Anna Cartan (15 May 1878 – 1923) was a French mathematician, teacher and textbook author who was a student of Marie Curie and Jules Tannery.

Anna had an elder sister Jeanne-Marie (1867–1931) who became a dressmaker, a brother Léon (1872–1956) who became a blacksmith working in his father's smithy, and a middle brother Élie Cartan (1869–1951) who became an acclaimed mathematician and sire of a family of mathematicians, notably his first son, Henri Cartan, who later became influential in the field.

[1][2] Anna's brother, Élie Cartan, later recalled that the family was very poor and his childhood had passed under "blows of the anvil, which started every morning from dawn," and that "his mother, during those rare minutes when she was free from taking care of the children and the house, was working with a spinning wheel.

"[1] As the family was poor, it would have been very unusual for any of the children to attend college, but in 1901, partly under Élie's influence, Anna Cartan entered École normale supérieure de jeunes filles in Sèvres near Paris, France.

"[3] Among the places she visited were the United States (New York, St. Louis, Chicago, Boston and Niagara Falls), Quebec, Mexico and Cuba.