Dr. Artemas Martin, computer in the section of tides and currents, passed away on November 7, 1918, in the 84th year of his life, after an illness of 2 weeks.

He was born in Steuben County, New York, August 3, 1835. Four winters in the schools of Venango County, Pennsylvania, comprised all his schooling. Farming, wood chopping, and oil-well drilling, with four winters as a district school-teacher, made up his work until the age of 50. The little leisure afforded by such work was devoted to the study of mathematics.

In 1877, while engaged in market gardening, he began the editing and publishing of the Mathematical Visitor, and in 1882 he followed this up with the Mathematical Magazine. Not only did he edit and publish these magazines, but he even did the typesetting. That he did this well is evidenced by the praise that the mathematical typography of his journals was the finest in America.

Dr. Martin's mathematical abilities received wide recognition. In 1877 Yale conferred upon him the honorary degree of A.M. Rutgers honored him with a Ph.D. in 1882, and in 1885 Hillsdale made him an LL.D. Numerous learned societies, both in America and in Europe, elected him to membership.

Aside from articles in his own magazines, he contributed a large number of papers to the various mathematical magazines here and abroad. His writings dealt chiefly with logarithms, properties of numbers, and probabilities and properties of triangles.

In October, 1885, Dr. Martin was appointed librarian of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. In that capacity his extensive knowledge of mathematics was of great service to this Survey. In 1898 he was made computer (mathematician) in the tidal division, where his long training in mathematical accuracy made him a valued member.

Dr. Martin's memory is to be fittingly perpetuated in the Artemas Martin Library of the American University. This library, consisting principally of mathematical works, and given by Dr. Martin to the American University shortly before his death, was considered one of the finest private collections in America. At the same university Dr. Martin also endowed a lectureship in mathematics and physics to be known as the Artemas Martin Lectureship.

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C&GS BULLETIN, 10/1918