Graphical version

Royal Society

Smyth, Charles Piazzi (1819-1900): Cloud Forms at Clova, Ripon


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0117 MS 698

Held at: Royal Society

Title: Smyth, Charles Piazzi (1819-1900): Cloud Forms at Clova, Ripon

Date(s): 1892-1895

Level of description: sub-fonds

Extent: 3 volumes

Name of creator(s): Smyth | Charles Piazzi | 1819-1900 | astronomer

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born, 1819; Assistant in the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope (1835-1845), cooperated with Sir Thomas Maclear in the extension of Lacaille's arc; produced oldest known calotypes of people and scenes in Southern Africa with the help of John Herschel; Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Regius Professor of Astronomy, University of Edinburgh (1845-1888), introduced time service for Edinburgh with time ball on the Nelson monument and later a time gun fired from Edinburgh Castle (1861); resigned Fellowship on 7 February 1874 on the Society denying him the reading of his paper on the interpretation of the design of the Great Pyramid, published "The Great Pyramid and the Royal Society"; Became obsessed with the metre - he believed the decimal system was foreign, French, and atheist. Claimed if the pyramids were measured very accurately, it was possible to tell that they were based on the British yard, given by God and built by the Hebrews. Led expeditions to Egypt to measure them accurately to prove this. Use of the yard in the Pyramids proved there were common values between the founders of Egypt and the Anglo-Saxons, and so helped to justify the Conquest of Egypt in 1881-2; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1857; died, 1900.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Three volumes of photographs taken by Charles Piazzi Smyth, at Clova, Ripon, North Yorkshire, where he had retired from his post of Astronomer Royal of Scotland. Printed title page in first volume; 'Cloud -Forms that have been; to the glory of God their Creator, and the wonderment of learned men. Recorded by Instant Photographs, taken at Clova, Ripon, in 1892, 1893 and 1894', prefaced by an introduction and compendious name, number and date list; but followed up, after the photographs, by a special, and continuous, day to day, meteorological journal, in manuscript. Concluded in the last volume by some discussion on a few of the results hoped to have been obtained.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Chronologically by date.

Conditions governing access:

Open

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to Archivist in the first instance.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Condensed enumeration and index in front of each volume of photographs within that volume.

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Copied from the Royal Society catalogue by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions: General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Feb 2009.


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Meteorology

Personal names
Smyth | Charles Piazzi | 1819-1900 | astronomer

Corporate names

Places
London | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe
Yorkshire | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe