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Guide to the George Pólya Papers
SC0337
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Table of contents
Call Number: SC0337
Creator:
Pólya, George, 1887-1985
Title: George Pólya papers
Dates: 1884-1985
Physical Description:
40 Linear feet
Summary: Papers relate to Pólya's research and teaching in mathematics and include professional and personal correspondence with mathematicians
worldwide, 1910-1984; course materials including lecture notes; mathematical research notebooks dating from 1917 to 1960;
manuscripts including those from his published works
Complex Variables,
How to Solve It,
Mathematical Discovery, and
Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning; ephemera; reprints; and photographs.
Language(s): The materials are in German.
Repository:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Stanford University Libraries
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6064
Email: speccollref@stanford.edu
Phone: (650) 725-1022
URL: http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/spc/spc.html
The materials in this collection were given to Stanford University by Mrs. George Pólya in 1986, 1987, and 1988, and by Gerald
L. Alexanderson, 1989-2009.
Materials in Subseries 8 of accession 1989-132 are restricted until January 1, 2039. Otherwise the collection is open for
research; materials must be requested at least 48 hours in advance of intended use.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.
[Identification of item], George Pólya Papers (SC0337). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford
University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Biographical/Historical Sketch
Hungarian mathematician George Pólya was educated at the University of Budapest and the University of Paris, and taught at
the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich from 1914 to 1940. His students included future Stanford physics professors
Felix Bloch and Hans Staub. In 1942 he joined Stanford's Department of Mathematics, whose chairman, Gábor Szegö, had been
a fellow student in Hungary. He continued to teach until his 90th birthday in 1977. Following early research on probability,
Pólya turned to the difficult area of the theory of functions of a complex variable. He was also interested in geometry and
geometrical methods. His study of symmetry in the plane was studied and applied by the Dutch artist M.C. Escher. Pólya's later
work on the principles of heuristics and problem solving is credited with providing a foundation for the application of computers
to artificial intelligence. In addition to his own research and teaching, Pólya was concerned with methods of teaching mathematics
and mathematics teachers. He is considered the father of the current trend toward emphasizing problem solving in mathematical
teaching. His very successful book
How to Solve It has been translated into fifteen languages and is still used widely. He died in 1985.
The papers in this collection relate to Pólya's research and teaching in mathematics and include professional and personal
correspondence with mathematicians worldwide, 1910-1984; course materials including lecture notes; mathematical research notebooks
dating from 1917 to 1960; manuscripts including those from his published works
Complex Variables,
How to Solve It,
Mathematical Discovery, and
Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning; ephemera; reprints; and photographs.
Alexanderson, Gerald L.
Beke, Manó, 1862-1946.
Bernays, Paul, 1888-.
Bieberbach, Ludwig, 1886-.
Bohr, Harold, 1887-1951.
Borel,Émile, 1871-1956.
Brentano, Franz Clemens, 1838-1917.
Carathéodory, Constantin, 1873-1950.
De Finetti, Bruno.
Edrei, Albert.
Fejér, Lipót.
Fekete, Mihaly, 1886-1957.
Frege, Gottlob, 1848-1925.
Haar, Alfréd, 1885-1933.
Hadamard, Jacques, 1865-1963.
Hadwiger, Hugo.
Harary, Frank.
Hardy, G.H. (Godfrey Harold), 1877-1947.
Hecke, Erich, 1887-1947.
Hensel, Kurt, 1861-1941.
Higgins, Thomas James.
Hilbert, David, 1862-1943.
Hille, Einar, 1894-.
Hirsch, Arthur, 1866-1948.
Hurwitz, Adolf, 1859-1919.
Jentzsch, Robert, 1890-.
Kamke, E. (Erich), 1890-1961.
Keszthelyi, Tibor, Dr.
Kiefer, Albert, 1884-.
Knuth, Donald Ervin, 1938-
Kollros, Louis, 1878-.
Landau, Edmund, 1877-1938.
Lehmer, D.H. (Derrick Henry), 1905-.
Littlewood, John E. (John Edensor), 1885-1977.
Mittag-Leffler, Magnus Gustaf, 1846-1927.
Montel, Paul, b.1876.
Nevanlinna, Rolf, 1895-1980
Norlund, Niels Erik, 1885-.
Ostrowski, A.M. (Alexander M.), 1893-.
Pfluger, Albert, 1907-.
Prather, Carl.
Pringsheim, Alfred, 1850-1941
Pólya, George, 1887-1985
Riesz, Frigyes, 1880-1956.
Runge, Carl, 1856-1927.
Schlesinger, Ludwig, b. 1864
Schoenberg, I.J.
Schur, Issai, 1875-1941.
Siegel, Carl Ludwig, 1896-.
Sierpiński, Wacław, 1882-1969.
Sommerfeld, Arnold, 1868-1951.
Stanford University. Dept. of Mathematics--Faculty.
Stern, Alfred.
Stáckel, Paul, 1862-1919.
Szegő, Gábor, 1895-1985.
Szász, Otto, 1884-1952.
Tietze, Heinrich, 1880-.
Toeplitz, Otto, 1881-1940.
von Pidoll, Max.
Weyl, Hermann, 1885-1955.
Wigner, Eugene Paul, 1902-1995
Wirtinger, Wilhelm, 1865-1945.
Young, Grace Chisolm.
Mathematics--Study and teaching.
Mathematics.