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A: Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Isaac Greenwood Issues the First American Textbook on Mathematics

1729
A page of the 1729 edition of Isaac Greenwood

A page of the 1729 edition of Isaac Greenwood's Arithmetick from the Beinicke Library, Yale University.

In 1729 Isaac Greenwood, first Hollisian Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard, anonymously published Arithmetick Vulgar and Decimal: with the Application Thereof, to a Variety of Cases in Trade, and Commerce.  The book was first issued by "T. Hancock at the Sign of the Bible and Three Crowns in Annstreet" in Boston. This was the first textbook on arithmetic written in English by a native American.  

The Hollisian Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy was the first professorship on a "profane" topic established at Harvard, which was then a theological college.  Unfortunately, Greenwood was an alcoholic, and was removed from his position in 1737 on the grounds of "intemperance."

When I checked in August 2019 no digital facsimile of the first edition was available.

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