Alan Holden
Alan Holden can be considered as a chemist, physicist, crystallographer and even an artist. He was born in 1904 and passed away in 1985. Through his knowledge of crystallography he is mostly known for his development of a device that could locate submarines during World War II. During his retirement he became interested in the various ways in which polygons link together. When each plane of either a tetrahedron, octahedron, cube or dodecahedron rotates horizontally, the sides of the planes start to interlock creating various types of polylinks. The planes can also move in and out causing there be even more possible versions of polylinks.
Holden built these different models out of wooden dowels and mat board. The way in which these materials are manipulated shows a great deal of care and patience Holden must have had in order to construct the models.
Watch a lecture by Alan Holden here.
Here are two images of Alan Holden’s studio:
How the Collection Came to Smith College
From April 6-8th 1984 Smith College was the host of “Shaping Space – An Interdisciplinary Conference on Polyhedra.” Alan Holden along with other mathematicians, crystallographers, artists, designers, and chemists were invited to participate in the conference leading workshops and giving lectures. Unfortunately, Alan Holden himself was unable to attend the conference, but was touched by the invitation and the recognition of his work that he left his collection of mathematical models to the college after he had passed.
There are approximately 200-250 models in total. Just now they have been photographed and cataloged and this website provides people with an insight into the variety of models there are within the entire collection.
Since the entire collection is not yet featured on this site if you want to know more about it or inquire about a specific model you can contact Pau Atela at patela@smith.edu in the math department at Smith College.
To read more about Alan Holden’s work and the collection visit the links found on the Publications page.
the CreatorS of the site
Megan Perry graduated from Smith College and started the physical cataloging of these models at Smith during her time there. Each image starts with “MP”, her initials, to recognize that work.
Lauren Mitchell graduated from Smith College in 2019 as a studio art major focusing in photography along with a concentration in museum studies. For her final capstone project in the museums concentration she started the design of this website and photographed some of Holden’s models for public access to the collection. You can visit her website here.
Zerdali Jones graduated from Smith College in 2024 as a Mathematics major. For her math special studies project, she continued this website and continued the photography for the remaining Holden Models. She hopes to leave Smith and get her Master’s in Library Science.