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Coxeter Collection

Great Dodecahedron

The Coxeter Collection forms a sub-set within the Mathematics Collection.  The collection consists of models depicting a variety of three-dimensional geometrical shapes, and constructed of a variety of materials, all associated with the career of geometrician Donald Coxeter.

British-educated, Harold Scott MacDonald “Donald” Coxeter (1907-2003) worked at the University of Toronto Department of Mathematics from 1936 to the mid-1990s. The geometric shapes were constructed by a number of unidentified researchers and students over this period, largely likely as demonstrations of skill and as teaching examples contributing to a growing collection. A additional set of these models were donated by Coxeter upon his retirement from the department to York University to Asia Ivić Weiss, his last PhD student and a professor at York. These models were subsequently transferred in 2016 to the Canadian Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa.

The Coxeter Collection was photographed and catalogued by UTSIC in 2016.

Contact: Pamela Brittain (pamb@math.toronto.edu), Outreach and Special Projects Coordinator, Department of Mathematics.

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