<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">I received the inquiry below from historian of mathematics Judy Green, who is trying to research the career of Esther Gersten, one of the ENIAC programmers at Aberdeen. If anyone has information about Gersten, or experience accessing archival materials from BRL (now ARL), please respond directly to Judy (<a href="mailto:jgreen@marymount.edu">jgreen@marymount.edu</a>). FYI, she is the co-author of Pioneering Women in American Mathematics (AMS, 2008). <div><div><div><br></div><div>thanks,</div><div>Janet</div><div><br><div>
<div style="font-size: medium; ">Dr. Janet Abbate<br>Associate Professor </div><div style="font-size: medium; ">Science & Technology in Society<br>Virginia Tech<br></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br></div></span></div><div><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">Judy Green <<a href="mailto:jgreen@marymount.edu">jgreen@marymount.edu</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Date: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">September 16, 2012 5:43:37 PM EDT<br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>To: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><a href="mailto:abbate@vt.edu">abbate@vt.edu</a><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><b>The history of computing in the 1940s and early 1950s</b><br></span></div><br>
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<![endif]--><p class="MsoNormal">Dear Janet Abbate,<br>
<br>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">I'm a retired mathematician whose research
interest is mainly in the history of American women in
mathematics and am an author, together with Jeanne LaDuke, of a
book on American women who received PhD's im mathematics before
WWII. Because of that book I was asked to, and did, review the
video <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">“Top Secret Rosies” for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Notices of the
American Mathematical Society.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span></i></span>A niece of a woman who had an
undergraduate mathematics degree and worked on the ENIAC at
Aberdeen and on the first UNIVAC at U Calif's Radiation Lab at
Livermore ran into that review and contacted me about her aunt,
who died in 1955. The woman's name is Esther Gersten and she is
briefly mentioned (as Ester Gersten) in Barkley Fritz's ENIAC
articles in the <i>IEEE Annals of the History of Computing</i>.
Gersten's niece has a picture taken at Aberdeen in January 1946
as well as a lot of letters from between Gersten and her
family. I've become interested and have started to write a
short piece about Gersten. However, as I am not as familiar
with the resources in the history of computing as I am with
those in the history of mathematics, Peggy Kidwell, whom I know
through the Smithsonian where I was a research associate many
years ago and am now a volunteer, suggested I contact you with
my questions. I hope you will be able to point me in the right
direction in getting some more information about Esther Gersten.<br>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br>
Specifically, what I would most like to find is the equivalent
of a CV for her. As far as I know, the only places she worked
were at the BRL at Aberdeenthe and at Lawrence Livermore. While
the Smithsonian has some photographs of the computers and people
who worked on them at Aberdeen, they don't have the one that her
family has. If the BRL photos and/or records are open I'd
really like to take a look at them too.<br>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br>
Thanks very much.<br>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Judy Green <br>
</p>
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