RBML’s collections in Math and Science trace back to two major gifts: Mathematician and Teachers College faculty member David Eugene Smith (1860-1944) bequeathed his collection of 13,000 volumes relating to the history of science and mathematics to RBML in 1931. In 1936, Smith’s friend and fellow bibliophile George Arthur Plimpton, presented his comprehensive collection relating to the history of education to Columbia. 

These materials range from the eleventh to the twentieth centuries, with a global geography range. The Smith collection has a particular strength in the Islamic world.

Some highlights include principal editions of Euclid and Newton (including volumes from Sir Isaac Newton’s personal library), manuscripts by Voltaire and Albert Einstein, as well as mathematical instruments such as sundials and astrolabes. The Plimpton collection, which includes the cuneiform tablet known as “Plimpton 322” further enhances our holdings in the history of science and mathematics. As a result of the Smith and Plimpton gifts, RBML’s holdings of canonical works in this subject area (outlined in Bern Dibner’s Heralds of Science (1955) and other bibliographies) are very strong.

Subject strengths include economics and public policy, the history of accounting, psychology, engineering, medicine and public health.