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The Sir John Herschel Collection
The preparation of the print Calendar of the Correspondence of Sir John Herschel (Michael J. Crowe ed., David R. Dyck and James J. Kevin assoc. eds, Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998, viii + 828 pp) which was funded by the National Science Foundation, took ten years. It was accomplished by a team of seventeen professors, visiting scholars, graduate students, advanced undergraduates, and staff working at the University of Notre Dame.
The first online version of Calendar was created in 2009 by Dr Marvin Bolt and Steven Lucy, working at the Webster Institute of the Adler Planetarium, and it is that data that has now been reformatted for incorporation into Ɛpsilon.
Further information about Herschel, his correspondence, and the editorial method is available online here: http://historydb.adlerplanetarium.org/herschel/?p=intro
No texts of Herschel’s letters are currently available through Ɛpsilon.
Thanks for answers and for notice on Apteryx [Maerurus ?], which JH remembers watching Richard Owen inspect. Interested in W. B. Carpenter's and C. W. Thomson's ['Bathybius?]' as origin of chalk-flint. Discusses inorganic chemical allotropes. Organic allotropes may exist, serving as 'agents of vital action' and subject to a higher power.
Explains how it comes about that GW is looking for a position at the British Museum.
Expresses GW's concern if the British Museum were to require him to pledge to do no remunerative work outside what they would pay GW to do. GW, however, is prepared to make that pledge, if necessary.
Received JH's collection of African insects, etc. Describes its luminous molluscs, crustaceans, Hottentot fish. Government granted £1500 to [William?] Smith and £1000 to C. R. Darwin to publish discoveries, and £500 to R.A.S. [Elizabeth Ann Waterhouse adds 1.5 pages to Margaret Brodie Herschel about birth of EW's second daughter, deaths in family.]
Was appointed assistant in [mineralogical and geological branch of] British Museum. Thanks for JH's support.
Sends to JH's children first part of [GW's?] new book on quadrupeds for young readers.
Embroiled in Museum politics with Richard Owen over position and salaries. Sends copies of testimonials GW collected to take to Archbishop [of Canterbury, J. B. Sumner].
Received appointment [as keeper of mineralogical and geological branch of British Museum]. Grateful for JH's support. Celebrating birthday of GW's wife.
Richard Owen retiring, recommending GW for post of C. D. E. König [died 6 Sept. 1851].
Answers JH's request about Borneo snakes. Forty reported species, contrary to opinion that Borneo has none. None in Iceland or Tierra del Fuego. New Zealand is warm enough, but none reported there.
Responds to JH's questions about discovery sites of extinct species of saurians, mammoths, snakes, giant sloths, etc.
On behalf of GW's wife, thanks for JH's gift of table and bedcurtains.
Consulted A. C. L. G. Günther, museum ichthyologist. Answers JH's question about poisonous herring Clupea thryssa. [A. K.] Johnston's Physical Atlas attributes Ruminants article to GW, but GW wrote only Rodentia article.
Extensive discussion of comparative anatomy, taxonomy, and distribution of rodents. Encourages JH to use term Hystricidae for porcupines in JH's [Physical Geography (1861)].
Reptile genera in JH's [Physical Geography ] are consistent with those of [Edward] Forbes cited in Johnston's Physical Atlas [1854], but new genera have been discovered. Questions JH's claim that Elgin sandstone is Devonian. Notes Richard Owen's estimates on pterodactyl size, and distinct tail feathers [illustration] on recent specimen from Bavaria. Corrects JH's names for beaver genera.
Turned JH's mineral specimen over to N. S. Maskelyne. Poor health of GW's wife.