Posting about women in mathematics, a reminder from Ada Lovelace Day...
From Algebraic Logic to Optics and Psychology
By hook and by crook Christine Ladd managed to attend graduate courses in mathematics at Johns Hopkins University despite the fact that the university was not open to women. Jacob describes how she managed to do that:
[T]he university first announced its fellowship program in 1876, and one of the first applications to arrive was one signed "C. Ladd." The credentials accompanying the application indicated such outstanding ability that a fellowship in mathematics was awarded to the applicant, site unseen, and was accepted. When it was discovered that the "C." stood for Christine, several embarrassed trustees argued she had used trickery to gain admission, and the board immediately moved to revoke the offer. They failed to reckon, however, with the irascible Professor James J. Sylvester, stellar member of the first faculty. In 1870 Sylvester had been named the world's greatest living mathematician by the Encyclopedia Britannica, and his presence at Hopkins was a real coup for the struggling university. He was indispensable and knew it, in an ideal position to insist on virtually anything he wanted; in this case, he had read Christine Ladd's articles in English mathematical journals, and he insisted upon receiving the obviously gifted young woman as his student. Miss Ladd was admitted as a full-time graduate student in the fall of 1878. Though she held a fellowship for three years, the trustees forbade that her name be printed in circulars with those of other fellows, for fear of setting a precedent. Dissension over her continued presence forced one of the original trustees to resign.
From http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/ladd.htm
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