheme similar to that devised by the American Physical

20Veblen interviews with Wickliffe Rose, 24 June 1924, 1 Oct. 1924; and Veblen to Rose, 27 Oct. 1924, Folder 3678, Box 357, Series 1, GeneralEducation Board Archives. Discussion about funding scholarly publications predatedthe AMS proposaland extended beyond the sciences to fields such as history and theology. See Coolidge to Theodore Richards,3 Dec. 1923; and Coolidge to Veblen, 3 Dec. 1923, Veblen Papers, Box 3. 21 Raymond Pearl to Rose, 14 May 1925; and W. N. Brierly to Pearl, 8 June 1925, Folder 1955, Box 205, Series 1, GeneralEducation Board Archive. See also Archibald,Semicentennial History of the AMS, pp. 31-32. 22 Veblen to E. V. Huntington, 19 Jan. 1928, Veblen Papers, Box 6. Others shared his concern; see, e.g., DunhamJackson to Huntington,4 Feb. 1928, Veblen Papers,Box 6: "I believe there is a wide-spreadconviction, beginning to come out in authoritativeexpression, that mathematicalresearch, considered in relation to our academic life as a whole, is no longer an infant industrythat can expect unlimited artificialprotection without being called upon to renderan account of itself." 484 OSWALD VEBLEN AND THE CAPITALIZATIONOF AMERICANMATHEMATICS

Society, creatinginstitutional memberships that assessed a per-pagecost to memberinsti- tutions whose faculty published in any of the AMS journals.23

"OUR DEBT TO MATHEMATICS"

Avowedly pessimistic from the startabout the chances of getting a substantialendowment grant from the Rockefeller Foundation,Coolidge and Veblen also undertooka parallel effort focused on potentialindustrial patrons. A small pamphletprepared for the campaign, entitled "OurDebt to Mathematics,"succinctly expressedtheir rhetorical strategies toward industrialistsand engineers.Prominently displayed is a bar graphshowing the skyrocketing numberof researcharticles and books publishedby Americanmathematicians since 1868 (see Figure 2). In this context, their productivityis presentedas an unproblematicachieve- ment. The pamphletalso featureda list of answers to the question, "Whatdo industryand engineeringowe to mathematics?"Among the accomplishmentscredited to mathematical ingenuity are the development of locomotives, automobiles, airplanes,the telegraph,the telephone, and radio. In addition, mathematiciansgot credit for overcoming "formidable naturalobstacles, bridgingrivers, and dammingfloods," along with a host of more familiar mathematicalachievements in applications to physics, astronomy, economics, and the social sciences. The text goes on: "the civilization of the futurewill depend even more on mathematicsthan does the civilization of the present."In case these claims seemed mys- terious, the remainder of the pamphlet explained how mathematics develops ("by the devoted labors of highly trained scientists who pursue their studies with indefatigable patience, unnoticed by the world, undeterredby the supercilious pity of those who are unable to appreciate their work"), asserted that abstract mathematicalprinciples often evolve into practicalresults, and extolled the importantrole of the AmericanMathematical Society in supportingmathematical work in America.24 This pamphlet was part of a zealous plan to generate support for the AMS among engineers, actuaries,industrial researchers, and theirmanagers through letters and personal visits from society members and officers. In early 1924, the campaignorganizers decided also to dangle the carrotof a mathematicalinformation service before potential patrons. They suggested that the service would supply AMS supporterswith the names of mathematical experts in particularfields, references to articles in the mathematicalliterature on desired topics, advice for young men interested in undertakingmathematical study in differentareas, and informationabout "mathematicalconditions" in othercountries. While the details of this plan may have evolved furtherin the minds of the organizers,their letters soliciting potential patronswere vague, referringto a "clearinghouse to help applicants obtain any type of mathematicalor mathematicophysical informationwhich they desire." Coolidge's account of negotiations at Edison IlluminatingCompany of Boston displays a typical response to the mathematicians'offer of service:

I saw the President first, who was very well disposed but said they were accountableto the State authoritiesfor every cent they expended.When I suggested selling them service he became

23 Archibald,Semicentennial History of the AMS, pp. 34-35. On the mathematicians'ongoing appeals to the Rockefeller Foundationsee Memorandum,Max Mason, 17 Jan. 1931; and Memorandum,Pearl interview with H. A. Spoehr,25 Feb. 1931, Folder 1844, Box 150, Series 200D, Record Group 1.1, RockefellerArchives Center. See also H. A. Spoehr diary, 19 Feb. 1931; Max Mason diary, 8 May 1931, 1 Oct. 1931; Luther Eisenhart interview with LauderJones, 4 Feb. 1932; and NormanThompson to Eisenhart,25 Feb. 1932, Folder 1541, Box 125, Series 200D, Record Group 1.1, Rockefeller FoundationArchives. 24 "OurDebt to Mathematics,"American Mathematical Society pamphlet,n.d., Veblen Papers, Box 20. LOREN BUTLER FEFFER 485

NUMBER oF IRESARCH ARTICLZS AND BOOKS BY AMSRICAN MATHEMATICIANS 1700 1600 OUR DEBT 1500 TO 140 MATHEMATICS 1800 lDOw 1300 1000 WI 900 goo 700

