Papers of Professor Henry Piaggio, Professor of Mathematics at University College Nottingham, 1900-1954

The collection comprises:

• Notebooks of Piaggio from his time as a student at Cambridge University containing hand-written notes relating to mathematics, astronomy, grammar etc., 1902-1907 (MS 621/1).
• Notebook containing notes made on works written by three other writers on mathematics, undated, after 1921 (MS 621/2).
• Loose manuscript mathematical notes made by Piaggio as well as notes made from works by other mathematicians, undated, c. 1913-1950 (MS 621/3).
• Correspondence, 1912-1949 (MS 621/4).
• Testimonials, 1908-1913 (MS 621/5).
• Off-prints of 'The Conformal Transformation' by H. Piaggio and M.N. Strain, 1947 (MS 621/1/6).
• Newspaper cuttings, undated c. 1936 (MS 621/7).
• Postcards, mostly of historic York, undated, c.1910 (MS 621/8).
• Off-prints of mathematical works by authors other than Piaggio, 1910-1954 (MS 621/9).
• Mathematics examination papers, 1900-1950 (MS 621/10).
• Student notebook of E.J.G. Titterington at Perse Grammar School, Cambridge, October 1901 (MS 621/11).

Henry Thomas Herbert Piaggio was born in 1884, and educated at the City of London School and St John's College Cambridge. He graduated from The University of London in 1905 and from Cambridge, with first-class honours in the second part of the Mathematical Tripos, in 1907. He undertook research for a year and spent a brief period as mathematics master at a school attached to Woolwich Polytechnic. In 1908 he joined University College Nottingham as Junior Lecturer in Mathematics. From 1919 until 1950 he was Professor of Mathematics at Nottingham. He is best known for his textbook An elementary treatise on differential equations and their applications published in 1920 and reprinted and revised many times. He retired on 30 September 1950 and died on 26 June 1967.

Piaggio achieved some distinction as a mathematician, particularly for his work on the algebra of invariants, relativity and the mathematics of psychology. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science of The University of London. He excelled in his teaching, and his students were unusually successful in the honours degree examination at that University, the route used by Nottingham students until the University of Nottingham acquired its University Charter in 1948. An obituary appears in the University of Nottingham Gazette (no 59, p 1289, Sept 1967).

The collection has been divided by document type into eleven series. Within these series, items have been arranged chronologically where possible.

ACCESS: Accessible to all registered readers.

REPROGRAPHIC: Reprographic copies can be supplied for educational use and private study purposes only, depending on access status and the condition of the documents.

This description is the only finding aid available for the collection. Copyright in the description belongs to The University of Nottingham.

COPYRIGHT: Permission to make published use of any material from this collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections (email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk). The Department will try to assist in identifying copyright owners but this can be difficult and the responsibility for copyright clearance before publication ultimately rests with the person wishing to publish.

LANGUAGE: English

The collection was acquired by The University of Nottingham's Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections in November 1991. A further accrual of six notebooks was received in October 2001.