Cauchy’s determinantal identity (1840s) expands via Schur polynomials the determinant of the matrix f[u v^T], where f(t) = 1/(1-t) is applied entrywise to the rank-one matrix u v^T = (u_i v_j). This theme has resurfaced in the 2010s in analysis (following a 1960s computation by Loewner), in the quest to find polynomials p(t) with a negative coefficient that entrywise preserve positivity. The key novelty here has been an application of Schur polynomials, which essentially arise from a determinantal identity for p[u v^T].