John F. Nash, Jr., Mathematician, High School Trigonometry Test (Facsimile)
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 4742
Fascimile of a high school trigonometry test taken by John F. Nash, Jr., sometime during his time at Beaver High School in Bluefield, West Virginia, circa 1942-1945. These four pages are high-resolution facsimiles of the original material, which include Nash’s work, as well as a note from his teacher, Mr. Durr [possibly Vernon Dunn?], encouraging him that “I think you will really go places,” but that his talent will be wasted if he is not more careful organizing his work. These were donated after the original was sold at auction in 2019.
No special access restriction applies.
The donor retained copyright and gave “full use of the material (images) solely to the West Virginia & Regional History Center, WVU Libraries (WVRHC) to support its nonprofit activities for education, research, and preservation of the history of West Virginia, its people and the Appalachian region. This material (images) is not to be sold, loaned, or transferred to any third party. Limited numbers of facsimile prints, for practical purposes, may be reproduced for research and display purposes. The images may be used in brochures, catalogs, WVRHC funding campaigns, displays, and visual media presentations and events intended to promote and support education outreach and the mission of the WVRHC. This item is strictly intended for nonprofit education use only. It may not be reproduced for sale."
Johnathan Forbes Nash, Jr. (1928-2015) was a mathematician who made notable contributions to game theory, for which he earned multiple awards, including the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994. He was born in Bluefield, a city in Mercer County in southern West Virginia, in 1928 and attended Beaver High School from circa 1941-1945. To supplement his education, he also took classes at Bluefield College (now Bluefield State University), the historically Black college located in Bluefield. Nash moved away in 1945 to attend the Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he graduated in 1948 with Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in mathematics. In 1950, he earned his PhD from Princeton University, after which he took a job at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the mathematics department. Nash's life has been documented in Sylvia Nasar's 1998 biography, A Beautiful Mind, which was then adapted into a 2001 Academy Award winning film by the same name.
0.01 Linear Feet (1 folder, 0.1 in.)
English
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / URL: West Virginia & Regional History Center
Gift from John David Stier (son of Jonathan F. Nash Jr.), 2021 May 13
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository