Augustus De Morgan, Polymath

When Augustus De Morgan died in 1871, he was described as ‘one of the profoundest mathematicians in the United Kingdom’ and even as ‘the greatest of our mathematicians’. But he was far more than just a mathematician. Because much of his voluminous written output on various subjects was scattered throughout journals and encyclopaedias, the breadth of his interests and contributions has been underappreciated by historians. Now, renewed interest in De Morgan’s life and work has coincided with the digitization of his extensive library, revealing the extent to which he pioneered and influenced the development of not merely mathematics but also logic, astronomy, the history of mathematics, education, and bibliography. This edited collection celebrates De Morgan as a polymath. Drawing together multiple elements of his activity from a range of publications and archives, its contributors re-assess his academic work, his place in his intellectual environment, and his legacy. The result offers new insight into De Morgan himself as well as the wider circles in which he moved, including his family life

Poetry and piety : the role of verse in mid-Victorian Sunday reading

Mid-Victorian poetry of piety is verse concerned to propagate and sustain simple faith in an age frequently characterised by doubt. The proliferation of 'Sunday verse' may itself be a response to doubt. Section I (Chapters 1-2) establishes the verse's context, and its role within the respectable occupation of Sunday reading. The primary material examined in Section II (Chapters 3-6) establishes the value Victorian writers placed on verse as a means of religious communication. Dependence on the common cultural heritage of the Bible broadened the verse's appeal, especially through cheaply available hymns and periodicals (Chapters 4 and 5). Pious verse is seen as a didactic tool, frequently consolatory, a means of imaginatively exploring difficult concepts in a Manner accessible to the emotions. The developing readership for Sunday verse originates in children's reading (Chapter 6), which stresses social and moral training. Section III (Chapters 7-9) shows the influence of pious verse on a young reader, Marianne Farningham (Chapter 7). From" humble origins, Farningham became self-supporting by her writing, showing how women could gain some independence in this sphere. A broader survey of women's writing (Chapter 8 - principally A.L. Waring, Charlotte Elliott and F.R. Havergal), reveals a strong affinity between women and pious verse, with 'its social and sexual stereotyping. Characteristic aspects of language are more fully explored in Chapter 9. Essential simplicity is related to the argument that language is inadequate to communicate the divine, actively encouraging the less educated as readers and writers of Sunday verse, which thus has a wider readership than other types of verse. In conclusion, pious verse is seen as an egalitarian genre, assisting literacy, supporting respectability and countering doubt. It is a valuable resource for the study of Victorian culture. The thesis is supported by a listing 'of periodicals publishing pious verse, 1850-1875 (Appendix A)j work towards an annotated bibliography of pious verse, 1851-1860 (Appendix B); an analysis of pious verse in the marketplace (Appendix C). Together these demonstrate the widespread availability and commercial viability of Sunday verse

Quantifying and qualifying inventorised ‘heirlooms’ : a reconstruction of the material legacy of the Hammond Family of St Albans Court Nonington 1551 1938 including a searchable dataset

Based on a 1903 inventory of 400 years of property accumulated by the Hammond family of St Albans Court, Nonington, Kent, this thesis seeks to use this record of material wealth to draw out meaning and reflect character from the material legacy of what is outwardly a representative example of the gentry class. The vehicle for this analysis is a dataset created from the inventory itself and available as a searchable digital file. The Hammond’s accumulated material legacy was a means of projection of status, a representation of visible consumerism and tool for social aspiration. The property listed in the inventory shows stereotypical social conservatism, whilst also being culturally sophisticated and alert to cultural fashions and movements. Focusing on the library listings, the interests of poets and artists share space with those of soldiers and bankers. Likewise, a clear love of house and home, shown in the ever-expanding footprint of St Albans Court itself as well the volume of their collections, is contrasted with a desire for continental travel and all that it brought in terms of cultural consumerism and experiences. The thesis aims to match items in the inventory with individual members or generations of the Hammond family as well as using their material legacy to reflect wider cultural and social movements and changes. Using a selection of five items across the collections as indicative of a familial character and attitudes, the history of these in relation to the family at St Albans Court may be traced. Several pieces have been found, and their onward journey, following successive sales of the property between 1918 and 1938 is detailed. The dismantling of their material legacy may be seen as representative of the wider dispersal of a gentry class and the move from private to public ownership of their cultural capital

Special Libraries, May-June 1931

Volume 22, Issue 5https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1931/1004/thumbnail.jp

'Reforming academicians': sculptors of the Royal Academy of Arts, c. 1948–1959

Post-war sculpture created by members of the Royal Academy of Arts was seemingly marginalised by Keynesian state patronage which privileged a new generation of avant-garde sculptors. This thesis considers whether selected Academicians (Siegfried Charoux, Frank Dobson, Maurice Lambert, Alfred Machin, John Skeaping and Charles Wheeler) variously engaged with pedagogy, community, exhibition practice and sculpture for the state, to access ascendant state patronage. Chapter One, The Post-war Expansion of State Patronage , investigates the existing and shifting parameters of patronage of the visual arts and specifically analyses how this was manifest through innovative temporary sculpture exhibitions. Chapter Two, The Royal Academy Sculpture School , examines the reasons why the Academicians maintained a conventional fine arts programme of study, in contrast to that of industrial design imposed by Government upon state art institutions for reasons of economic contribution. This chapter also analyses the role of the art-Master including the influence of émigré teachers, prospects for women sculpture students and the post-war scarcity of resources which inspired the use of new materials and techniques. Chapter Three, The Royal Academy as Community , traces the socialisation of London-based art societies whose memberships helped to identify sculptors for potential election to the Royal Academy; it then considers the gifting of elected Academicians Diploma Works. The empirical mapping of sponsorship for elected sculptors is investigated to determine how the organic profile of the Royal Academy s membership began to accommodate more modern sculptors and identifies a petition for change which may have influenced Munnings s speech (1949). Chapter Four, The Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions , explores the preparatory rituals of the Selection and Hanging Committees, processes for the selection of amateurs works, exhibit genres and critical reception. Moreover it contrasts the Summer Exhibitions with the Arts Council s Sculpture in the Home exhibition series to identify potential duplications. Chapter Five, Sculpture for the State , considers three diverse conduits facilitating the acquisition of sculpture for the state: The Chantrey Collection administered by the Royal Academy and exhibited at the Tate Gallery; the commissioning of Charles Wheeler s Earth and Water (1951 1953) for the new Ministry of Defence, London; and the selection of Siegfried Charoux s The Neighbours (1959) for London County Council s Patronage of the Arts Scheme . For these sculptures, complex expressions of Britishness are considered. In summary this thesis argues that unfettered by their allegiance to the Royal Academy of Arts its sculptors sought ways in which they might participate in the unprecedented opportunities that an expanded model of state patronage presented

