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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Ger 232

Carl Friedrich Gauss family papers

Overview

Primarily correspondence among family members of the German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss.

Dates

  • Creation: 1845-1925

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in German and English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.

Extent

.2 linear feet (1 folder in 1 box)

Contains correspondence in manuscript and photostatic reproduction written in German and other letters translated into English among Carl Friedrich Gauss and his children, including his daughter Theresa, living in Göttingen, and his sons Eugene and Charles, who had moved to America in 1831. Letters chiefly concern family matters, as well as descriptions of a day-long festival celebrating Gauss's 50 years at the university (July 1849) and of his death in 1855. Also includes a genealogy of the Gauss family compiled by William Gauss in 1901, and newspaper and journal clippings about C. F. Gauss.

Biographical / Historical

Gauss was a German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

47M-288F. Deposited by Helen Worthington Gauss, 17 West Buena Ventura Street Colorado Springs, Colorado; received: 1947.

[Right of withdrawal of certain pieces retained by members of the Gauss family]

Processing Information

Shelved with MS Ger 233

Title
Gauss, Carl Friedrich, 1777-1855. Carl Friedrich Gauss family papers, 1845-1925: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou01656

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
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