About us
The British Society for the History of Mathematics:
- promotes and encourages research into the history of mathematics and the dissemination of the results of that research;
- develops awareness of the history of mathematics for the public benefit; and
- supports teachers and lecturers at all levels of mathematics education to incorporate the history of mathematics into their teaching, enriching their students’ experience.
The BSHM is a friendly, welcoming society and is open to all with an interest in the history of mathematics. The membership of the BSHM includes people from many backgrounds: researchers, teachers from primary level to university, students of the history of mathematics or science, and those who have a general interest in cultural history. About a third of the membership is from outside the UK.
See below for information about our logo.
Donating
The BSHM is a registered charity in the UK. We receive no funding other than through membership fees and charitable donations. If you would like to support the work of the BSHM, please use the Paypal button on this page. You may also wish to join the Society.
People
The Council of BSHM is elected at the AGM to serve for the whole of the following calendar year. The Council for 2026 is as follows:
- President: Christopher Hollings
- Vice President: Deborah Kent
- Secretary: Patrick J. Burchell
- Treasurer: David Wilkinson
- Membership Secretary: Tony Mann
- Communications Officer: Dorothy Leddy
- Meetings Co-ordinator: Brigitte Stenhouse
- Education Officer: Ciarán Mac an Bhaird
- Web Administrator: Meg Briers
- Elected (ordinary) Council Members: Tom Briggs, Clare Moriarty, Raffaele Pisano
The Journal Editor is Isobel Falconer, who is not a member of Council.
Where Our Members Are
The maps on this page show the geographical distribution of BSHM membership, as of June 2023:
History of the BSHM
The British Society for the History of Mathematics exists:
- to promote and encourage research in the history of mathematics and the dissemination of the results of such research;
- to promote and develop for the public benefit, awareness, knowledge, study and teaching of the history of mathematics;
- to promote the use of the history of mathematics at all levels in mathematics education in order to enhance the teaching of mathematics for the public benefit.
It was founded in 1971, and has built an international reputation for promoting historical studies of mathematics. It is run by an elected Council, whose officers have included many distinguished scholars. Today the Society organises meetings, publishes a Journal, and provides a focus for the dissemination of information about research and other activities involving the history of mathematics in schools, colleges, universities and elsewhere. It also awards the BSHM Neumann Prize for a book dealing with the history of mathematics. The Society is a member of the Joint Mathematical Council of the United Kingdom.
This article, building on a piece originally written in 2013 for the European Mathematical Society’s Newsletter, outlines the 50-year history of the British Society for the History of Mathematics. The article was by Professors Robin Wilson, former BSHM President, and Raymond Flood, a former BSHM President and Treasurer.
Past Presidents of the BSHM
1971–1973: Gerald Whitrow
1974–1976: Clive Kilmister
1977–1979: John Dubbey
1980–1982: Graham Flegg
1983–1985: Frank Smithies
1986–1988: Ivor Grattan-Guinness
1989–1991: Eric Aiton
1992–1994: John Fauvel
1995–1996: Steve Russ
1997–1999: J V Field
2000–2002: Peter Neumann
2003–2005: June Barrow-Green
2006–2008: Raymond Flood
2009–2011: Tony Mann
2012–2014: Robin Wilson
2015–2017: Philip Beeley
2018–2020: Mark McCartney
2021–2023: Sarah Hart
Our Logo
The BSHM logo derives from the proof of the Pythagorean theorem given by Oliver Byrne in his 1847 edition of Euclid: The First Six Books of The Elements of Euclid in which Coloured Diagrams and Symbols are Used instead of Letters for the Greater Ease of Learning. An original copy of Byrne’s Euclid is in the BSHM Fauvel Collection held in the Open University Library, Milton Keynes, UK. A digital edition of Byrne’s Euclid can be found here. The Pythagorean theorem is on pages 48–49.
The BSHM-Gresham College Lectures
Since 2000 the BSHM has co-organised a prestigious annual lecture with Gresham College, London. Previous BSHM-Gresham College Lecturers include many distinguished historians of mathematics; the full list is given below. The BSHM-Gresham Lecture is traditionally preceded by a reception at which Rhenish wine and macaroons are served, in honour of the refreshments served to the Royal Society on its return to Gresham College in 1673 after the disruption of the Great Fire of London.
Since 2012, the BSHM-Gresham Lecture has been preceded by an afternoon of talks on a wider theme relating to the main lecture.
A list of talks, many with recordings and transcripts, can be found on the Gresham website.
18 October 2023: Deborah Kent (St Andrews) 19th-Century Eclipse Expeditions. [Part of an afternoon of lectures on Astronomy and the Forging of Mathematical Communities].
19 October 2022: Agathe Keller (CNRS/Université Paris Cité) Let?s Decolonise the History of Mathematical proofs! [Part of an afternoon of lectures on Ideas of Proofs in Mathematics].
20 October 2021: Karine Chemla (CNRS-SPHERE/Université Paris Cité) Histories of Numbers. [Part of an afternoon of lectures on Non Western Mathematics: Numbers in Different Languages and Cultures].
21 October 2020: D’Maris Coffman (University College London) Reserve currencies in the era of fiat money. [Part of an afternoon of lectures on Maths and Money: from Gold to Bitcoin].
23 October 2019: Ana Simões (University of Lisbon) A Global History of the Eclipse of 29 May 1919. [Part of an afternoon of lectures on Mathematical Expeditions].
24 October 2018: David Aubin (Sorbonne Université) Science Leaders under Fire: Stories about Mathematicians Killed in World War I [Part of an afternoon of lectures on Mathematics in War and Peace]
25 October 2017: Robin Wilson (Oxford University) Pi and e: the Most Beautiful Theorem in Mathematics [Part of an afternoon of lectures on Mathematical constants and their beautiful relationships]
27 October 2016: Jan van Maanen (Utrecht University) Leibniz (1646-1716) and the Curve of Quickest Descent [Part of an afternoon of lectures on Curves in Honour of Leibniz’s Tercentenary]
29 October 2015: Ursula Martin (University of Oxford) The Scientific Life of Ada Lovelace [Part of an afternoon of lectures on Women in Mathematics: the Bicentennary of Ada Lovelace]
30 October 2014: Eileen Magnello (University College London) Karl Pearson’s Gresham Lectures on Geometry (1890-1894) [Part of an afternoon of lectures on The History of Statistics]
31 October 2013: Doron Swade (University of London) A grand narrative of the history of computing [Part of an afternoon of lectures on A History of Computing in Three Parts]
31 October 2012: Raymond Flood (Oxford University) James Clerk Maxwell [Part of an afternoon of lectures on 19th-century Mathematical Physics]
3 November 2011: Peter Neumann (Oxford University) The memoirs and legacy of Évariste Galois
4 November 2010: Patricia Fara (Cambridge University) Triangular relationships
2 November 2009: Jeremy Gray (Open University) Mathematics, motion and truth: The earth goes round the sun
27 November 2008: Jim Bennett (Museum for the History of Science, Oxford) Mathematics and the Medici: Instruments from late Renaissance Florence and a British connection
15 November 2007: June Barrow-Green (Open University) Planes and pacifism: Activities and attitudes of British mathematicians during WW1
9 November 2006: Martin Campbell-Kelly (University of Warwick) From World Brain to World Wide Web
3 November 2005: Stephen Johnston (Museum for the History of Science, Oxford) History from below: Mathematics, instruments and archaeology
10 February 2005: Allan Chapman (Oxford University) The celestial geometry of John Flamsteed: Mapping the heavens from 17th-century Greenwich
19 January 2004: Adrian Rice (Randolph-Macon College, Virginia, USA) Mathematics in the Metropolis: A survey of Victorian London
24 September 2002: Karen Parshall (University of Virginia, USA) A Jew in Victorian England: The mathematician James Joseph Sylvester (1814-1897)
31 October 2001: Jackie Stedall (Oxford University) The incommunicable Doctor Pell
18 October 2000: Robin Wilson (Open University) The Gresham Professors of Geometry
Accessibility and Diversity
The Accessibility & Diversity Working Group (ADWG) was formed following a resolution at BSHM Council on 25th March 2021, and aimed to make the BSHM more accessible and diverse.
The BSHM’s approach to Accessibility & Diversity is informed by the following Guiding Principles.
- Making the BSHM an open, welcoming space
- Proactively including and respecting people from all backgrounds
- Welcoming work which challenges a solely white, male, Eurocentric model of mathematics
- Engaging openly with problematic legacies in the history of mathematics
- Challenging inappropriate behaviour or actions
- Embedding accessibility and considering diversity in all our activities
- Acknowledging the need for individualised and inclusive approaches to events and publications
While this working group is now long active, it is expected that the guiding principles developed remain abided to at events associated with the BSHM.
Guidline Introduction
This document, written by the Accessibility & Diversity Working Group, is intended as a set of guidelines for BSHM members who wish to improve the accessibility and diversity of their actions. It is recommended that these be followed when acting in some capacity affiliated with the society. Please note that nothing here is mandatory or static. We welcome feedback on the helpfulness of these guidelines and suggestions for improvements; please contact our secretary, Patrick Burchell.
BSHM Events
When organising a BSHM event, or contributing a BSHM component to an event, please try to:
- Consider potential accessibility and diversity requirements when conducting a risk assessment.
- Consider factors like time zones, working patterns, attendance costs, and caring commitments of likely participants when scheduling events.
- Seek the use of accessible venues for in-person events: ramps, induction loops, level of background activity, ease of finding, noise.
- Ask attendees for accessibility and dietary requirements.
- Actively seek a good balance across gender, ethnicity, and age of contributors (speakers, chairs, etc) at events.
- Ask presenters to explain in words any purely visual aspects and illustrate any purely spoken aspects, for understandability through sight or sound alone.
- Take measures like enabling automatic transcription (closed captions) for online events or recordings.
- Include participants from oppressed groups, where relevant and appropriate.
- Acknowledge problematic / complex aspects of the history involved, even if not qualified or able to address them in detail.
For example:
- Consider the other activities of mathematicians,
- Investigate the applications of the mathematics,
- Look into sources of money that supported mathematics.
BSHM Publications
When writing for, editing, or refereeing a BSHM publication please try to:
- Acknowledge problematic / complex aspects of the history involved, even if not qualified or able to address them in detail, including guidance for referees.
- For work that covers oppression seek participation from oppressed groups or reference material produced by them.
- Consider implications of themed publications / collections, for example in an editorial, or soliciting an additional contribution if some areas are not covered.
When representing the BSHM
In activities supported by or associated with the BSHM, or when using the name of the BSHM in communications, please try to:
- Be kind,
- Be considerate and respectful of diverse perspectives,
- Take care when commenting on potentially controversial issues,
- Actively seek marginalised voices,
- Listen and learn from others, including oppressed groups.