To James Madison from James Ryan, 11 May 1827
From James Ryan
New York May 11th 1827
Having understood from Timothy Clowes L L. D. President of Washington College, Chesterton, Maryland, that he is a candidate for a professorship of Mathematics in another college, Situated in a more healthy climate than his present residence, and having had an opportunity of forming a correct judgement of his knowledge of Mathematics from his contributions to the Mathematical Diary1 and other Scientific periodical publications, I have no hesitation in declaring that I consider Doctor Clowes, capable of teaching the Elementary Course of Mathematics, usually taught in Colleges in the United States.
James Ryan2
RC (ViU: Special Collections). Unaddressed; internal evidence indicates that the letter was intended for the Visitors of the University of Virginia.
1. The Mathematical Diary was a journal created by Robert Adrain and published from 1825 until 1832. Its success resulted from the fact that it was “aimed at the amateur problem-solver rather that [sic] at the mathematician” (Karen Hunger Parshall and David E. Rowe, The Emergence of the American Mathematical Research Community, 1876–1900: J. J. Sylvester, Felix Klein, and E. H. Moore [Providence, 1994], 44).
2. James Ryan was publisher and subsequently editor of the Mathematical Diary and author of a number of books on mathematics, including An Elementary Treatise on Algebra, Theoretical and Practical (1824) (Florian Cajori, The Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States [Washington, D.C., 1890], 95, 373).