Provenance

Initial accession, 1974. Harton Colliery manuscripts (B\Ai7p.1) purchased from William Allen ($950.00) and accessioned, 12/20/1983 (1983 1644ms). See in-house shelf list for additional accession dates and numbers.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Sir George Biddell Airy Papers, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Recatalogued by RWS, 2006.

General note

The collection consists of approximately forty letters Airy wrote to various correspondents. The topics of his letters reflect the wide-range of his intellectual and scientific interests, touching on magnetism, electricity, telescopes, and solar observations. Many letters include Airy’s opinions on scientific instruments, essays, and theories. The collection has a significant amount of information from Airy’s attempt to determine the Earth’s density using pendulums and telegraph technology at a mine in Harton in 1854. Included in this portion of the collection are artifacts, drawings, and diagrams from the experiment, and the subsequent letters and lectures Airy wrote about the experiment itself.

The bulk of the collection is beyond 1850.

Biography of Primary Contributor(s): Sir George Biddell Airy was a leading British astronomer in the nineteenth century. Airy was raised in humble surroundings in Northumberland, England. At an early age, Airy’s intelligence attracted the notice of his teachers, and he received numerous scholarships to advance his studies, eventually earning a scholarship to Cambridge University. Upon graduation, Airy was offered a position at Cambridge. Airy had become an expert in optics and sealed his reputation in the field when he published Mathematical Tracts on Physical Astronomy in 1826, three years after graduating. The work earned him the Lucasian chair. Two years later, he was promoted to the Plumian professorship.

In 1835, Airy secured the position of royal astronomer, a position he would hold for forty-six years. During his tenure, Airy played a central role in a number of important and wide-ranging scientific events and discoveries. He successfully secured Greenwich as the zero meridian, helped confirm the existence of solar prominences, worked to determine the effect of iron hulls have on ship’s magnetic compasses, and authored the definitive work on lunar and solar events from 1750-1830, a work that helped generations of scientists.

Early American History Note

This manuscript collection falls outside the geographic scope of the Early American guide (British North America and the United States before 1840). It may be of interest to scholars interested in global history, international relations, imperialism, or the U.S. in the world.