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Between 1809 and 1820, Thomas Knight (1775–1853) published quite a few papers on mathematics and its applications. These show him to have been surprisingly well-versed in French analytical mathematics at a time when French works were little read by his British contemporaries. InBSHM Bulletin2, Gloria Edwards and I published a paper (Craik and Edwards 2004) entitled ‘In search of Thomas Knight’, designated below as ‘[1]’, that examined Knight’s life and work. This follow-up paper gives further biographical information that links him with Edinburgh; it describes some more of his publications that were previously overlooked (for notice of the latter, I am grateful to a correspondent who wishes to remain anonymous); and it records some remarks about his work by his contemporaries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article provides updates concerning the field of mathematics as of March 2007. The British National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists has received a grant for a project on the archives of British physicists and mathematicians. A team of mathematicians and computer scientists in the U.S. has developed a pedagogical technique for teaching material in discrete mathematics. A quantity of primary and secondary materials for the history of mathematics is available online.

In a deliberately provocative first part to this paper, I argue that nineteenth-century British mathematicians had an unduly high opinion of themselves and a striking lack of appreciation for contemporary continental developments. I argue that this failure was rooted in the institutions that supported mathematics, and was only remedied towards the end of the century. In the more sober second half of the paper I ask if historians of mathematics have subscribed to this overestimate, and explore some related questions, among them what are historians doing when they write history: telling it as it was, or righting or defending the record? Historians of mathematics also need to consider British priorities for research in the nineteenth century, and a comparison with other minor players (such as Japan, Portugal, or Poland) might be illuminating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the Victorian era was characterized by the dominance of Great Britain both militarily and economically, the achievements of the British in mathematics were considerably less spectacular. Nevertheless, significant contributions were made by British mathematicians, several of whose names are still well known today. This paper highlights the principal mathematical developments in Britain during this time, closing with some observations on the weaknesses and limitations of Victorian British mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a meeting of the organization the Joint Mathematical Council of the UK (JMC) on November 5, 2013. According to the article, the meeting marked the 50th anniversary of the organization. The article states that the meeting was chaired by scholar Sir Peter Williams and that several presentations were made by scholars including professor Sir Bryan Thwaites, JMC Executive Sally Barton, and professor Margaret Brown.

The article highlights several British Society for the History of Mathematics (BHSM) meetings. The British Mathematics Colloquium was held in York, England from March 25-28, 2008. The 50th British Applied Mathematics Colloquium was held at the University of Manchester from March 31-April 3, 2008. A meeting on the history of financial mathematics was held at Gresham College on April 25, 2008.

This article considers the role John Playfair (1748-1819) played in creating and popularizing the myth that mathematical development halted in Great Britain in the eighteenth century due to mathematicians' irrational attachment to a geometrical approach to the calculus. By the turn of the nineteenth century, Playfair had established his reputation as an energetic teacher, gifted expositor, and skilled natural philosopher. He served as joint professor of mathematics at the University of Edinburgh and as general secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, editing the Society's Transactions, while his written accomplishments included Elements of geometry (1795) and Illustrations of the Huttonian theory of the earth (1802). He then contributed his talents to the opinionated journal, Edinburgh Review, where his assessments of the contemporary state of mathematics reached a wide audience of intellectuals, gentlemen, and merchants, albeit anonymously. The article expands upon a section of a talk delivered to the Fourth Joint Meeting of the BSHM and CSHPM in Montreal, 27-29 July 2007 (see also Ackerberg-Hastings 2007). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes meetings concerning the organization the British Society for the History of Mathematics (BSHM) including a "History of Computing in Three Parts" at Gresham College in London, England, on October 31, 2013, "A Chance Encounter': A talk by scholar Richard Simpson about 17th century mathematics" in Manchester, England, on November 12, 2013, and the BSHM Christmas meeting at the Birmingham and Midland Institute on December 7, 2013.