Victorian Observing Practices,Printing Technology,and Representations of the Solar Corona,(1): The 1860s and 1870s

Archives cited:

CAY: Charles Augustus Young Papers, Dartmouth College Library.

JNL: J. Norman Lockyer Papers, Rare Book Room, Exeter University Library.

MLS: Mary Lea Shane Archives of the Lick Observatory, University of California—Santa Cruz.

NP: Simon Newcomb Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

RAS: Library of the Royal Astronomical Society, London.

RGO: Royal Greenwich Observatory Archives, Cambridge University Library.

ROE: Library of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.

RS: Library of the Royal Society, London.

My thinking on the topic of visual representation in astronomy has been influenced by Edgerton Samuel Y. , “Galileo, Florentine ‘disegno’, and the ‘strange spottednesse’ of the Moon”, Art journal, xliv (1984), 225–32; Ashworth William B. , The face of the Moon: Galileo to Apollo (catalogue of exhibition in Linda Hall Library, Kansas City, Miss., 1989–90); and Edgerton and Lynch Michael , “Aesthetics and digital image processing: Representational craft in contemporary astronomy”, in Fyfe Gordon and Law John (eds), Picturing power: Visual depiction and social relations (Sociological Review Monograph 35; London, 1988), 184–219. On imaging practices in the nineteenth century I have especially drawn on Blum Shelby Ann , Picturing nature: American nineteenth-century zoological illustration (Princeton, N.J., 1993); Daston Lorraine and Galison Peter , “The image of objectivity”, Representations, xl (fall, 1992), 81–128; Rothermel Holly , “Images of the Sun: Warren De la Rue, George Biddell Airy and celestial photography”, The British journal of the history of science, xxvi (1993), 137–69; and Schaffer Simon , “Astronomers mark time: Discipline and the personal equation”, Science in context, ii (1988), 115–45.

On the place of eclipse observation in solar physics, see Hufbauer Karl , Exploring the Sun: Solar science since Galileo (Baltimore, 1991).

On technology and amateur-professional debates, see Lankford John , “Amateur versus professional: The transatlantic debate over the measurement of Jovian longitude”, BAA journal, lxxxix (1979), 574–82; idem, “Amateurs versus professionals: The controversy over telescope size in late Victorian science”, Isis, lxxii (1981), 11–28. On the mid-Victorian drawing-photography relationship, see Hamerton Gilbert Philip , “Relation between photography and painting”, in his Thoughts about art (London, 1889), chap. 4; Seibering Grace , Amateurs, photography, and the mid-Victorian imagination (Chicago, 1986); Nickel Doug , “The camera and other drawing machines”, in Weaver Mike (ed.), British photography in the nineteenth century: The fine art tradition (Cambridge, 1989), 1–10.

Brett John to Lockyer Norman J. , 18 November 1870 (RAS Papers 51.1). On Brett, see Staley Allen , The Pre-Raphaelite landscape (Oxford, 1973), 124–37; Bendiner Kenneth , “John Brett's ‘The Glacier of Rosenlaui’”, Art journal, xliv (1984), 241–8; on Holiday, see Holiday Henry , Reminiscences of my life (London, 1914). The 1860 eclipse was drawn by Joseph Bonomi, an illustrator whose work was “scattered through all the principal Egyptologists' publications of his time”: “Bonomi, Joseph the younger”, Dictionary of national biography, v, 364. See also Samuel Hunter to Arthur Ranyard, 16 November 1870 (RAS Papers 51.2); and “Report by Captain A.B. Fyers, R.E. on the eclipse of 1871”, n.d. (RAS, Ranyard Papers, MSS 5.4).

Smyth Piazzi Charles , “On astronomical drawing”, Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, xv (1846), 71–82, p. 75; Herschel John , Outlines of astronomy, 4th edn (Philadelphia, 1860), 512.

Brett John , “Instructions to observers”, handwritten ms., 18 November 1870 (RAS Papers 51.1); idem, “Some particulars to be especially noticed by those observers who make drawings of the corona”, handwritten ms., n.d. (JNL, File “Eclipse 1871—Packet 2”).