G00

400

2w W~~~~~~~~~IAMERICANMATHEMATICAL SOCEr 100 501 Wins 1I6thSte-t n ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NowYork.City 1MS-7273.77 76.62 83.67 6692 9(97W v0.74&2 13.17 (OvW)

Figure 2. AmericanMathematical Society fundraisingpamphlet. Rising publication rates were a source of pride,but also the rootcause of the financialdifficulties of the AmericanMathematical Society. (Courtesyof the Libraryof Congress ManuscriptDivision, Washington, D.C.)

veryfriendly and said that he approvedof theprinciple, but referred me to his researchexperts to discussthe details.I saw two of themyesterday. They also werefriendly, but intimated that as a strictlybusiness proposition they could not recommendthis to theirsuperiors as a paying venture.Now I mustwrite the best letterI can deviseto the Presidenturging him to takethe higherpoint of view regardlessof his experts'mercenary report.25

The plans for a mathematicalinformation service clearly did not go far enough to convince potential subscribersthat they would be getting a reasonablereturn for their investment. Indeed, the proposed service was perceived by Coolidge as a genteel cloak for charity, a sop to corporatedonors who were not in business to be charitable.The plan was quietly droppedfrom the campaign.

25 On the possible "services"see Coolidge to Veblen, 6 Mar. 1924, Veblen Papers, Box 3. For a solicitation letter see Coolidge to Samuel Insull, CommonwealthEdison Co., 19 Mar. 1924, Veblen Papers, Box 3. The response is describedin Coolidge to Veblen, 11 Apr. 1924, Veblen Papers, Box 3. 486 OSWALD VEBLEN AND THE CAPITALIZATIONOF AMERICANMATHEMATICS

The campaign officers quickly became disillusioned with the degree of interest shown in their solicitations.Three months after the startof their appeals outside the society, they concluded: "We find it almost impossible to interest any one except members of the en- gineeringprofession and executives of companieswhich depend on scientificresearch.... It is reasonableto expect that we will get contributionsfrom several of these companies, but there is not much likelihood that any of these contributionswill exceed $2500. Certain corporationswhich might have been expected to contribute,such as the Radio Corporation of America, have declined." Western Electric had donated $1,000; a somewhat larger donationwas anticipatedfrom AT&T; and GeneralElectric, Kodak, and GeneralMotors, along with some smaller corporations,were still being solicited. In interviews with rep- resentatives of these corporations,the campaignerspushed the merits of their cause ag- gressively. Recountinga meeting with George Campbell,a representativeof AT&T, Coo- lidge wrote to Veblen: "He fully assented to my contentionthat withoutpure mathematics there would be no AmericanTelephone & Telegraph,and did not deny my corollarythat this places moral responsibility upon them to give us their aid."26While "moralrespon- sibility" to aid mathematicsmay have helped sway AT&T-late in 1924, the company gave $5,000 to the campaign-this strategy did not bring many rewards. Veblen was particularlyadamant that publishing companies had "a very definite duty" to supportthe AMS cause, since many of them had made a good deal of money from the publicationof mathematicalbooks, but admittedthat they had for the most part "turneda deaf ear to all idealistic suggestions."27Insurance companies were also targeted,largely throughthe connections of endowment campaigncommittee member Robert Henderson. As would be the case in the campaign for the National Research Fund, the lukewarm response shown by potential corporatedonors to the scientists' cause was chilled further by legal realities that dissuadedthem from making outrightgifts. The contractsfor mathematical services were one possible solution to this problem,but they proved to be of little appealor utility. Anotherscheme was developed, however, thatturned out to be somewhat more successful. Since its founding, the American MathematicalSociety had relied on membershipdues to finance its activities. Turningback to that traditionin the midst of the troubled campaign, Coolidge, Veblen, and their colleagues devised a new category of "sustainingmemberships." With the payment of at least $100 in dues annually, the sustaining member had, among other privileges, the right to nominate a number of regular memberswho did not have to pay dues. The society also designateda categoryof "patron" for subscriberswho contributed$500 or more annually.28 By the campaign's conclusion at the end of 1925, the AMS had obtainedpledges from thirty-seven sustaining members and four patrons. Gifts from all sources, excluding the GEB subvention, totaled $55,000, of which more than $25,000 had come from AMS members.29No supportfor the endowment had come from the large philanthropies,and

