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Alan Turing’s 1936 paper introduced the universal machine, an abstract model that could simulate any algorithmic process. On the pages shown here, he defines “computable numbers,” values that can be calculated step by step by a machine following…

Gödel did to logic what Heisenberg did to measurement. Using tools developed by Cantor, he showed that even the most rigorous mathematical systems have built-in limits. Published in 1931, this offprint contains Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, proof…

Gödel did to logic what Heisenberg did to measurement. Using tools developed by Cantor, he showed that even the most rigorous mathematical systems have built-in limits. Published in 1931, this offprint contains Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, proof…

Displayed here is a three-volume set of Principia Mathematica, Alfred North Whitehead’s own copy of the monumental work he coauthored with Bertrand Russell. Published between 1910 and 1913, Principia aimed to rebuild all of mathematics from logic…

Displayed here is a three-volume set of Principia Mathematica, Alfred North Whitehead’s own copy of the monumental work he coauthored with Bertrand Russell. Published between 1910 and 1913, Principia aimed to rebuild all of mathematics from logic…

This inscribed offprint marks a turning point in the foundations of mathematics. In it, Georg Cantor introduced the “diagonal argument,” a deceptively simple proof that not all infinities are equal. By showing that the real numbers cannot be listed…

George Boole’s pioneering work introduced the idea that logic could be expressed mathematically, a fusion of philosophy and algebra that now underlies modern computing. This first-issue printing is inscribed by Boole to Charles Terrot, Bishop of…

George Boole’s pioneering work introduced the idea that logic could be expressed mathematically, a fusion of philosophy and algebra that now underlies modern computing. This first-issue printing is inscribed by Boole to Charles Terrot, Bishop of…

On August 6, 1945, this press release, signed by President Harry Truman, announced to the world that the United States had used a new weapon of unprecedented power. An atomic bomb had destroyed the city of Hiroshima. The statement describes the scale…

On August 6, 1945, this press release, signed by President Harry Truman, announced to the world that the United States had used a new weapon of unprecedented power. An atomic bomb had destroyed the city of Hiroshima. The statement describes the scale…