Tyndall, John F.R.S. (1820-1893), British physicist

Correspondence by and to Tyndall; notes, signatures and other associated items. The dated letters from Tyndall are arranged chronologically, with one exception: no.29 has subsequently been dated by Professor Roland Jackson to 1854, and thus its chronological position should actually be before no.1. Material formerly held in the Western Manuscripts Department's Autograph Letters Sequence.

Comprises:

MS.7777/1-34: 36 autograph dated letters from Tyndall to various correspondents. Signed (except no.10, which is in the third person). Including nos.18a and 20a. Correspondents include the Prince of Mantua and Montferrat (no.28) and James Croll (no.8), the latter in reply to a letter from Croll now held at the Royal Institution. No.9 is probably to the Rev. J.E. Kemp, the evidence being in material held at the Royal Institution 9Rev J E Kemp (Tyndall Journal VIIIa p394-5 and Typescript Journal RI MS JT/2/13c p1319) (1855-1890).

MS.7777/35-65: 31 autograph letters bearing dates but no year, from Tyndall to various correspondents. Correspondents include "Paget" (no.47) and "Flower" (no.50), probably the surgeons Sir James Paget (1814-1899) and Sir William Henry Flower (1831-1899), both letters concerning a person struck by lightning; "Mrs. Flower", probably the latter's wife (no.56; see also no.83). Signed (except no.65, which has had the bottom section including the signature cut away) (mid 19th century).

MS.7777/66-87: 22 autograph undated letters, signed, from Tyndall to various correspondents. Correspondents include "Brooke", probably the surgeon and inventor Charles Brooke F.R.S. F.R.C.S. (1804-1879) (no.68), this note mentioning Admiral Sir George Back F.R.S. (1796-1878), the physiologist William Sharpey F.R.S. (1802-1880) (no.75), and "Mrs. Flower", probably the wife of the surgeon Sir William Henry Flower (1831-1899) (no.83; see also no.56). No.69 is attached to a completely unrelated address label written and signed by the naturalist and explorer Baron von Humboldt (Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt) (1769-1859) (mid 19th century).

MS.7777/88-101: 14 autograph letters, signed, from Tyndall to the writer, philologist and divine Frederick William Farrar F.R.S. (1831-1903), later Dean of Canterbury. Persons mentioned include the writer Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) (no.88), the poets Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) (no.89) and Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) (nos.91, 96), the astronomer and mathematician Sir John Lubbock (1803-1865) (no.92), and the botanist and Director of Kew Gardens Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865) (no.100) (1882).

MS.7777/102: 1 autograph letter, signed, from the poet Matthew Arnold to John Tyndall (mid 19th century - late 19th century).

MS.7777/103-107: 5 detached signatures cut from letters by Tyndall (mid 19th century - late 19th century).

MS.7777/108: Printed letter to the Times by Tyndall, describing an accident in the Swiss Alps (mid 19th century - late 19th century).

MS.7777/109: Draft letter by Tyndall, autograph, in pencil (mid 19th century - late 19th century).

MS.7777/110: Autograph manuscript by Tyndall, for insertion in an unspecified larger text, concerning teaching physics to boys (mid 19th century - late 19th century).

MS.7777/111: Autograph pencil draft by Tyndall on the density of the earth (mid 19th century - late 19th century).

Mid-late 19th century

1 file in 2 parts

Purchased from: Sotheby's, London, December 1919 (acc.67287), April 1928 (acc.48104), February 1930 (acc.52479), May 1930 (acc.52792), July 1931 (acc.57468-57479 and 67541), November 1931 (acc.75332), December 1931 (acc.75871), February 1932 (acc.76066), April 1932 (acc.65134), July 1932 (acc.65271) and November 1933 (acc.67472); R.V. Westcott, May 1927 (acc.45498); M. Christie & Wood's, London, May 1928 (acc.57004); Mrs. Barrett, London, March 1930 (acc.91327); Knight, Frank and Rutley, London, July 1930 (acc.73460); Stevens, London, September 1930 (acc.56566), November 1930 (acc.55796), March 1931 (acc.68132), July 1931 (acc.68193), August 1931 (acc.68215 and 68222) and October 1932 (acc.68313); Glendining, London, March 1932 (acc.67624), September 1933 (acc.67769), August 1934 (acc.67833), October 1934 (acc.67926), December 1934 (acc.67935), January 1935 (acc.67950 and 67974) and March 1935 (acc.68475); Desgranges, Paris, January 1934 (acc.66596); Heck, Vienna, 1934 (acc.68627); Mrs. Watson, Burnley, March 1945 (acc.72200), presumably once part of the Thomas Madden Stone autograph collection; J.L.M. Gulley, London, April 1999 (acc.351163). Various items carry an accession number or numbers for which no provenance is recorded: nos.1 (acc.67430), 7 (acc.16470), 8 (acc.92086: possibly purchased at Sotheby's, date unknown), 17 (acc.67430), 23 (acc.16471), 40 (acc.67430), 47 (acc.16473), 49 (acc.67430), 50 (acc.16474 and 67430), 56 (acc.16475), 61 and 64 (acc.67430) and 83 (acc.16472). No.106 part of a batch of material transferred from Wellcome Historical Medical Museum offices, provenance not known (acc.69200); nos.7, 23, 47, 50 and 56 transferred from Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, c.1939 (acc.91800). No accession details recorded for nos.9, 11, 13-15, 21, 27, 29-30, 35, 38-39, 42-46, 58, 66-67, 78-81, 84, 86-87, 104 and 111.

John Tyndall F.R.S. (1820-1893) was a physicist and mountaineer, born in Ireland in County Carlow. His work concentrated on the properties of crystals, on glaciation and the behaviour of ice, and on light. He was noted for the animation and showmanship of his lectures and did much to establish physics as a separate discipline in British education. A full description of his life and work is to be found in the Dictionary of National Biography.

At other repositories

The Royal Institution of Great Britain holds corerspondence and papers of John Tyndall (RI MS JT). Notably, the letter from John Tyndall to James Croll held at Wellcome Collection as MS.7777/8 is a reply to letter from Croll to Tyndall held at the Royal Instition (RI MS JT/TYP/1/65-66).

Database description transcribed from Richard Aspin and Christopher Hilton's typescript supplement to S.A.J Moorat's Catalogue of Western Manuscripts