26 "Memorandumon the Endowment Fund of the American MathematicalSociety," n.d. (probably 1924), Veblen Papers,Box 17; and Coolidge to Veblen, 3 Jan. 1924, Veblen Papers,Box 3. GeneralElectric eventually pledged $2,000 over four years; see Veblen to Coolidge, 23 May 1924, Veblen Papers, Box 3. 27 Veblen to Coolidge, 19 Feb. 1924, Veblen Papers, Box 3. Daniel Kevles points out in his analysis of the National Research Fund campaign that, as a monopoly, AT&T could safely contributeto supportpure science researchwithout fear of stimulatingcompetition; see Kevles, Physicists (cit. n. 1), p. 187. 28 On the National Research Fund campaign see Kevles, Physicists, pp. 185-187; on the new membership categories see Archibald, SemicentennialHistory of the AMS, pp. 32-33. The tax code of the time had no provisionfor charitableor philanthropicgifts from corporations;only directoperating expenses could be deducted from income tax. In addition,laws restrictingbusinesses from charitablegiving were only beginning to be revised to permit technological industriesto supportscientific activity. See Kevles, Physicists, pp. 186-187. 29Archibald,Semicentennial History of the AMS, p. 32. LOREN BUTLER FEFFER 487 corporatedonors had been willing to make only minimal contributions.Appeals to "duty" and "moralobligation" in soliciting industrialsupport were not only ineffective but be- trayed a remarkablearrogance and naivet6 on the part of the academic mathematiciansin the AMS. Their dismissal as "mercenary"of industryexpectations that mathematical work should have tangible, measurable,concrete relevance, and theirpreference for solicitations based on the "higherpoint of view" and "idealistic suggestions," exposed an enormous gulf between industryand organizedmathematics in Americain the 1920s. This gulf would remain as mathematicianssought resourcesto make their position within researchuniversities more secure. It was to this new goal that Oswald Veblen next turnedhis fundraising energies, as he took partin an ambitious,and successful, developmentcampaign for Prince- ton Universitythat helped to make its mathematicsdepartment arguably the most important in the nation by the decade's end.30

FROM GENTLEMEN'S COLLEGE TO RESEARCH UNIVERSITY: BUILDING A CENTRAL ROLE FOR MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE AT PRINCETON

After more than a hundredyears as a provincial college for gentleman,Princeton took an importantstep toward becoming a researchuniversity in 1905 when university president Woodrow Wilson-hoping to improve undergraduateeducation by providing opportunities for closely supervised study-instituted the preceptorialsystem. Conceived on the Oxbridge model, this new arrangementallowed Wilson to bring a large collection of dynamic young scholars to his college; many of them would stay and work toward its expansion in the following decades. Wilson's interests, happily, converged with those of departmentleaders who were looking for ways to foster research and enhance the status not only of Princeton'sdepartments but of American science more generally. Shortly after Wilson became Princeton's president in 1903, his longtime friend, the mathematicianHenry BurchardFine, was named dean of the faculty. Fine, like most of his colleagues on the faculty, had been at Princetonsince his undergraduatedays. He did make two brief visits to Germany,one to study for his Ph.D. with Felix Klein in Leipzig in 1884/1885, the other to work with Leopold Kroneckerin Berlin in the summerof 1891. These sojourns in the "main currentof mathematics"in Europe stirredFine, as similar experiences did so many other American scientists of his generation,not only to pursue researchhimself but to try to enhance opportunitiesfor the study and practice of science in domestic institutions.3' Wilson's planned expansion of the faculty gave Fine the chance to influence decisively the characterof the physics, astronomy, chemistry, and biology departments,as well as his own Departmentof Mathematics.Among the men he helped to secure in permanent

30During the 1920s, majordevelopment campaigns at a numberof other researchuniversities-including the University of Chicago and HarvardUniversity, which together with Princetonformed the "Big Three"departments of American mathematics and served as the core for its research talent-also enhanced resources for mathematics.On the "Big Three" see Parshalland Rowe, Emergence of the AmericanMathematical Research Community,p. 435. 31 Oswald Veblen, "HenryBurchard Fine-In Memoriam,"Bull. Amer. Math. Soc., 1929, 35:726-730, on p. 727. Wilson, the first non-clergymanto hold the office, resigned the Princeton presidency in 1910 to become governor of New Jersey. Fine continued as dean of the faculty but also carriedprimary administrative respon- sibilities for the university during the next two years, until the next presidentwas appointed.At that time Fine was named dean of the departmentsof science, a position he held until his accidental death in 1928. On Princeton's rise to prominence as a researchuniversity see Geiger, To Advance Knowledge (cit. n. 2), pp. 74, 200-203; on Americanmathematicians abroad see Parshalland Rowe, Emergenceof the AmericanMathematical Research Community,pp. 189-259. 488 OSWALD VEBLEN AND THE CAPITALIZATIONOF AMERICANMATHEMATICS posts were the astronomerHenry Norris Russell, the physicist Owen Richardson,the bi- ologist Edwin Conklin, and the mathematiciansLuther Eisenhart and Oswald Veblen. Nearly as important-at least for mathematics-was the large number of promising younger scholars and distinguishedforeigners who passed throughPrinceton's department for shorterperiods. These short appointmentsforeshadowed in their impact the postdoc- toral fellowships and internationalexchanges that would characterizethe expansion of American science during the 1920s and 1930s by bringing both talented young men and established European mathematiciansinto contact with Fine's permanentgroup. These visitors helped to disseminatethe influence of the Princetongroup throughout the country, while at the same time helping to maintainits own high level of energy for many years.32

"THE VALUE OF PURE SCIENCE RESEARCH"

