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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Correspondence Explorer

Choose two people to view all letters between them.

Showing 9 letters from 1818–1832

5 letters from Miles Bland; 4 letters from John Frederick William Herschel

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Correspondence map

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Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

1818

Autograph letter signed by sender. There is shortly to be a vacancy in the Woodwardian professorship at Cambridge. Would John Frederick William Herschel like to stand? If so, let him know then he can rally support.

Reference number: HS/4/153
1819

John Frederick William Herschel serves on the Board of Longitude

1819

1820

John Frederick William Herschel publishes in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

1820: John Frederick William Herschel publishes “On the action of crystallized bodies on homogeneous light, and on the causes of the deviation from Newton's scale in the tints which many of them develope on exposure to a polarised ray” .

John Frederick William Herschel serves his first term as Foreign Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society

1820

1821

John Frederick William Herschel and Charles Babbage travel through France to Italy and Switzerland.

1821

John Frederick William Herschel publishes in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

1821: John Frederick William Herschel publishes “On the aberrations of compound lenses and object-glasses" in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

John Frederick William Herschel receives the Copley Medal of the Royal Society for his papers printed in the Philosophical Transactions

1821

Autograph letter signed by sender. There is an opening for a Lay fellowship. Is John Frederick William Herschel interested? News of J. W. Whittaker's appointment.

Reference number: HS/4/154

Contemporary copy letter in Herschel's hand. Though he could qualify, he would rather not try for the fellowship as he does not require it so much as some other persons may.

Reference number: HS/4/154a
1822

Death of Sir William Herschel FRS

25 August 1822

Autograph letter signed by sender. John Frederick William Herschel has been appointed a Lay-fellow. It entails no duties. The present body regards it as an honor to retain John Frederick William Herschel's name.

Reference number: HS/4/155

Autographed draft letter, signed or initialed by sender. Received Miles Bland's notice that John Frederick William Herschel was appointed fellow of Saint John's College. Will visit Cambridge if William Herschel's health permits.

Reference number: HS/19/19
1823

John Frederick William Herschel receives the Bakerian Medal of the Royal Society.

1823: John Frederick William Herschel gives the Bakerian lecture “On certain Motions produced in Fluid Conductors when transmitting the Electric Current”.

1824

John Frederick William Herschel moves to 56 Devonshire St., Portland Place, London

1824

John Frederick William Herschel serves as Secretary of the Royal Society

30 November 1824

1825

John Frederick William Herschel invents the actinometer to measure the heating power of the Sun’s rays

1825

1826

John Frederick William Herschel publishes in the Philosophical Transactions

1826: John Frederick William Herschel publishes “On the parallax of the fixed stars”.

1827

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce presents his photographs in England for the first time

1827

1829

John Frederick William Herschel and Margaret Brodie Stewart are married in London

3 March 1829

1830

John Frederick William Herschel is elected Foreign correspondent of the Académie des sciences

1830

Birth of Caroline Emilia Mary Herschel, daughter of John Frederick William Herschel and Margaret Brodie Stewart

31 March 1830

John Frederick William Herschel is nominated for the presidency of the Royal Society, loses by 8 votes to the Duke of Sussex

30 November 1830

1831

Mary Somerville publishes Mechanism of the Heavens

1831

Sir John Herschel is created Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order

1831

Sir John Herschel publishes Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy as part of Dionysius Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia.

1831

Birth of Isabella Herschel, daughter of John Frederick William Herschel and Margaret Brodie Stewart

5 June 1831

Autograph letter signed by sender. Has had many melancholy afflictions since they last met. Would like John Frederick William Herschel's support for his intended application for Professorship of Mathematics at the forthcoming University of Durham.

Reference number: HS/4/156

Draft letter. Takes a lively interest in his application for a professorship at Durham. Remembers him gratefully as his coach for mathematics while at Cambridge.

Reference number: HS/4/157

Copy of draft letter, copied as part of the correspondence project led by Colonel John Herschel FRS following the death of his father. Takes a lively interest in his application for a professorship at Durham. Remembers him gratefully as his coach for mathematics while at Cambridge.

Reference number: HS/21/78
1832

Autograph letter signed by sender. The postal packet that he forwarded to Durham has been lost, so would be grateful if John Frederick William Herschel would send him another recommendation. Must not speak too humbly of himself. Finds Cambridge much changed.

Reference number: HS/4/158