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SUMMARY: Abigail Adams (November 11, 1744 – October 28, 1818) Wife of the second president of the United States.

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Abigail Adams was the wife of the second President of the United States, John Adams. As First Lady and the wife of one of our Founding Fathers, she is one of the most amazing and extraordinary women in our nation’s history. Let’s learn a little more about her.

Abigail Adams was born on November 11, 1744 in a province of Massachusetts Bay. Abigail Adams was the daughter of a Congregational minister. Her father didn’t preach about the normal things like original sin or the divinity of Christ, but taught about morality and reason. She never really went to school as she was often sick when she was younger, but she learned by reading from her father’s library and was also taught by her mother and sisters.

She met John Adams in 1759 and they exchanged love letters throughout their courtship and their life. She married John Adams in 1764. She had six children, the last of which was stillborn. Their children’s names were Abigail, John Quincy, Susanna, Charles, Thomas, and Elizabeth. Their children went on to do extraordinary things themselves, for example John Quincy himself became President of the United States years after his father held the position.

While her husband was away for work, Abigail Adams would look after the farm and the house. Because traveling back then took weeks where now it takes hours, they were often away for a lot longer time period, and so the women had to completely take over the farm and anything else that the family did for a living in order to survive.

Throughout her husband’s political career she hosted numerous dinners and social events. She had to have her home ready to present and to entertain guests or politically important people. She learned a lot from Martha Washington, George Washington’s wife. They became good friends while George Washington was President of the United States and while John Adams was Vice President.

While her husband was at both of the Continental Congresses, she wrote him letters and to “remember the ladies”. She wanted to let him know that women were also very persecuted against and had little rights. She wrote that women would rebel against the men someday, just like the colonies did against the British. Nevertheless, nothing came about from the letters and it took more than a hundred years for women to even gain the right to vote. However, she did do a wonderful job in letting the world know about the problems of women and that they need their freedom too.

Abigail Adams didn’t believe in slavery just like her husband. They never owned slaves and thought that people who did, didn’t really believe in “all men are created equal.” They even helped a young black man who came to their house asking if they would teach him to read and write. They sent him to a school and said that it didn’t matter what color your skin was, everyone is the same underneath.

Throughout her life, Abigail Adams often had health problems. She would comment on the sweet things of life, and tried not to think about the bad. She was very optimistic and was until the day she died. Abigail Adams died on October 28, 1818.

SUMMARY: John Adams (October 29, 1735 – on July 4, 1826) Second president of the United States.

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John Adams was one of our nation’s founding fathers. He helped shape this country into one of the most powerful in the world. He was an extraordinary man that did a lot throughout his lifetime. Here are some more facts that you can read about.

John Adams was born on October 29, 1735 in Braintree, Massachusetts. His ancestors were Puritans and actually some of the first to settle in America. He came from a line of farmers, militia men, and politicians. He had two younger brothers and as the oldest he often felt that he had a duty to live up to his name. Because he came from such an amazing family, he felt that he too had to do something more than just good in his life. He did.

John Adams was married in 1764 to Abigail Smith. She was the daughter of a minister. They had 6 children, one of which was stillborn. He became a constitutional lawyer and focused on the analysis of political history.

John Adams was against the Stamp Act of 1765. He wrote several articles to the Boston Gazette explaining why they were unfair to the colonists. He argued that the Act wasn’t applicable to the colonists because they had no representation in Parliament.

When the Boston Massacre of 1770 occurred, John Adams was asked to defend the British soldiers who had been involved. He agreed and many of the soldiers weren’t even found guilty of anything. He wasn’t paid much for representing the soldiers, something he was upset about. He stated that he worked harder on that trial than anything he had previously been given.

A couple years after the Boston Massacre, a huge argument erupted because of some new taxes that would be put into place. It would be charging the colonists for the shipments they received. John Adams argued on behalf of the colonists that it was unfair because they didn’t have any representation in Parliament and didn’t have any connection with it. They were only supposed to be loyal to the King. He argued also that the King was the one who appointed people to make the laws for the colonies and that he was the only one who made the laws and governed the colonists, not Parliament. He stated that if an agreement couldn’t be made, then the colonists would have to declare their independence and become a new country. Because John Adams was such a good lawyer and had studied politics and government all his life, he was able to present an excellent case and prove that Parliament had no authority over the colonies.