In 1925, to supportthe expansion of Princeton's faculty and an ambitiousbuilding plan, PresidentJohn GrierHibben launched the university on an open-endedcampaign to raise an endowment of $20 million.33Princeton's progress-mindedscientists made sure that supportfor scientific researchwas one importantgoal; specifically, they sought $3 million to financeresearch professorships and the constructionof new facilities, including a building to house the mathematicsdepartment and the mathematicsand physics library.The exact parametersof the campaign's goals and its rhetoricwere determinedby the depart- mental leaders who worked on its behalf, including Fine, Eisenhart,and Veblen. The network of connections and the expertise in negotiation that Princeton's scientists had developed throughtheir involvement in wartime researchand national organizations guided them to put quickly in motion an ambitiousappeal to the GeneralEducation Board of the Rockefeller Foundation.Mathematics figured prominentlyfrom the start of their solicitations. The establishmentof a mathematicalresearch institute was among the very first projects for which Princetonsought support.Such an institutewas of special interest to Oswald Veblen. He began seeking funding for his idea in early 1924, following his successful lobbying the previous autumn to add mathematicsto the fields supportedby the NRC postgraduatefellowships. In letters to Simon Flexner of the RockefellerInstitute and Vernon Kellogg of the National Research Council, Veblen outlined both the reasons underlyingwhat he perceived as the compelling need of American mathematicsfor such an institute and the general structurehe thought it should take. He argued that while mathematicianswere hired by universities on the basis of their researchabilities, most of their efforts once appointedwere of necessity focused on teaching-largely elementaryin nature-rather than research.

He [the chosen mathematician]was preferredto other men, when appointed,because of his scientific distinction. But just because he has a sense of responsibility and reacts in a normal way to his environment,it is only a small fraction of his energy that goes into research.The university authoritiesnever know the difference and give him his rightful share of respect as a loyal member of the community. So we have arrivedat the stage where we recognize ability in scientific researchas a basis for university appointmentsbut not as a primaryoccupation for the appointees.This statement is not strictly true in sciences like physics and chemistry, for the universitieswhich have great laboratoriesusually recognize the absurdityof maintainingsuch plants without a respectable

32 Veblen, "Fine-In Memoriam,"p. 729. 33 Kohler, Partners in Science (cit. n. 2), pp. 210-211. LORENBUTLER FEFFER 489 outputof research.It is brilliantlyuntrue in astronomy.But in mathematicsit is truealmost withoutan exception.34 American mathematicians,according to Veblen, were still strugglingwith the problem that scientists in Americancolleges had faced since they began trying in earnestto pursue research in the late nineteenth century: too much teaching, too little time for scientific work. An institutedevoted solely to mathematicalinvestigations could remedythis, at least for a few fortunatemathematical workers; it was a naturalstep to follow the establishment of postdoctoralfellowships in mathematics,as it would provide opportunitiesfor developed scholarsto devote uninterruptedtime to research.The costs would be almost entirely limited to salaries, with only modest requirementsfor library materials,computing ma- chines, and support staff. In his request to Flexner, Veblen hastened to add that the appointees to such an institutecould be expected to "be provided with the equivalent of the routine work which is always present in laboratorysciences," in additionto theirpersonal researchprojects, and suggested that editing a mathematicaljournal and preparinga new mathematicalencyclopedia were potential endeavorsof this type.35 By the time Veblen had an opportunityto make a concrete proposal for his institute- first to PresidentHibben and later, on Princeton'sbehalf, in a preliminaryproposal to the GEB-his vision had shifted toward a focus on cooperative efforts between mathematicians, physicists, and astronomerson "the problems of the structureof matter."Veblen argued that Princeton, with its advanced program of research in analysis situs and the geometry of paths and establishedpatterns of cooperationbetween physicists and mathematicians, was uniquely suited for the establishmentof an institute devoted to "attacking physical problems from a mathematicalbase." He also emphasized that a programsuch as he suggested would be greatly preferableto the endowmentof researchprofessorships: it would enable mathematiciansat all stages of their careersto benefit from the ample time for research, whereas he worried that researchprofessorships would tend to be given to men "who would often have passed the most active stage of research."36Many of Veblen's suggestions were ultimately put into practice with the establishmentof the Institute for Advanced Study some years later, but the rhetorical strategies he used to try to sell the instituteto the Princetonadministration and then to the GEB were soon woven into campaign literaturesoliciting funds to supportPrinceton's mathematics department. The final proposal Princetonsubmitted to the GEB included no provision for a mathematical institute or for "coordinatedresearch" into broad problems supposedly amenable to multidisciplinaryinvestigation. Instead, it includedrequests-Veblen's reservationsap- parently ignored-for the support of endowed professorshipsin several naturalscience departments,visiting professorships,graduate fellowships, and the constructionof a mathematics building. Princeton initially sought more than $3 million from the GEB. The ultimate commitment was for $1 million, contingent on Princeton raising the remainder from other sources.37

