Webster Wells

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

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

Early life and career

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

Beginning in 1863, Wells studied at the West Newton English and Classical School (aka the Allen School) in West Newton, Massachusetts, and then attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated in 1873 with a Bachelor of Science degree. Wells taught mathematics at MIT, where he was successively instructor (1873–1880), assistant professor (1883), associate professor (1885), and full professor (1893–1911).

Personal life

Webster Wells married Emily Walker Langdon in Boston on June 21, 1876.

In Europe at the outbreak of World War I, Wells and his wife returned to Brookline on the refugee ship Principe di Undine.

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

Textbooks

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

Posthumous editions

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29L-812M : 10 November 2020), Thomas Wells, 4 Sep 1851; citing Birth, Roxbury, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 004240782.
  2. ↑ "Massachusetts State Census, 1855," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQ4W-6PH : 11 March 2018), Daniel W Wells in household of Thomas F Wells, Ward 04, Roxbury, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States; State Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 953,955.
  3. ↑ "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZHJ-WXR : 18 February 2021), Webster Wells in entry for T F Wells, 1860.
  4. ↑ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. XVII. James T. White & Company. 1920. p. 124. Retrieved January 1, 2021 – via Google Books.
  5. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH8C-CYS : 10 November 2020), Webster Wells, 21 Jun 1876; citing Marriage, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 004276926.
  6. ↑ Behnke, Arno (1914). "Refugees on Principe di Udine". The sailing of a refugee ship; a little record of the voyage of the Principe di Udine from Genoa to New York in August, nineteen fourteen, during the first days of the European conflict (PDF). New York: G. Schirmer, Inc. p. 78. Archived from the original on November 10, 2024. Retrieved November 9, 2024. Prof. and Mrs. Webster Wells, Brookline, Mass.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  7. ↑ "Death of Prof Wells". The Boston Globe. May 24, 1916. p. 10. Retrieved January 1, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.

Bibliography