AMS Presidents: A Timeline

7. Thomas Scott Fiske (1865-1944)

President, 1903-1904

Fiske founded the American Mathematical Society in 1888 to foster comradeship and communication among mathematicians. He had visited England where he witnessed a vibrant mathematical community, and upon his return home he called for the establishment of such a society in the United States: "It is proposed by some recent students of the graduate school of Columbia College to establish a mathematical society for the purpose of preserving, supplementing, and utilizing the results of their mathematical studies." It was Fiske's strong support that saw the Colloquium lecture series begin in 1896--and continue to this day.

• A Semicentennial History of the American Mathematical Society, 1888--1938 , by Raymond Clare Archibald (AMS, 1938), which contains CV, honors, bibliography, biographical notes and sources.
• The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
• Mathematics Genealogy Project
• Columbia University Archival Collections
• A Century of Mathematics in America, Part I, Edited by Peter Duren (American Mathematical Society, 1988), "Thomas S. Fiske and Charles S. Peirce," by C. Eisele, p.41