John Adams was sent to both the Continental Congresses. He was such a prominent leader in the Congress and wanted to find a solution so that the colonies would be free. John Adams advised that the colonies start thinking about how to go about becoming a free state and thus they started to write the Declaration of Independence.

John Adams became the first Vice President in United States history. He then became the Second President of the United States. He was the first to live in the White House. He kept all of President George Washington’s advisors in the cabinet. His Vice President was Thomas Jefferson, who was actually his opponent in the Presidential race. It was how the country worked back then, by picking the Vice President from the man who had lost the election. John Adams died on July 4, 1826 after serving one term as President of the United States.

Because John Adams had studied law and government all his life, he was able to accomplish all of the things that he did. His early life is less known, but it is why everything else happened. He never would’ve given such great speeches about declaring freedom from Britain, or helped to build the United States of America into such a great country if he hadn’t spent his life studying and analyzing government.

SUMMARY: M. C. Escher (June 18, 1898 – March 27, 1972) Dutch artist, famous for his tessellations.

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Escher was born June 17, 1898, in the Netherlands. M.C. Escher was known for being a graphic artist. His art was mathematically inspired and consisted of woodcuts and lithographs. His full name is Maurits Cornelis Escher, and he was the youngest child of a civil engineer George Arnold Escher. From 1903 to 1918 he attended school. He had bad grades and had to repeat some classes twice. In 1919 Escher attend the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts.

When Escher left school he had experience in architecture, drawing and woodcuts. In 1921 Escher traveled throughout Italy. In 1924 he married Jetta Umiker. The couple moved to Rome and settled there until 1935, until politics and Mussolini became unbearable. For the next two years they lived in Switzerland. Escher was very fond of the Italian countryside and he was eager to go back to Italy, but they moved to Belgium instead. By January 1941, WWII forced them to relocate again; the couple then moved to Baarn, Netherlands, and that is where they lived until 1970.

Escher created many interesting works of art. He used mathematics in his pieces of art although he was not well-trained in the subject. He used black and white to create dimension. He used cubes, cones, spheres and spirals. Escher’s art work was especially liked by mathematicians and scientists. His mathematical influence came from a trip he took in the Mediterranean; he said it was the richest source of inspiration he ever tapped.

In 1941, Escher wrote a paper called Regular Division of the Plane with Asymmetric Congruent Polygons. The paper was about his approach to using math in his art work. After he wrote this paper he was considered a research mathematician. He studied color-based division. He also created a system of categorizing shape, color, and symmetrical properties. Escher’s work in mathematics awarded him with Knighthood of the Orange Nassau in 1955.

In 1956, Escher came up with a way to represent infinity by using circles on a two dimensional plane. After this he expressed it in a piece of work called Circle Limit 1. He then created Circle Limit 2, 3and 4. These works expressed how he was able to create perfectly consistent mathematical designs.

In 1958 he published another paper called Regular Division of a Plane. In this paper he describes systematic build up of mathematical design in his art work. He also worked on a series of pictures that he is most famous for, called Metamorphosis. In these pictures he would draw something that morphed into something else.

In 1962 Escher’s work was published in a book called “Escher on Escher”. It included illustrations and information about his ideas and inspirations for his art work . In July 1969 Escher worked on his last piece of art before he died. Many well-known museums feature Escher’s art work. Some of these museums include the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., The Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco, and The Escher Museum at the Hague. There are even a large number of private collectors.

M.C. Escher is important because he contributed to the world of mathematical art. In his lifetime he created more then 150 pieces of art. All of his artwork was original and very imaginative. He wanted to emphasize shape and depth in his work; he didn’t like flat shapes. Now Escher is the topic of many lectures. He was a brilliant thinker for his time.