IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0120 MSS.7867-7868
Held at: Wellcome Library
Title: Herschel family, astronomers
Date(s): 18th century-19th century
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 2 files
Name of creator(s): Herschel | Sir | William | 1738-1822 | Knight | astronomer and musician
Herschel | Caroline Lucretia | 1750-1848 | astronomer
Herschel | Sir | John Frederick William | 1792-1871 | 1st Baronet | astronomer
Herschel | Alexander Stewart | 1836-1907 | astronomer
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) was born in Hanover and came to England in 1757, where he taught music in Leeds, Halifax and Bath. He devoted himself to the study of mathematics and astronomy, built his own telescope in c 1773, and with it discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 (which he named 'Georgium Sidus' in honour of George III). He was appointed private astronomer to George III in 1782 and knighted in 1816, and is regarded as the virtual founder of sidereal science.
His sister Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-1848) discovered eight comets, receiving a salary from George III in 1787. She received the Astronomical Society's gold medal for her catalogue of Sir William Herschel's star clusters and nebulae, 1828, and was created an honorary member of the Society in 1835.
Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792-1871), the son of Sir William Herschel, was a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, and obtained his M.A. in 1816. With George Peacock (1791-1858) he translated Lacroix's Elementary Treatise on the Differential Calculus, and was elected FRS in 1813.
His son Alexander Stewart Herschel (1836-1907) was born in South Africa, and studied meteorology at the Royal School of Mines, London, 1861. He was professor of physics at Glasgow, 1866-1871 and at Durham College, Newcastle, 1871-1886. He reported on observation of meteors to the British Association, 1862-1881, observing a solar eclipse in Spain in 1905, and was elected FRS in 1884.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Letters to and from various members of the Herschel family. MS.7867 contains material relating to Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-1848) and Alexander Stewart Herschel (1836-1907); MS.7868 centres on Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792-1871).
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.
Finding aids:
Described in Richard Aspin and Christopher Hilton's typescript supplement to S.A.J Moorat's Catalogue of Western Manuscripts
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Purchased from: Stevens, London, July 1923 (acc.89267), August 1930 (acc.63313), January 1931 (acc.68115), March 1931 (acc.56482, 68134); R.V. Westcott, May 1927 (acc.45498); Tregaskis, December 1927 (acc.68037); Sotheby's, London, December 1929 (acc.52331), May 1930 (acc.52792), July 1931 (acc.57468), February 1932 (acc.76066, 76088), November 1933 (acc.67469), April 1934 (acc.66602); Mrs. Barrett, London, March 1930 (acc.91327); Puttick and Simpson, May 1930 (acc.62824); Desgranges, Paris, June 1930 (acc.67390), February 1931 (acc.64689), September 1931 (acc.64710), September 1932 (acc.65659), July 1934 (acc.67124), either from Desgranges, Paris, January 1936, or Glendining, London, c.1932 (acc.69293, 69294); Glendining, London, December 1931 (acc.67597), March 1932 (acc.67624), August 1932 (acc.67694); Transferred from Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, c.1939 (acc.91800); no accession details recorded for nos.4, 11-12, 23, 30, 73-75, 81, 83, 91, 98.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Copied from the Wellcome Library catalogue by Sarah Drewery.
Date(s) of descriptions: Jan 2009