34 Veblen to Simon Flexner, 23 Feb. 1924, Faculty Files: Oswald Veblen, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton,New Jersey; and Veblen to Vernon Kellogg, 10 June 1924, Veblen Papers, Box 29. 35 Veblen to Simon Flexner, 23 Feb. 1924. By the time Veblen made his appeal to Kellogg, this suggestion had been dropped.Such an encyclopedia, if it had followed Europeanexemplars such as the Encyclopddieder mathematischenWissenschaften, would have been a significantresearch contribution. 36 "Institutefor MathematicalResearch at Princeton,"n.d., Veblen Papers, Box 29; and Veblen to John Grier Hibben, n.d. [1924], Veblen Papers, Box 29. 37 Kohler, Partners in Science (cit. n. 2), pp. 209-212. Kohler recounts how Princeton's "scientific entrepre- neurs"from three naturalscience departmentsput together a proposal that was at once sensitive to the GEB's interest in "cooperativeresearch and coordinationof disciplines" and also respectful of traditionaldisciplinary boundaries.Veblen's rhetoricis clearly consonant with this approach. 490 OSWALD VEBLEN AND THE CAPITALIZATIONOF AMERICANMATHEMATICS

While Princeton'sloyal graduateswere proving themselves in the postwardecade to be remarkablygenerous towardtheir alma mater,solicitation of funds from this group for the specific support of scientific and mathematicalresearch required a bit of explanation. Princeton's primarymission had always been the effective education of young men from a certain class. This was not changing in the 1920s; the percentage of private school graduatesin Princeton's classes climbed as high as 90 percent throughthe decade. Pro- fessional schools, appearingon campuses throughoutthe Ivy League early in the century, were explicitly eschewed by Princeton-an especially clear sign that Princetoniansbe- lieved that education should remain something other than primarily utilitarian.38Even graduatetraining in the sciences and humanitiesacquired a unique characterat Princeton with the establishmentduring Wilson's tenure(though against his judgment) of a residen- tial quadrangleexpressly for graduatestudents, similar to but removed from the rest of the campus;proponents argued that graduatestudents would be enrichedby the collegiate- like experience.39 Given this perception of the role of their alma mater, Princeton alumni were unlikely to be very receptive to appeals for the supportof scientific researchgrounded in claims of its practicality or its importance for the continuing technological success of American industry-rhetoric that was the hallmarkof financial appeals by scientists throughoutthe postwar decade. Instead, the campaign propagandafor the Princeton Fund emphasized anotheraspect of "the value of pure science research."A pamphlet with that title began its pitch by stating, "The three great functions of a university are to trainyoung people in the art of living, to guide them in the search for truthand actually to engage in the pursuit of truth."40While some referencesto the practicalcontributions of science occur throughout the campaign literature,the appeals mostly reiterateolder, more traditionalcultural argumentsfor the pursuitof science and mathematicswithin the university. Both laboratorywork and the study of mathematicswere felt by late Victorianeducators in America to be importantaids in the propermoral developmentof young minds.41 Both, in different ways, taught mental discipline and encouragedthe virtuous habit of seeking truth. The virtues inculcated through the practice of science became identifying charac- teristics of scientists themselves, and the image of scientists as sober, hardworkingseekers after truthpersisted even after alternativeswere presented.While depictions of Einstein as an etherealgenius, only tenuously connected to everyday humanconcerns as he chased after the most fundamentaltheories of nature,fascinated the Americanpublic in the early 1920s, Sinclair Lewis's widely read Arrowsmith(published in 1925) reinforcedthe older image of scientists. Princeton'scampaign propaganda evoked both of these culturalviews of science to coax its alumni into the supportof scientific research. The appeals for the campaign stressed two points: that contact with scientists engaged

