Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [19--]-1986 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
2.69 m of textual records.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Dutch engineer, amateur mathematician, meteorologist and astronomer, with an interest in bookplates, chess and recreational mathematics, Eugène Strens was born in 1899 in Roermond in southern Netherlands. He was broadly educated in the Sciences and Humanities, eventually studying Electrical Engineering at the Delft Technische Hogeschool. He completed his studies after two years of military service but pursued his profession for only a short while being of independent means and having very wide ranging interests. He went underground in 1943 and concentrated on math puzzles. From 1945 on he lived in Breda, Netherlands where he died in 1980. He was a friend of the mathematical artist Maurits Escher from whom he commissioned many works; he also maintained an active correspondence with fellow aficionados in all his areas of interest. He collected over eleven hundred books on chess, a hundred thousand Ex Libris (bookplates); a substantial collection of graphic art; over 2000 volumes on recreational mathematics as well as newspaper clippings, periodicals and manuscripts.
Archival history
Donated by the Estate of Eugène Strens.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Fonds consists of miscellaneous archival material including: newspaper clippings of puzzles and other items relating to recreational mathematics, mainly in Dutch (Acc 2080); Martin Gardner's Mathematical games column from Scientific American, December 1956-September 1974 (Acc 2120); various supplementary catalogues and mailings from Mathematisch Centrum, 1949-1964 (Acc 2123); a partial descriptive catalogue of the Eugene Strens Recreational Mathematics book collection on 4x6 cards and miscellaneous items removed from the books and journals in the collection (Acc 2188-2189); and an album of photographs and text from the Eugène Strens Memorial Conference on Intuitive and Recreational Mathematics and Its History, July 27 - August 2, 1986, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta (Acc 2774).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
No restrictions on access.
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Text in English and Dutch.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Fonds is part of the Eugène Strens Recreational Mathematics Collection.
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents of the fonds.