For extended descriptions of drawing practices, see C. E. Burton to Ranyard, n.d. (RAS, Ranyard Papers, MSS 5.4); Carpenter James , “Report on proceedings in reference to the solar eclipse expedition, 1870 December”, handwritten ms., 12 January 1871 (RGO 6/131), 12–13, 16–17; Chisholm R. F. , “Extracts from general observations on the total eclipse of December 12, 1871”, Astronomical register, March 1872, 237–9; Holiday , Reminiscences (ref. 4), 170, 171, 209, 211; on materials, see MacDonald J. Major , “Report of the Eclipse of the 18th August 1868…”, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, September 1868, 215–18, p. 215; Stone E. J. , “Observations of the total solar eclipse of April 16, 1874”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [hereafter: MNRAS], xxxiv (1874), 399–401; idem, “Solar eclipse without instrumental means”, MNRAS, lvi (1896), 451–2; on blindfolding, see Schuster Arthur , “Some remarks on the total solar eclipse of July 29, 1878”, MNRAS, xxxix (1878), 44–47, p. 45; Simon Newcomb diary, 29 July 1878, brown notebook #833 (NP, Box 1, “Diaries and Notebooks”).

Smyth , “On astronomical drawing” (ref. 5), 75, 72.

Chisholm , “Extracts from general observations on the total eclipse of December 12, 1871” (ref. 7), 238; Holiday , Reminiscences (ref. 4), 210, 211. On the emotional challenges of eclipse observation see Soojung-Kim Pang Alex , “The social event of the season: Solar eclipse expeditions and Victorian culture”, Isis, lxxxiv (1993), 252–77.

Galton Francis , “A visit to north Spain at the time of the eclipse”, in Galton (ed.), Vacation tourists and notes of travel in 1860 (London, 1861), 422–55, p. 440; De la Rue Warren , “On the total solar eclipse of July 18th, 1860, observed at Rivabellosa, near Miranda de Ebro, in Spain (Bakerian Lecture 1862)”, Philosophical transactions, clviii (1862), 333–410, p. 356; Tennant James F. , “Report on the total eclipse of the Sun, August 17–18, 1868”, Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, xxxvii (1869), 1–49, p. 21; Chisholm , “Extracts from general observations” (ref. 7), 239; Tanner Captain , “Remarks on the total eclipse of the 18th of August, 1868…”, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, September 1868, 209–15, p. 212; George Darwin to Ranyard, n.d. (RAS, Ranyard Papers, MSS 5.2); Tennant James F. , “Suggestions for visitors to the total eclipse of 12 December 1871”, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, July 1871, 150–5, p. 154.

Gemsheim Helmut , A concise history of photography (Mineola, New York, 1986), 16; Todd Loomis Mabel , Total eclipses of the Sun (Boston, 1894), chap. 11; Darwin Leonard Schuster Arthur , and Maunder Edward W. , “On the total solar eclipse of August 29, 1886”, Philosophical transactions, ser. A, clxxx (1889), 291–350, p. 293; Henry Davis to Lockyer, n.d. 1871 (JNL, Eclipse Box 1, File “Eclipse 1871, Packet 2”); Fabian Ranier and Adam Hans-Christian , Masters of early travel photography (New York, 1988), 16–19.

Smyth , “On astronomical drawing” (ref. 5), 72. Again, Smyth's views follow those of John Herschel, who described the problem of representations of nebulae as originating “partly from the difficulty of correctly drawing, and still more, engraving such objects”: Herschel , Outlines of astronomy (ref. 5), 512.

Proctor Richard , “First fruits of the eclipse observations”, Gentleman's magazine, September 1878, 288–303, p. 299 (italics in the original).

Making positives from reproduced negatives was standard practice, as it protected the original: See Smyth , “On photographic illustrations for books”, Transactions of the Scottish Society of Arts, v (1861), 87–92; De la Rue , “On the total solar eclipse of July 18th, 1860” (ref. 10), 399. On retouching, see Alfred Brothers to Lockyer, 4 February 1871 (RAS Papers 51.1); Ranyard to George Biddell Airy, 30 January 1872 (RGO 6/133).

