Mathematics & Statistics: History of Mathematics

Guide to research for advanced undergraduate, graduate students and mathematicians

Suggested Databases for Articles

MathSciNet
The major index to mathematical literature for articles, books, and edited book chapters. Covers literature back to the early 1800s. Mathematical Reviews (MR) from articles and books published since 1940. Bibliographic data from retro-digitized articles dates back to the early 1800s.

Mathematics Subject Classification (MSC) in MathSciNet
01 is used for History of mathematics and biography in MathSciNet. Use this tool for find history of mathematics for different geographic areas and centuries.

History of Science, Technology and Medicine
Covers topics on the role of scientific discovery in society and culture, as well as the historiography of scientific disciplines from prehistory to the present. Indexes journal articles, conference proceedings, books, dissertations, serials, maps and other related materials.
Web of Science
Indexes over 18,000 journals in all subjects (coverage back to 1900 for science and social science journals), as well as 80,000 books and more than 180K conference proceedings. Includes the popular "cited reference search" to identify papers which have cited a previously published work or author. Can also sort by "times cited" and find related articles based on commonly cited works.
America: History and Life
1895-present. International database for research on all periods of U.S. and Canadian history, including very recent years. Includes abstracts of journal articles and listings of books and dissertations. Over 1,800 journals are indexed.
Historical Abstracts
1863-present. International database for research on history of all regions (except the U.S. and Canada) from 1450 to the current decade. Content includes
indexing of historical articles from more than 2,300 journals in over 40 languages.

Search for mathematician or mathematics in these databases, or search for a specific person.

Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
The biographical resource on deceased scientists, mathematicians, engineers and inventors. Lengthy in-depth entries with useful bibliographies of secondary and primary sources. All periods of science from classical antiquity to modern era are represented.

Biography Reference Bank
Includes in-depth, original profiles, thorough periodicals coverage, full-text articles, page images, and abstracts (including biographical profiles, feature articles, interviews, essays, book reviews, performance reviews, speeches, or obituaries).
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Illustrated collection of 50,000 biographies of men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past (including former colonies) from 4th century BC to 2000. Also includes Archive of original Dictionary of National Biography and supplements (1885-1970).