Getting it in as I Count it Down

I leave for the European travel part of this math history sabbatical in just over a week, and the phrase most on my mind right now is "GETTING IN."

Can I get all of this:

In this: 

(And will this be enough to keep me going for seven weeks?!)

Can I get all of this:

In this:

Have I gotten all of this -

 - and some of this -

 - and a lot of this -

 In this:

Here are some things I have "gotten in" to for certain:

THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY - One of the things I'm most excited about at this moment is that I have "gotten in" to Oxford's Bodleian Library - one of the oldest libraries in Europe and the second largest in Britain (behind the British Library in London). And that took some doing!! To get a reader's card I needed to send a bank statement proving permanent address, a letter from human resources proving my faculty status, a copy of the picture/signature page of my passport, and an application expressing why there is need for me to access their resources. I got the news about a week ago and am still on cloud nine! I'll be reading correspondence between mathematicians Mary Fairfax Somerville (1780-1870) and Lady Ada Byron Lovelace (1815-1852).  In that era it was exceedingly rare for a woman to pursue mathematics at all (they certainly weren't allowed to attend university!), and this is the only case I know of where one female mathematician served to any degree as a mentor to another.  Ada Byron Lovelace is the daughter of the poet Lord Byron, by the way - but more on that when I visit Hucknall, England on April 6.

TRINITY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE -  I also "got in" with some experts at Cambridge - very, very gracious - who will show me where at Trinity College the rooms of G. H. Hardy (1877-1947) and J. E. Littlewood's (1885-1977) were in the early 1900s.  They've actually already done some research on this for me in advance of my arrival.  I'm particularly happy about "getting in" here for two reasons.  One reason is that Hardy and Littlewood were such prominent and interesting mathematicians and that there are wonderful stories about how they lived so close together but nearly always corresponded by messenger rather than meeting face-to-face. But the other reason I'm so excited is that the chair of the sabbatical committee gently warned me that I probably wouldn't be able to quite pull off all that I had proposed for my travels - seeing Hardy and Littlewood's former rooms being one item he doubted me on. HA! I'm doing it! Hopefully all the rest of the "getting in" goes as well!!

THE KILNS - OK - not math-related, but Lewis is my favorite author, and I'm going to be in Oxford, so how can I not try?  Many weeks after having written them I had given up on hearing back from the C. S. Lewis Society, but just this morning I found a response in my email inbox that there will be a tour on Thursday, April 14 and that I can "get in" on it!  Hurray!  (There are Lewis scholars living and working in his old home, so a tour is not a sure thing for any given visit to Oxford, and only certain areas are open to tourists.  It just happens that my timing for this venue was just right!)

Ready or not, here I come!