The literature on engraving and photomechanical reproduction is immense. For historians of Victorian science, essential works include Ivins William , Prints and visual communication (Cambridge, Mass., 1973); Bridson Gavin and Wakeman Geoffrey , Prinlmaking and picture printing: A bibliographical guide to artistic and industrial techniques in Britain 1750–1900 (Williamsburg, Va., 1984); Gascoigne Bamber , How to identify prints: A complete guide to manual and mechanical processes from woodcut to ink-jet (New York, 1986).

This discussion is based on Dyson Anthony , Pictures to print: The nineteenth-century engraving trade (London, 1984); Fox Celina , “The engravers' battle for professional recognition in early nineteenth-century London”, London journal, ii (1976), 3–32; Jussim Estelle , Visual communication and the graphic arts (New York, 1983), chap. 8; Goldschmidt Lucien , “Tangible fact, poetic interpretation”, in Goldschmidt and Naef Weston J. (eds), The truthful lens: A survey of the photographically illustrated book, 1844–1914 (New York, 1980), 3–7.

As one writer put it, at the height of his craft the best engraver “ceases to be a copyist to become a translator”: Blanc Charles , Grammar of painting and engraving (Cambridge, 1874), 245.

Jussim , “The syntax of reality”, in her The eternal moment: Essays on the photographic image (New York, 1989), 19–36, p. 19.

Rothermel , “Images of the Sun” (ref. 1), p. 153.

Airy to De la Rue, 27 August 1860 (RGO 6/123).

Airy to De la Rue, 27 March 1861 (RGO 6/123).

De la Rue to Airy, 28 March 1861 (RGO 6/123).

Tennant to Tennant , 9 September 1872 (JNL, Lockyer Letters, File T).

De la Rue , “On heliotypography”, MNRAS, xxii (1862), 278–9; idem, “On a photo-engraving of a lunar photograph”, MNRAS, xxv (1865), 171.

Wright Helena E. , Imperishable beauty: Pictures printed in collotype (Washington, 1988), unpaginated; Elson Walter Alfred , Lectures on printing (Cambridge, Mass., 1913), Part iv, p. 36; De la Rue to Airy, 17 July 1869 (RGO 6/122).

Hamerton , Thoughts about art (ref. 3), 58.

Tennant , “Suggestions for visitors to the total eclipse of 12 December 1871” (ref. 7), 154.

De la Rue discovered an interesting variation in the brightness of prominences by making “copies obtained by a very long exposure of the original negative which brings out details [normally] masked”: De la Rue to Airy, 28 March 1861 (RGO 6/123).

Tennant , “Report of the total eclipse of the Sun, August 17–18, 1868” (ref. 7), 35.

Brothers Alfred , “Eclipse expedition 1870, Sicilian section, photography department”, handwritten ms, n.d., n.p. (RAS MSS 5.2). This attitude gave Brothers license to alter his photographs: He painted in the prominences on his glass positive copies of the 1870 eclipse. See glass photograph “Brothers, Sicily December 1870” (CAY, Box 3, Folder 31, “Miscellaneous folders”).

Lawrance H. and Woods Ray C. to Woods Ray C. , 21 May 1883 (JNL, File “Eclipse 1883”). Lawrance and Woods wrote from Caroline Island, in the South Pacific.

De la Rue , “On the total solar eclipse of July 18th, 1860” (ref. 10), 409. This also probably created problems for engravers, who were taught to ignore detail and instead use certain methods to suggest softness, transparency, etc.: Blanc , Grammar of painting and engraving (ref. 17), chap. 3.

As Charles Smyth wrote, “Errors are always copied, and magnified as they go… [so that] after a few removes, the alleged portrait of nature is only a caricature of the idiosyncrasies of the first artist”: Smyth , Tenerife, an astronomer's experiment; or specialties of a residence above the clouds (London, 1858), 426.

Ranyard A. C. , (ed.), “Observations made during total solar eclipses”, Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, xli (1879), see pp. v-vi; Airy to Lockyer, 3 April 1871 (RGO 6/133).

Ranyard to Robert Bagnes, 7, 17, 24 October, 1871; Bagnes to Ranyard, 15, 22, 27 October 1871; Burton to Ranyard, 6 November 1871; J. Hostage to Ranyard, 2 November 1871, 20 April 1872, 18 December 1872 (RAS MSS 5.2); Brett to Ranyard, 13 January 1871 (RAS Papers 51.1).

