Gulielmus Oughtred Anglus (frontispiece from Oughtred's "The Key of the Mathematicks New Forged and Filed," 1647)

Gulielmus Oughtred Anglus (frontispiece from Oughtred's "The Key of the Mathematicks New Forged and Filed," 1647)

Wenceslaus Hollar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This hallf-length portrait of the rector and mathematician, William Oughtred, shows the sitter at seventy-three, wearing a skull-cap, collar and gown, and holding a book. He is credited with creating the slide rule in 1622, which allowed for direct multiplication and division, with introducing "x" to signify mulplification, and the abbreviations "sin" and "cos" for sine and cosine.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gulielmus Oughtred Anglus (frontispiece from Oughtred's "The Key of the Mathematicks New Forged and Filed," 1647)Gulielmus Oughtred Anglus (frontispiece from Oughtred's "The Key of the Mathematicks New Forged and Filed," 1647)Gulielmus Oughtred Anglus (frontispiece from Oughtred's "The Key of the Mathematicks New Forged and Filed," 1647)Gulielmus Oughtred Anglus (frontispiece from Oughtred's "The Key of the Mathematicks New Forged and Filed," 1647)Gulielmus Oughtred Anglus (frontispiece from Oughtred's "The Key of the Mathematicks New Forged and Filed," 1647)

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.