Video abstract
In this special issue of BSHM Bulletin we are proud to present a selection of papers based on those presented at the meeting Mathematics emerging: A tribute to Jackie Stedall and her influence on the history of mathematics which was held at The Queen's College, Oxford on 9 and 10 April 2016. A report on this meeting is also included in this issue.
This memorable conference celebrated the achievement of the founding editor of the Bulletin in its present form, and particularly her personal inspirational influence on and support for so many historians of mathematics. The presentations demonstrated both the profound impact Jackie Stedall made on our subject and the great love felt for her within the community, and we are delighted that, wherever it has been possible, the authors have been able to provide papers for this special issue—obviously the nature of some of the conference presentations was such that they could not all be published here.
Those who were fortunate enough to be present at the 2014 BSHM Research in Progress meeting will recall Jackie's presentation when she told us about her work on the digitization of the Thomas Harriot papers. This was a memorable and inspiring talk, which was rightly described as ‘superb’ in the meeting report in the Bulletin. It is therefore particularly fitting that her collaborators on this project, Robert Goulding and Matthias Schemmel, (both of whom spoke at Mathematics emerging), have written about this project for this special issue.
One of the highlights of the Mathematics emerging weekend was the concert by the Choir of The Queen's College in the College chapel, which included settings by Phillip Cooke of extracts from Jackie's diaries. I am sure that I am not the only member of that audience who is eagerly awaiting the release later this year on CD of the choir's recording of The World on Fire, which will appear on the Signum Classics label (the title of the CD is A New Heaven).
This special issue of the Bulletin would of course have been impossible without the hard work of those who organized the Mathematics emerging meeting—June Barrow-Green, Chris Hollings, Peter Neumann, and Jane Wess. That was a very special weekend, and we hope that the papers in this issue will give readers who were not able to be present a flavour of the proceedings, and will equally be a welcome reminder of the event for those who did attend.