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.
Received JH's letter from Munich. Arrangements for getting JH's belongings through Customs. Will meet JH in London. Mr. Pitt is unable to paint telescope tube due to foul weather. Scandal of Mr. White's will. Recent deaths.
His recent tours in Italy and Germany, and the people he met.
News of relatives and friends in Hanover. Caroline Herschel is working on catalog of nebulae. [Letter continued 7 Oct. in Minden:] News of German scientists. Suspects that JH and H. W. M. Olbers are distantly related.
Painting of telescope begun. Thomas Baldwin Jr.'s wife soon to give birth. Charles Babbage reported being robbed.
Is glad to hear of his speedy return. Regarding JH's instruments and their passage through the customs. Is writing a book on Assurance Companies.
Will return earlier than planned. Comments of Mrs. Moorsom's misfortune and new children born to Baldwins and Babbages. [Letter continued in Rotterdam:] Journey from Cleves [Kleve] to Rotterdam. Report of new propulsion device for sailing vessels.
Finds no errors in JH's letter on the parallax of Mars. Sends his own calculations. Has not found the barometrical readings JH requested.
Happy to be reunited with mother. JH thanks CH for his enjoyable stay in Hanover. Wishes CH well on her [catalogue of] nebulae.
About the last part of JH's continental travels, including his visit to Caroline Herschel.