38 Geiger, To Advance Knowledge (cit. n. 2), p. 136 (private school representation).These sentiments also helped to make expansion of the undergraduateengineering programat Princeton during this decade difficult, although it was a high priorityfor Hibben. See Kohler, Partners in Science, p. 211. 39Geiger, To Advance Knowledge, p. 201. The struggle that accompanied the planning and constructionof Princeton'sgraduate quadrangle is chronicledin WillardThorp et al., The Princeton GraduateSchool: A History (Princeton,N.J.: PrincetonUniv. Press, 1978), pp. 103-151. 40 "The Value of Pure Science Research,"Princeton Fund pamphlet, 1928, Fundraising: 18th c. to 1920s, PrincetonUniversity Archives, Princeton,New Jersey. This pamphletwas based on an addressdelivered by Karl Compton at Lehigh University. 41 See David A. Hollinger, "Inquiryand Uplift: Late Nineteenth-CenturyAmerican Academics and the Moral Efficacy of Scientific Practice,"in The Authorityof Experts, ed. Thomas Haskell (Bloomington: IndianaUniv. Press, 1984), pp. 142-156. LOREN BUTLER FEFFER 491 in the pursuitof new scientific truthswould enrich the educationof young men by devel- oping their mental powers and arousing their creative curiosity, and that the particular truthspursued by Princeton's scientists should be those of pure science and should be as "fundamental"as possible. The firstline of argumentstrategically linked increasedsupport of science with the traditionalmission of the undergraduatecollege; the second helped to create for the alumni an image of a particularlyrefined style of science, ultimately con- tributingto practicaladvances but proximatelyconcerned only with expandingthe horizons of human knowledge. This style of science, much more than a science justified primarily by its utility, was exemplified by mathematicaland theoretical physics, a fact that was exploited by both the mathematicsand physics departmentsin their appeals for support. A pamphletproduced for the mathematicsdepartment illustrated the ideal dual role of Princeton'sscientific faculty. It assertedthat as every science progresses,it simultaneously yields more applicationsto everyday life and industry and becomes more mathematical. Therefore,it is "a fundamentalduty" of mathematicsdepartments "to provide the general student with such training and instructionas will enable him to have some grasp of the mathematicalaspects of our civilization." But emphasis in teaching must be placed upon "understandingof the great concepts of mathematics,rather than skill in technique."In outlining the department'sofferings, the pamphlet described a course on "the theory of time and space,"intended for generalstudents, in some detail, tappinginto the vast reserves of popularinterest in relativitytheory and tying the activities of Princeton'smathematicians to this revolutionaryscientific episode.42 The discussion of the research programof the departmentbegan with an account of work in mathematicalphysics, then emphasizedthat "thephysical sciences are now at the beginning of a new era in which furtherprogress is dependenton the discovery and ex- ploitation of new mathematicalideas and methods" and likened the currentsituation to the era of the developmentof the Newtonian theory of gravitation,when "anycontribution to mathematicalphysics is likely to become important."Faint echoes of Veblen's research institute proposal can be heard in the assertion that this "spontaneous"development of interest in mathematicalphysics provides a special opportunityfor establishinga "school of applied mathematics."This theme is elaboratedin the pamphlet'sfinal section, entitled "Perpetuatinga Tradition,"which compared Princeton to the MathematicalInstitute at Gottingen. Gottingen, where Felix Klein had established a rich tradition of interactive training and research for mathematicians,physicists, chemists, and others, remained an exemplar for Veblen and the other Princetonmathematicians as they worked to create a similar institutionalhaven for cooperativeresearch.43 This well-crafted propagandaperhaps served a greaterrole in justifying the allocation of resources than in raising money. Mathematics and science at Princeton received re- markablesupport from a single benefactorwho -fortunately for the mathematicsdepartment-had a special, personal commitment to favor the wishes of Veblen and his colleagues. More than $2 million (the full amount requiredto match the GEB pledge) was donatedby Thomas Davies Jones, of Princeton'sclass of 1876, and his niece Gwethalyn, whose father, David Benton Jones (who died in 1923), had also been a member of the class of 1876. Both men served as trustees during the early years of the century, and it

42 "The Role of Mathematics,"Princeton Fund pamphlet,Fundraising: 18th c. to 1920s, PrincetonUniversity Archives. 43 Ibid. On the influence of Klein and his institute on Americanmathematics more generally see Parshalland Rowe, Emergence of the AmericanMathematical Research Community,pp. 253-254, 353-354. 492 OSWALD VEBLEN AND THE CAPITALIZATIONOF AMERICANMATHEMATICS was during Wilson's time at Princetonthat Thomas Jones and Henry Fine became close friends.While David showed an early interestin science-he was the Class of 1860 Fellow in ExperimentalScience in 1876/1877, studied at Leipzig for a short time, and received an A.M. in science from Princeton in 1879-Thomas Jones's strongest connection to science and mathematicsseemed to be his long-standingfriendship with Fine. The Joneses' gifts (which coincided with the fiftieth anniversaryof the brothers'graduation) included money designated for four research chairs in different science departments,support for professors' salaries, and full funding for the construction of the mathematicsbuilding. Among the researchchairs the Joneses fundedwere the HenryFine Professorshipof Math- ematics, endowed by Thomas and named-as was the prospectivemathematics building- after Fine's tragic death from a cycling accident in 1928, and the Thomas B. Jones Pro- fessorship in MathematicalPhysics, endowed by Gwethalyn for joint administrationby the mathematicsand physics departments.44 Veblen, who was named the first Henry Fine Professor of Mathematics,became inti- mately involved in the design and constructionof the new mathematicsbuilding (see Figure 3). Fine Hall in many ways made tangible Veblen's personal commitmentto facilitating interactionbetween mathematiciansand physicists. The site selected for the new building was directly adjacentto Palmer Physical Laboratory,and the two buildings were joined by a connectinghallway. Along with this proximityto the labs, numerousdetails throughout the building, from its decorations-which included formulasof Newton, Einstein, and Heisenberg in the stained glass windows (see Figure 4) and a quotation from Einstein carved into a mantle-to its tea room, displayed Veblen's concern for enhancing com- municationbetween the disciplines. The daily teas, said to have originatedover a Bunsen burnerin Veblen's office in Palmer, were attendedby membersof both departmentsand evidently were intendedto providea convenientforum for informalcontact. In an interview soon after the building was occupied, Veblen explained, "This increase of the solidarity of the mathematicalgroup and its closer relationshipto the physics group was definitely in mind in the planning of the common room."45 This new intimacy between Princeton's mathematiciansand physicists suited Veblen well, as he continued to be deeply interested in pursuing research on the geometrical aspects of general relativity theory. But while Veblen was widely recognized as a skilled geometer, his work on relativity failed to interest many other researchers,particularly physicists. The linkage of mathematicsto physics proved to be relatively short lived as a major focus of the Princetonmathematical community. Thanks to the generous resources securedby the efforts of Veblen and his colleagues, Princeton'smathematicians were free

