Sylvester Letters

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0103 MS ADD 221
Held at	: University College London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Library/special-coll ›
Full title	: Sylvester Letters
Date(s)	: 1865-1896
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 10 letters
Name of creator(s)	: Sylvester | James Joseph | 1814-1897 | Professor of Geometry
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Sylvester was born on 3 September 1814. He was educated in London, at the Royal Institution Liverpool, and at St John's College Cambridge. He held the Chair of Natural Philosophy at University College London from 1837 to 1841. In 1841 he went to the USA, being appointed to the Chair of Mathematics at the University of Virginia. He later worked at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. From 1883 he was Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford University. Sylvester discovered a Theory of Reciprocants, which he made known at Oxford in 1885. He invented kinematical instruments, such as the Plagiograph and Geometrical Fan. He was the founder and first Editor of the American Journal of Mathematics. He won many medals for his work. Sylvester also published a very large number of mathematical memoirs in English and foreign journals. He died on 15 March 1897.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Eight letters from Sylvester to his niece, Contessa Edith Gigliucci, 1865-1896, and two letters to Count Mario Gigliucci, 1896.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Open.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Normal copyright restrictions apply.

Finding aids:

Collection level description.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Presented by Mrs Marion Rawson, whose cousin Contessa Bona Gigliucci is the daughter of Contessa Edith Gigliucci, in November 1971 and January 1972.

Allied Materials

Related material:

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:

Date(s) of descriptions:
1999, revised Aug 2001