George Albert Wentworth

Background

George Albert Wentworth was born at Wakefield, N. H. , the son of Edmund and Eliza (Lang) Wentworth and a descendant of William Wentworth who emigrated from England in 1636 and signed the "Exeter Combination" three years later.

Education

After beginning his education in a district school and the Wakefield Academy, he entered Phillips Exeter Academy in 1852. He remained there for three years, working his way in part but financially assisted by his uncle, Benjamin Lang. In 1855 he entered Harvard College as a sophomore, paying part of his expenses in the next three years by teaching in the neighborhood. Just before graduating in 1858, he was recommended by President James Walker for an instructorship at Phillips Exeter. He was well trained in Latin and Greek, and it was in this field that he began his teaching.

Career

In 1859 he was assigned to the department of mathematics, but for sometime he continued his teaching of the classics and even gave instruction in other branches. For more than thirty years he was at the head of the mathematics department at Exeter, resigning his position in 1891 to devote his full time to the writing of textbooks. For two years, 1883-84 and 1889-90, he was acting principal of the academy and in 1899 was elected a trustee. During his later years he was afflicted with heart trouble and spent considerable time at Bad Nauheim in Germany in search of relief. He died of a heart attack in the railway station at Dover, N. H. He was an outstanding pupil in his early days at Exeter, being commonly known as "the General, " and as a teacher of unusual vigor and dominating power he was a recognized leader, known to the boys as "Bull Wentworth. " A multitude of stories and traditions grew up around his name, to be interpreted according to the hearers' own ideals of personality and education. Ignoring all rules of the professional educator, he would often seem to be reading a newspaper while a recitation was in progress but infallibly detected every error in a boy's statement. He coddled no one; he put every boy on his own resources; but his seemingly rough exterior covered a warm heart. His textbooks included his Elements of Geometry (1878, with numerous later editions), Elements of Algebra (1881), Practical Arithmetic, with Thomas Hill (1881), College Algebra (1888), and works on trigonometry, surveying, and physics. Not including answer books and teachers' manuals, there were some fifty books copyrighted in his name as sole or joint author, most of them being revisions or elaborations of those mentioned. Of these, the geometry text, which later included both plane and solid geometry, was the most successful. It set a new standard of excellence in the United States and, indeed, abroad. To him, seconded by Edwin Ginn, his publisher, is largely due the unit page, the condensed step form, and the first notable improvement in America of textbook typography. As a usable geometry it stood supreme for many years. His algebras were noteworthy for the large amount of orderly drill. They were based upon the principles of formal discipline and of learning to do by doing. They furnished the material needed for drill, and they proved of great value to those who were preparing pupils for college entrance examinations. His Plane Trigonometry (1882) also marked an advance in scholarship in the secondary school and still more in classroom usability.

Achievements

• His College Algebra, partly the work of Frank N. Cole, had a great influence for many years on freshman mathematics. Altogether, the schools of the United States owe him much for books that contained a worthy type of mathematics and were at the same time adapted to the needs of the class of schools then dominating the field.

Works

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  • An Elementary Arithmetic

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Elements of Algebra

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Machine-shop Mathematics

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Fundamentals of practical mathematics

    (Fundamentals of practical mathematics. 220 Pages.)

  • A text-book of geometry

  • book

Connections

He was married on August 2, 1864, to Emily Johnson Hatch of Covington, Ky. , who died on May 1, 1895. He had two sons and a daughter.

Father:

Edmund Wentworth

Mother:

Eliza (Lang) Wentworth

Spouse:

Emily Johnson Hatch