‘Many Other Things Worthy of Knowledge and Memory’: The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and its Annotators, 1499-1700

Due to its elaborate woodcuts and artificial language, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1499, hereafter ‘HP’) has traditionally been presented as a fringe anomaly within the histories of the book and of Italian philology. Other studies have examined the influence of the HP in art and literature, but there has been little study of the role of readers in mediating that influence. This framing of the HP as unreadable visual marvel has impeded consideration of Aldus’ creation as a used text within the wider fabric of humanism. Liane Lefaivre’s conceptualisation of the HP as a creative dream-space for idea generation was a significant step towards foregrounding the text’s readers. This thesis set to testing this hypothesis against the experiences of actual readers as recorded in their marginalia. A world census of annotated copies of the HP located a number of examples of prolific annotation, showing readers making use of the HP for a variety of purposes. Benedetto and Paolo Giovio applied a Plinian model of extractive reading to two copies at Como and Modena, reading the HP in a manner analogous to the Natural History. Ben Jonson read his copy of the 1545 HP as a source for visual elements of stage design. An anonymous second hand in Jonson’s copy read the text as an alchemical allegory, as did the hands in a copy at the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library. Pope Alexander VII (Fabio Chigi) combed the text for examples of verbal wit, or acutezze, while comparing Poliphilo’s journeys through an architectural dream with his own passages through Rome. Informed by analogy with modern educational media, I have reframed the HP as a ‘humanistic activity book’, in which readers cultivated their faculty of ingegno through ludic engagement with the text

Special Libraries, May-June 1932

Volume 23, Issue 5https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1932/1004/thumbnail.jp

\u3cem\u3eThe G. Ross Roy Collection of Robert Burns: An Illustrated Catalog\u3c/em\u3e

Established in 1989, the G. Ross Roy Collection of Robert Burns and Burnsiana at the University of South Carolina\u27s Thomas Cooper Library is one of the world\u27s foremost collections dedicated to the study of Scotland\u27s greatest poet. Of the approximately six thousand items described in this catalogue, the largest sections are works by Burns and items of Burnsiana. These include not only separate editions of the poet\u27s major works but also editions with distinctive bindings and variants. Among the notable highlights is one of only two known first-edition copies of The Merry Muses of Caledonia (1799) and the only one with a complete title page. Also detailed are landmark collections of Burns, including the exceptionally rare Kilmarnock edition (1786) and the 1787 Edinburgh edition. The collection includes as well Burns\u27s annotated copy of John Moore\u27s novel Zeluco and a copy of The World with more than sixty ascriptions and comments in Burns\u27s hand. The catalogued Burnsiana features almost every book-length study of the poet as well as numerous pamphlets and books with significant sections about Burns. Among the collection\u27s manuscripts described in the catalog is the song Lesley Bailie—A Scots Ballad (1792), the only known copy in Burns\u27s hand. And the most unique artifacts of realia seen here are Burns\u27s porridge bowl and horn spoon, inherited by Roy from his grandfather. This illustrated catalogue of the collection\u27s expansive holdings was published in 2009 on the occasion of Burns\u27s 250th birthday as a guide to the current collection for researchers and collectors alike. Several hundred new items have been added to the Roy Collection since the publication of this catalogue in 2009. To search the current holdings of the Collection search University of South Carolina Columbia Rare Books & Special Collections

Steering Taste: Ernest Marsh, a study of private collecting in England in the early 20th Century

The primary aim of this thesis is to focus attention on the bourgeois, 'un-named' collector. The driving force behind most museum and art gallery collections of the Victorian and Edwardian period. British museum and art gallery records of gifted collections, bequests and loans usually note their donors. However, with a few notable exceptions, little is known about the collectors, their activities and motivation in making such presentations. Using the interests and activities of the Quaker miller and collector Ernest Marsh (1843-1945) as a case study, this thesis explores how in the period 1890-1945 a collector came to be a key agent in the construction and manifestation of taste in British Applied Arts and to a lesser degree in the Fine Arts. Through primary visual and documentary evidence of the Marsh home, and reference to contemporary and later commentaries it considers the relative influences of husband and wife on decorating and furnishing the domestic interior, the evolution of taste, and, for Ernest Marsh, its impact upon his artistic interests within the public arena. By examination of private papers, metropolitan and provincial art gallery and museum archives it also considers evidence of the inter-relationships between donors and curators, and the mutual advantages and disadvantages accruing to both, particularly focussing on the processes in bringing about changes in individual and institutional collecting policy. Further, by review of records of, in particular, the Contemporary Art Society and the Greenslade archive, it examines the degree to which private benefactors and those in public or semi-public office, acting as fund-raisers and spenders exercise influence through patronage of particular practitioners, choice of works and initiating new designs