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.
As JH has taken so much interest in education at the Cape, he would like some converse with him before drafting the final instructions to Sir G. Napier.
Inquires about unusual weather at Cape of Good Hope in late 1836. Was there an epidemic of influenza at Cape early in 1837?
Sends the silver Banksian medal for JH's exhibit of 16 Oct.
Illness forces him to make a quick return home. Agrees with JH that scientific men should act unanimously when approaching government. Thinks the R.S.L. should go along with the B.A.A.S. as well. Hoped to consult G. B. Airy. Will see Edward Sabine to draw up the memorial.