Vera Sanford’s A Short History of Mathematics: A Mathematical Treasure – Sanford’s Life and Career

Vera Sanford was born on October 1, 1891, in Douglaston on Long Island in New York State to the Rev. Dr. Edgar Lewis Sanford (1864–1945) and Anna Eugenia Sanford (née Munson) (1865–1932).^[1] Her father was an Episcopal priest with a special interest in education, who at his retirement served as a canon of religious education at the Cathedral at Trenton, New Jersey [Living Church 1945].

Figure 2. Vera Sanford (1891–1971). The Oneontan [1955]. Used with permission from Milne Library, SUNY Oneonta.

Sanford had two younger sisters, Eva Matthews Sanford (1894–1954), who became a respected professor of classical and medieval history at Sweet Briar College, and Anna Munson Sanford (1899–1965). Sanford credited her sister Eva with providing many of the classical details for her textbook [Sanford 1930, p. vi].

Sanford grew up in Ogdensburg in St. Lawrence County, New York, where she attended public school. She later graduated from the St. Agnes School (now the Doane Stuart School) in Albany, New York. She was awarded a bachelor’s degree from Radcliffe College in 1915, a master’s degree in 1922 from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a doctorate in 1927 from Teachers College, Columbia University. Sanford’s doctoral advisor was the prominent mathematics educator and historian, David Eugene Smith (1860–1944).

After getting her bachelor’s degree in 1915, Sanford taught at various schools in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. From 1920 to 1929, she taught at the Lincoln School of Teachers College, Columbia University, after which she obtained a faculty position at Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University) in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1933, she started a faculty position at the Oneonta Normal School (now SUNY Oneonta), from which she retired in 1959. Vera Sanford passed away in Oneonta, New York, on December 28, 1971.

At SUNY Oneonta, Sanford taught courses in mathematics, mathematics education, and the history of mathematics. She served as chair of the department for many years, and she directed the teacher training program in mathematics. Sanford was nationally renowned for her contributions to mathematics education and the history of mathematics. Carey Brush notes that “her presence on the staff was an important factor in raising the scholarly reputation of the Oneonta Normal School” [Brush 1965, p. 175].

Sanford was also involved with mathematics education at the state level in New York. In the 1940s Sanford served on a committee appointed by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York to analyze and suggest revisions to a handbook for mathematics teachers in kindergarten through grade 6 that was first published in 1937. Sanford and Dr. Ben A. Sueltz, Cortland State Teachers College (now State University of New York at Cortland, or SUNY Cortland), made the revisions that resulted in the publication of a revised handbook, Mathematics for Boys and Girls: A Handbook for Teachers, in 1950 [Bureau of Curriculum Development 1950, pp. 5–6].

Over her career, Sanford authored or coauthored five books [Schorling and Sanford 1925; Sanford 1927; Sanford 1930; Stokes and Sanford 1935; Sanford and Woodring 1938]. She also published more than 30 articles and short biographies in The Mathematics Teacher, the journal of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Additionally, she translated several historical sources into English from French, German, Italian, and Latin for David Eugene Smith’s A Source Book in Mathematics [Smith 1929].