George A. Wentworth

George Albert Wentworth (July 31, 1835 – May 24, 1906) was an American teacher and author of textbooks on mathematics including algebra, geometry, and trigonometry.

Biography Wentworth was born in 1835 in Wakefield, New Hampshire, He enrolled at Phillips Exeter Academy (PEA) in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1852 and went on to graduate from Harvard College in 1858. While an undergraduate at Harvard he began teaching at PEA, One of his early students was Robert Todd Lincoln, who enrolled at PEA in the fall of 1859, and was visited in Exeter by his father, Abraham Lincoln, the following spring.

Wentworth wrote a series of textbooks on mathematics, of which The Boston Globe noted in 1886, "his Complete Algebra and Elements of Geometry are used extensively by many of the more important schools in America, and doubtless will, with but very few changes, be employed as standard works for a half century to come."

Wentworth remained at PEA for over 30 years, He resigned his position as a professor in 1892, Wentworth was also involved in banking, serving as a director of the National Granite State Bank; later, he became president of the Exeter Banking Company upon its formation in 1894. In 1903, Wentworth and George S. Morison donated the funding for construction of a new dormitory at PEA, Hoyt Hall, named after a former mathematics instructor. Wentworth was considered "a leading citizen in many activities." A 1904 update to his textbook Plane and Solid Geometry was lauded for its discussion of limits, "believed to be the best presentation of the subject in any elementary geometry."

Wentworth died in 1906 in Dover, New Hampshire. He was survived by two sons and a daughter. His estate was estimated to have a value over $1 million . One of his sons continued to update the textbooks and issued new ones.

In 1925, PEA named Wentworth Hall, one of three new dormitories, in his honor. The school maintains a "George Albert Wentworth Professor in Mathematics" position, which is held by Gwynneth Coogan . Since 1962, Wentworth has been honored on a New Hampshire historical marker in his hometown of Wakefield.

Works Wentworth's textbooks include:

First Steps in Number Mental Arithmetic Primary Arithmetic Elementary Arithmetic Grammar School Arithmetic High School Arithmetic Exercises in Arithmetic

First Steps in Algebra School Algebra Elements of Algebra Complete Algebra College Algebra Higher Algebra Exercises in Algebra

New Plane Geometry New Plane and Solid Geometry New Solid Geometry Exercises in Geometry Analytic Geometry Logarithmic and Trigonometric Tables

Wentworth co-wrote some textbooks with George Anthony Hill (1842–1916), an assistant professor of physics at Harvard.