Special Collections Blog: Dragon Tales

Mathematics Figure: History of Vera Sanford

Written by Natalie McIntyre, Class of '22

In 1933, the faculty at the Oneonta Normal School (now SUNY Oneonta) welcomed a new member to their team, Vera Sanford. She was head of the mathematics department at the College from 1933 to 1940.  Vera Sanford received her bachelor's degree from Radcliffe College and her master and doctorate degrees at Teachers College, Columbia University. Before joining the Oneonta team, she taught at other schools, such as the Lincoln School of Teachers College, Western Reserve University, and in the summer session at Columbia University.  Vera Sanford was an accomplished mathematics educator and curriculum consultant. She has been described as a caring individual and was well respected on campus. In an article by Isabelle Smith in the Pen Dragon, which was the student newspaper of the College at the time, she is credited for taking the “arithmetic terrors” out of math classes. Her students benefited from her classes as she always encouraged learning.

                                                                         Photograph of Vera Sanford in 1940                            Photograph of Vera Sanford in 1955

Sanford’s legacy lives on at SUNY Oneonta, which has a lecture hall in the Hodgson Instructional Resources Center and a student club named after her (the Sanford Society is the student club for the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics). Sanford’s devotion to mathematics and mathematics education led her to publish many works for the benefit of teachers and students, perhaps especially other educators. These publications, which discuss mathematics and ways to communicate mathematics to students in different grade levels, include The History and Significance of Certain Problems in Algebra and A Short History of Mathematics along with many articles published in various journals. 

Cover of a Short History of Mathematics                                          Inside Page of a Short History of Mathematics         

Throughout her career, Sanford was active with teaching mathematics and developing the mathematics curriculum. She organized the 1957 Institute at Oneonta, which was a summer workshop for math teachers. Sanford’s contributions in her written works are informative for future educators, especially in mathematics. For instance, Sanford contributed ideas about the concept of extraneous details a publication in The Mathematics Teacher. Sanford stated that there are two types of problems that force a student to differentiate which details are important and which ones are inessential. Sanford outlined irrelevant numerical data, which was a commonly used extraneous detail. She used this publication to steer educators away from writing problems with extraneous details as it is very distracting for students. Sanford dedicated her career to educating others on all things mathematics and to finding ways to improve how mathematics is taught.  

Cover of Enriched Teaching of Mathematics in the Junior & Senior High School

Sanford retired from SUNY Oneonta in 1959 and is remembered as being instrumental in the development of the Mathematics Department at SUNY Oneonta and its curriculum.  Therefore, if you are an education major or are interested in the history of our college, you can arrange for a visit to the Alden Room where you can find more information on Vera Sanford along with other contributors to education and the history of SUNY Oneonta.