Haüy, Weiß, Fröbel: the influence of nineteenth-century crystallography on the mathematics of Friedrich Fröbel’s Kindergarten. Part 2: new evidence from unpublished notes

The following paper continues the previous part, and examines the influence of crystallography on Fröbel’s conception of mathematics. In this part we focus on yet unpublished material. These unpublished notes of Fröbel underline the visual transfer of drawing and images of crystals, mainly developed by Haüy, which were widespread at the turn of the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, into the Fröbelian activities. Hence, the paper shows that a transfer of knowledge occurred from crystallography to mathematical education as well as the interweaving of philosophical and scientific reflections in Fröbel’s thought as early as the late 1810s.