44Veblen, "Fine-In Memoriam"(cit. n. 31), p. 729. The Jones family had previously donated funds to the physics and electricalengineering departments and subsequentto this campaigngave additionalmoney for faculty salaries. While the size of the Jones gift was extraordinary,that the Princetonmathematics department benefited so much from the generosity of a single, malleabledonor with personalcontacts at the universitywas not unusual in the fundraisingclimate of the times. For example, fundraisingat the University of Chicago during the same period was shapedto a great extent by the personalcharisma of Max Mason, who was presidentof the university for a short time, and by the connections and commitment of several key trustees, including Harold Swift and Julius Rosenwald. The mathematicsbuilding erected at Chicago during the late 1920s was financed by gifts of $250,000 each from Rosenwald and BernardEckhart, another local industrialist.See Loren J. Butler, "Mathe- matical Physics and the AmericanMathematics Community: Disciplinary Values, ProfessionalInterests, and the Place of BorderlandResearch-1880-1940" (Ph.D. diss., Univ. Chicago, 1992), pp. 188-194. 45Princeton Alumni Weekly,30 Oct. 1931, p. 1, clipping, Fundraising:18th c. to 1920s, PrincetonUniversity Archives. LOREN BUTLER FEFFER 493

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to pursue all sorts of research;for them, as for the majorityof their Americancolleagues, most often that was researchin pure mathematics,not mathematicalphysics.46 The Princeton mathematicsdepartment was furtherenriched after 1933 by the establishment-with Veblen's guidance-of the privatelyfunded Institutefor Advanced Study. For most of the 1930s, the institute faculty in the School of Mathematicsand its visitors shared Fine Hall with Princeton's mathematicsdepartment. Veblen assumed one of the first institute professorships, further cementing close ties between the institute-which would have no studentsof its own-and the mathematicsdepartment. Along with Veblen, the institute's first faculty members included James Alexander (anotherPrinceton mathematician), Albert Einstein, and John von Neumann. They were soon joined by Hermann Weyl and MarstonMorse and hosted many prominentvisitors throughthe decade. These first permanentinstitute members were selected in part to maintain a careful balance between mathematicsand (mathematical)physics, a balance that was strongly advocatedby

46On Princeton's importanceas a mathematicalcenter in the 1930s see Aspray, "Emergenceof Princeton" (cit. n. 5); and Parshall and Rowe, Emergence of the American MathematicalResearch Community,pp. 448- 449. Even in the relatively idyllic atmospherefor mathematicalphysics at Princeton,collaborative efforts continued to meet with various kinds of resistance. Most notable was the difficulty the departmentshad filling the joint chair Jones endowed for mathematicalphysics. Despite many offers made and prolonged discussions between the departments,the chair had no permanentoccupant until Eugene Wigner accepted the post in 1938. See Research Committee Minutes 1931-1938, Departmentof Physics Records, PrincetonUniversity Archives; and Butler, "MathematicalPhysics and the American MathematicsCommunity" (cit. n. 44), pp. 159-162. 494 OSWALD VEBLEN AND THE CAPITALIZATIONOF AMERICANMATHEMATICS

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CONCLUSIONS

Oswald Veblen's fundraisingand institution-buildingactivities helped ensure that the top mathematicalresearchers in the United States would be recognized and supportedby se- curinga place for mathematicsin the expansionof university-basedresearch science. These achievements in a few select departments-Chicago and Harvardas well as Princeton-

47 On the establishmentof the Institutefor Advanced Study see LauraPorter, "From Intellectual Sanctuary to Social Responsibility:The Founding of the Institutefor Advanced Study, 1930-1933" (Ph.D. diss., Princeton Univ., 1988). 48 On the migrationof Europeanmathematicians to the United States and the role of the Institutefor Advanced Study see Lipman Bers, "The EuropeanMathematicians' Migration to America,"in Centuryof Mathematicsin America, ed. Duren (cit. n. 5), pp. 231-243; and NathanReingold, "RefugeeMathematicians in the United States of America, 1933-1941: Reception and Reaction,"Annals of Science, 1981, 38:313-338. 49 This essay has tracedVeblen's efforts to ensure that mathematicswould join physics and chemistryas they sought to distinguish themselves from other university-baseddisciplines by seeking generous new levels of financialsupport for theirresearch activities. Mathematicianshad otherreasons to seek alliances with the sciences in the first four decades of this century, as educational reformersperiodically came to question the place of mathematicsin secondary and collegiate curricula.Some of these challenges came from proponentsof engineering education, while others were aligned with general educational movements of the day. The concern stemming from the latter set of challenges was that mathematicshad to be demonstratedto be essential to the modern trainingof scientists and engineers, ratherthan merely an outdated adjunctto the classical curriculum (itself out of favor). Advocates for engineering education, on the other hand, suggested that mathematicalde- partmentsdid not give courses suitable for young engineers. For some backgroundon these episodes, which merit furtherstudy, see Archibald,Semicentennial History of the AMS, pp. 77-78; E. B. Wilson, "Let Us Have Calculus Early," Bull. Amer. Math. Soc., 1913, 20:30-36; Earl Hedrick to William Cairns, 15 Nov. 1933, MathematicalAssociation of America Papers, Archive for the History of American Mathematics,68-4; Cairns to Arnold Dresden, 22 Nov. 1933, MathematicalAssociation of America Papers,67-4; and Dresden to W. Betz, 27 Jan. 1933, MathematicalAssociation of America Papers,67-4. 496 OSWALDVEBLEN AND THECAPITALIZATION OF AMERICAN MATHEMATICS appearto have had reverberationsthroughout the Americanmathematical community. The numberof Ph.D.'s awardedin mathematicsskyrocketed: almost as many doctors of mathematics graduatedin the decade after 1925 as had been producedin all the years prior.50 Although the majorityof them came from the handful of elite, research-orienteddepart- ments, few of these new mathematicianswere committed researchers:

not more than one-thirdof the persons taking doctor's degrees have made as substantialcon- tributions to research as would be evidenced by the publication of three or more research articles; and ... not more than one-fifth have really been consistently productivein their contributions.About 60 (or 5%) of the doctors are responsible for half of the published pages of research.... Contraryto the general opinion, America seems in recent years to be adding to the quantityof personnel,but not improvingthe average quality.

Furthermore,the growth of the mathematicalcommunity outpaced university employment opportunities,and the Depression seemed to leave young academic mathematiciansdis- proportionatelyunemployed.51 The practice of mathematicalresearch, then, remainedpri- marily an activity of a small fraction of the mathematicalcommunity. But outside the main sphere of interest of the AMS and elite researchdepartments like Princeton's,new kinds of mathematicalactivity were beginning to take hold in the United States. Activity in areas of applied mathematics,imbedded in the young aerospace and electronics industries,began to strengthenand draw practitioners.While many of the first mathematiciansin these fields were educated in Europe, young American-trainedmathe- maticians were also in their ranks. These mathematicianstook some care to distinguish their work on mathematicalapplications from mathematicalphysics as well as from pure mathematics.Here were mathematiciansdoing work with immediaterelevance and value to industry,and they saw the importanceof maintaininga separateidentity for their sort of mathematics.They saw mathematics as a set of tools to be applied to the "definite practicaldemands" of industry.52By speaking out to distinguishtheir activities from basic or "pure"mathematics, these industrialmathematicians were also distancing themselves from the kind of empty claims about the value of mathematicsto industrythat had been made during the AMS campaign. Applied mathematicianssought their own institutional support and organization,and existing mathematicsdepartments and institutions did little to stop-and often encour- aged-their move to independence.Shortly after World War II, stimulatedby the success

50R. G. D. Richardson,"The Ph.D. Degree and MathematicalResearch," Amer. Math. Mon., 1936, 43:199- 215, on p. 201. Richardsoncounted 621 Ph.D. degrees in mathematicsgranted by American institutionsfrom 1925 to 1934 and 664 from 1862 to 1924. One sixth of the mathematicsdegrees came from the University of Chicago, which awarded 101 mathematics doctorates from 1925 to 1934. Princeton produced a total of 48 mathematicsPh.D.'s, 22 of them from 1925 to 1934. 51 Ibid., pp. 211-212 (quotation),208. Richardsonnoted, however, "Withoutdoubt the unemploymentproblem for college teachers is aggravatedby the financial depression,but in main outlines it might have been foreseen by competent executives." For comparablefigures on the employment of physicists, who fared better than the mathematicians,see Spencer Weart, "The Physics Business in America, 1919-1940: A Statistical Reconnais- sance," in The Sciences in the American Context:New Perspectives, ed. Nathan Reingold (Washington,D.C.: Smithsonian,1979), pp. 295-358, on p. 310. 52 George Campbellto ThorntonFry, 25 Apr. 1930, Oswald Veblen Papers,Box 20. See also JohnL. Greenberg and Judith R. Goodstein, "TheodoreVon Karmanand the Arrival of Applied Mathematicsin the U.S., 1930- 1940" (CaliforniaInstitute of Technology HumanitiesWorking Paper 77, 1983), pp. 12-14. Proponentsof these two conceptions of applied mathematics-problem driven and engineeringoriented or fundamentaland physics oriented-were broughtinto dialogue with one anotherwhen the AMS consideredthe establishmentof an applied mathematicsjournal in the late 1920s. See Feffer, "MathematicalPhysics and the Planning of American Math- ematics" (cit. n. 12), pp. 79-8 1. LOREN BUTLER FEFFER 497 of wartimeprojects in appliedmathematics, American mathematics cleaved into two nearly distinct communities. One of these was the direct heir to the mathematicalresearch community founded in the early years of the century and situated within elite university departments.The other was born from the technological industriesof the interwaryears. In the end, the efforts of Veblen and his colleagues to secure a protectedplace for mathematics within the university-basedexpansion of science duringthe 1920s helped bring about that cleavage and insured that the mainstreamof American mathematicalresearch would not be divertedtoward industry or applications,but would remain free and "pure."