| Description | This section contains material pertaining to the life, character and intellectual interests of C A B Smith. The first two series cover Smith's life and work, as delineated in publication lists and curriculum vitae, or recounted by friends and colleagues in contribution to material collected for his obituary and candidature for election to the Royal Society. It also contains a hardbound copy of Smith's PhD thesis.
Series 3 and 4 cover Smith's correspondence with friends and other papers concerning his general mathematical work, on subjects such as the "squared squares" mathematical problem and "two-way numbers". It also contains ms fragments which appear to be the work of a farmer, C H Henshaw, on a wide variety of subjects including philosophical discussion of identity; farming; and chess strategy. The connection between Henshaw and Smith is not made apparent through the material.
Series 5 is a set of material which arrived after the first four series had been catalogued, and comprises further papers relating to Smith's interest in mathematical puzzles, particularly interrelated problems in topology and solutions to the "squared squares" problem and the "four-colour theorem". It also contains papers, primarily accounts, relating to the Conflict Research Society of which Smith was a founding member, and served as Chairman and later as President; an account of his trip to Paris for the Human Genetics Congress in 1971; and photographs of trams and friends. |