People, events and documents of ICMI’s first century

Abstract

On the occasion of the ICMI centenary, the authors of the present paper built the website “The First Century of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (1908-2008). History of ICMI,” which contains information and documents about people, events, and bodies intervening in the first century of this Commission. This website provides an effective instrument for revisiting the history of ICMI and for reflecting on some key moments. In particular, it makes it possible to identify how the key ideas (internationalization, communication, solidarity) that inspired the founding of ICMI were realized, as well as the how the relationship with the community of mathematicians changed. In the present paper we walk through the Portrait gallery section of the website, focusing on the presidents of ICMI and their contributions to the evolution of both the Commission’s policies and its methodological approaches to problems, looking at the history of ICMI from the perspective of the people who built it. Moreover, we present some statistical data concerning the life of ICMI (people, countries,meetings, etc.) and also offer flashes of lesser-known aspects that came to light after a reading of the documents housed in ICMI Archives in Helsinki.