Sir John Frederick William Herschel

Standard Name: Herschel, Sir John Frederick William

Connections

Connections Sort descending Author name Excerpt
Family and Intimate relationships Caroline Herschel
Her nephew John, born in 1792, grew up to become Sir John Herschel , an astronomer perhaps as famous as his father (let alone his aunt). She helped him by recording the first sweeps that...
Friends, Associates Anna Atkins
AA was a close friend of Sir John Herschel (another photographic pioneer) and his daughters. The idea of a female scientist was not strange to this family, since Sir John was the nephew of the...
Friends, Associates Mary Somerville
In London the Somervilles enjoyed participating in a rich scientific community: Mary's time there was much happier than during her first marriage. She attended many lectures at the Royal Institution , and took lessons in...
Friends, Associates Emily Shirreff
ES 's circle of friends included Sir William Grove (inventor of the Grove battery), scientist Mary Somerville , lawyer and Royal Society president Lord Wrottesley , astronomer Sir George Biddell Airy , Sir John Herschel
Instructor Anna Atkins
AA also continued into her forties her self-education in the new subject of photography. In 1841 she was experimenting with camera work as developed by William Henry Fox Talbot in the form of photograms produced...
Intertextuality and Influence Caroline Herschel
She had begun working on this, at John 's behest, about a year after her return to Hanover. In August 1823 it was still at the planning stage. A year later she was hard at work.
Brock, Claire. The Comet Sweeper: Caroline Herschel’s astronomical ambition. Thriplow, 2007.
200-2
Literary responses Caroline Herschel
As early as May 1827 her nephew John read her autobiographical account of her discovery years, and responded that she underestimated her own part in her joint enterprise with William.
Brock, Claire. The Comet Sweeper: Caroline Herschel’s astronomical ambition. Thriplow, 2007.
12
Literary responses Mary Somerville
The Athenæum declared MS 's On the Connexion of the Physical Scienceswith the exception of Sir John Herschel 's treatises, the most valuable and most pleasing work of science that has been published within the century.
qtd. in
Patterson, Elizabeth Chambers. Mary Somerville and the Cultivation of Science, 1815-1840. Martinus Nijhoff, 1983.
136
Occupation Caroline Herschel
Astronomical observation being impossible in the city, CH worked at her papers from the past, this time, at her nephew John 's request, compiling her catalogue of nebulae. When her nephew set out for the...
Publishing Charlotte Brontë
She started with Henry Colburn . After Anne and Emily had arranged with Newby for publication of their first novels, she approached a seventh publisher, Smith, Elder, and Co. .
The firm was the publisher...
Publishing Mary Somerville
After conducting a set of experiments on the effect of sunlight on vegetable juices, MS sent a report of her method and results to John Herschel , who presented her findings to the Royal Society .
Patterson, Elizabeth Chambers. “Mary Fairfax Greig Somerville (1780-1872)”. Women of Mathematics: A Biobiliographic Sourcebook, edited by Louise S. Grinstein and Paul J. Campbell, Greenwood Press, 1987, pp. 208-16.
213, 214
Reception Caroline Herschel
In the beginning CH 's reputation was usually judged more as that of a woman and a sister than as that of a scientist. Frances Burney 's admiration and delight was directed at her as...
Reception Mary Somerville
Astronomer Sir John Herschel reviewed Mechanism of the Heavens, by MS , in the Quarterly Review.
Patterson, Elizabeth Chambers. Mary Somerville and the Cultivation of Science, 1815-1840. Martinus Nijhoff, 1983.
86
Reception Mary Somerville
After conducting a series of trials which involved focussing sunlight on a steel needle, MS concluded (incorrectly) that the violet rays of the solar spectrum appeared to produce a magnetising effect. The paper was timely...
Reception Mary Somerville
MS was a considerable time employed in writing this book,
qtd. in
Somerville, Mary. Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville. Editor Somerville, Martha, 1815 - 1879, Roberts Brothers, 1874.
166
and sent it to Brougham for appraisal with some anxiety. Brougham deemed it too advanced to be accessible to his intended public readership, and...

Timeline

1831: Sir John Herschel published Preliminary Discourse...

Writing climate item

1831

Sir John Herschel published Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, a cheaply-produced book designed to teach scientific practices and scientific standards to people lacking in formal education.
Jay, Mike. “Like Cooking a Dumpling”. London Review of Books, Vol.
36
, No. 22, 20 Nov. 2014, pp. 25-6.
25

27 September 1831: The British Association for the Advancement...

National or international item

27 September 1831

The British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) was founded at a meeting in York.
Cannon, Susan Faye. Science in Culture: The Early Victorian Period. Dawson; Science History Publications, 1978.
130, 201, 216
Gascoigne, Robert Mortimer. A Chronology of the History of Science, 1450-1900. Garland, 1987.
386-7
Knight, David. The Age of Science: The Scientific World-View in the Nineteenth Century. Basil Blackwell, 1986.
108, 129
Brock, William H. Science for All: Studies in the History of Victorian Science and Education. Variorum, 1996.
I: 95
Shteir, Ann B. Cultivating Women, Cultivating Science. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
175
Alic, Margaret. Hypatia’s Heritage: A History of Women in Science. Women’s Press, 1985.
180-1

1839: At Cambridge, the Cambridge Network—which...

Building item

1839

At Cambridge, the Cambridge Network—which included John Herschel , William Babbage , George Peacock , George Airy , Adam Sedgwick , and William Whewell —lobbied to establish the formal study of science.
Merrill, Lynn L. The Romance of Victorian Natural History. Oxford University Press, 1989.
78-9

1840: Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot invented...

Building item

1840

Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot invented the calotype system of photography.
Hannavy, John. Masters of Victorian Photography. David and Charles, 1976.
14-5
Davis, Phil. Photography. 3rd ed., W. C. Brown, 1979.
4-7
Galligan, Francesca. “The Personal Archive of William Henry Fox Talbot”. Bodleian Library Friends’ Newsletter, 2012, p. 2.

1867-1870: During this period, photographer Julia Margaret...

Building item

1867-1870

During this period, photographer Julia Margaret Cameron took some of her best known portraits of famous men.
Marsh, Jan, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. Virago, 1989.
95-6

Texts

No bibliographical results available.