Karpinski, Louis-Charles 1878-1956

Professor of mathematics at University of Michigan.

Louis C. Karpinski was Professor of Mathematics at the University of Michigan and a cartographic specialist who published numerous books both in the fields of mathematics and cartography. One of his important projects was to go to Europe and select unpublished manuscript maps relating to the history of America before 1800 from archives in France, Spain, and Portugal. These maps, which were difficult to obtain in the United States, were reproduced in large clear facsimile form to make them available for scholarly research here. His project was sponsored jointly by the Clements Library, Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Ayers Collection of the Newberry Library and the Huntington Library. Each institution was to receive a collection of fascimiles of the maps he selected and a copy of his inventory.

Mathematician.

Cornell University Class of 1901.

Biography

Louis C. Karpinski (1878-1956) was Professor of Mathematics at the University of Michigan and a cartographic specialist who published numerous books both in the fields of mathematics and cartography. One of his important projects was to go to Europe and select unpublished manuscript maps relating to the history of America before 1800 from archives in France, Spain, and Portugal. These maps, which were difficult to obtain in the United States, were reproduced in large clear facsimile form to make them available for scholarly research here. His project was sponsored jointly by the Clements Library, Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Ayers Collection of the Newberry Library and the Huntington Library. Each institution was to receive a collection of fascimiles of the maps he selected and a copy of his inventory.

Dr. Karpinski organized the maps by archive and listed them according to their original identification numbers. A copy of this inventory, which has now been annotated with the Huntington Library's numbering system, is available in the Manuscripts Reference Room (fZ 6023 K3).

The collection has been kept in Karpinski's original sequence, but is numbered and indexed for ease of access. A short title index of the collection, tabulated to show the information given as to author, title, date, and map area, accompanies this report. A few of the maps listed by Dr. Karpinski were not in the collection (the entries have been kept in the short title index to preserve the reference, but marked "not found"); other maps were in the collection but not on Dr. Karpinski's list. Following the short title index is an alphabetical index of authors and subjects.

Dr. Louis Charles Karpinski was born August 5, 1878 in Rochester, N.Y. He received his bachelor's degree in 1901 from Cornell University and was awarded a PhD degree by the University of Strasbourg, Germany in 1903.

He taught at Berea College, Kentucky, from 1897 to 1899 and at Oswego Normal College, 1903-04. He was in charge of the mathematics department at the Chautauquan Institute, Chautauqua, N.Y., from 1905 to 1907. He was a teachers' college fellow and university extension lecturer at Columbia University in 1909-10.

Dr. Karpinski became instructor of mathematics at the University of Michigan in 1904, assistant professor in 1914 and professor of mathematics in 1919, a post he held until his retirement, Aug. 5, 1948.

Dr. Karpinski was a member of the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America and the Historical Science Society. He was author of several books on mathematics, some of them in German. These include The History of Arithmetic and Unified Mathematics . He died in 1956.