Guide to the Arithmetic Exercise Book of Gilbert S. Davison 1829-1830 MG 698
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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The New Jersey Historical Society, Publisher
Inventory prepared by Laura Ruttum as part of the “Farm to City” project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Finding aid encoded by Danielle Kovacs. February 2004. Production of the EAD 2002 version of this finding aid was made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Finding aid written in English.
Gilbert Sutphen Davison kept this exercise book during the school year of 1829 to 1830. Little is known about Gilbert S. Davison, however, it is known that he married Ida Barclay of Middlesex County on December 14, 1841. After she passed away in 1847, Davison married Gerusha Isham in Monroe Township, Middlesex County, on March 15, 1851.
This collection consists an exercise book, generally known as a ciphering book, used by Gilbert Sutphen Davison for his arithmetic exercises. It was begun on March 18, 1829 and completed sometime after March 16, 1830. Each exercise contains the rules to be applied to each type of problem, followed by numerous examples and exercises, primarily in the form of word problems.
The concepts covered included: Loss and Gain, Fellowship, Exchange, Decimal Fractions and Vulgar Fractions. The problems under “Fellowship” consist of percentages, and are applied to joint stocks and interest rate calculations; “Exchange” deals with exchange rates in domestic and international trade (including problems converting from sterling to pounds to dollars, as well as trade between England, Ireland, the Islands of the British West Indies, and the United States); “Decimal Fractions” are what are currently referred to as decimals, and include rules for converting numbers from “vulgar fraction(s) to its equivalent decimal fraction;” and finally, “Vulgar Fractions” are currently referred to only as “fractions.”
The exercise problems, and the rules themselves, treat simple mathematics primarily as a tool for business and trade, as evidenced in the following quotes, “Loss and Gain instructs merchants and traders, so as to estimate their goods in buying and selling, as to know what they gain or lose in dealing,” and “Fellowship is a rule, by which merchants etc. trading in company with a joint stock, are enabled to ascertain each person’s particular share of the gain or loss, in proportion to his share in the joint stock.”
There are no access restrictions on this collection.
Photocopying of materials is limited and no materials may be photocopied without permission from library staff.
Researchers wishing to publish, reproduce, or reprint materials from this collection must obtain permission.
The New Jersey Historical Society complies with the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code), which governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions and protects unpublished materials as well as published materials.
This collection should be cited as: Manuscript Group 698, Gilbert S. Davison Arithmetic Exercise Book, The New Jersey Historical Society.
This collection was a gift of E.L. Eldredge in 1968.