Ranyard , (ed.), “Observations made during total solar eclipses” (ref. 34), 483.

Ranyard to Airy, 11 January 1872 (RGO 6/133).

Airy to Ranyard, 19 July 1873 (RGO 6/135). This policy was similar to that of other scientific publishers. Reviewers for the Royal Society specified whether pictures could be “easily gathered from the text” or should be copied with “the utmost skill and care”. They also sometimes suggested how illustrations should be presented — with scales, comparison illustrations, etc. See Royal Society reader's reports, RR 9/108, 13/60, 13/217; quotation from RR 13/63.

De la Rue to E. Durkin, 14 July 1873 (RGO 6/135).

Ranyard to Airy, 8 February 1872 (RGO 6/133).

Biographical details are from Turner Hall Herbert , “William Henry Wesley”, MNRAS, lxxxiii (1923), 255–9; Knobel E. B. , “William Henry Wesley”, The observatory, xlv (1922), 354–5. William Wesley's father was a printer and bookseller whose firm published astronomical books, imported foreign scientific journals, and served as a node in the Smithsonian international exchange network; his father-in-law, Robert Henson, was a mineralogist whose Regent Street shop (a few blocks from the RAS) supplied the Royal Institution and British Museum. Information on William Wesley & Sons taken from letter of H. K. Swann (Chairman, Wheldon & Wesley Ltd) to author, 2 August 1990 (in author's possession); on Henson, see obituary of “Samuel Henson (1848–1930)”, Mineralogical magazine, xxii (1930), 395. I will take up the subject of the Victorian scientific working classes in a later article.

Davis Barnard Joseph , Thesaurus craniorum: Catalogue of the skulls of the various races of man (London, 1867), Figs 62, 77, 86–91; Mivart St George , “On the appendicular skeleton of the primates”, Philosophical transactions, clvii (1867), 299–420, Plates 11–14; Owen Richard , “Description of the cavern of Bruniquel, and its organic contents (in 2 parts)”, Philosophical transactions, clix (1869), 517–51, woodcuts by Wesley; idem, “On the fossil mammals of Australia, Part 3, Diprotodon australis”, Philosophical transactions, clx (1870), 519–78, Plates 35, 43–50, woodcuts in text by Wesley; Wesley to Owen, 9 December 1869, 25 March 1886 (Owen Papers, British Museum (Natural History)). The conflicts between these scientists is described in Desmond Adrian , Archetypes and ancestors: Paleontology in Victorian London, 1825–1875 (Chicago, 1984).

Ranyard , (ed.), “Observations made during total solar eclipses” (ref. 34), Plates 2–8.

Tennant to Airy, 11 May 1872; De la Rue to Airy, 15 May 1872 (RGO 6/135). This was a situation often encountered by engravers hired to copy paintings: See Dyson , Pictures to print (ref. 16), 33, 72.

An example of a private observer taking important photographs was Alfred Brothers: See plate marked “Brothers—Sicily December 1870” (CAY, Box 3, File 31). On the Royal Society and the RAS, see Royal Society Eclipse Committee minutes, 4 February 1875, 5 May 1886 (Royal Society Library); Maunder to Edward Holden, 14 March 1894 (MLS, Box 39).

Ranyard A.C. , “On a remarkable structure visible upon the photographs of the solar eclipse of December 12, 1871”, MNRAS, xxxiv (1874), 365–9, p. 366; De la Rue to Airy, 15 May 1872 (ref. 44); De la Rue to Tennant, 23 May 1872; Tennant to Airy, 27 May 1872 (RGO 6/135).

Ranyard, two notes passed to Airy during RAS Council meeting, 28 June 1972; Airy to De la Rue, 29 June 1872; Airy to Ranyard, 29 June 1872; Ranyard to Airy, 29 June 1872; De la Rue to Airy, 1 July 1872 (RGO 6/135).

Ranyard to Airy, 20 June 1872; Airy to Tennant, 30 May 1872 (RGO 6/135); Airy to Ranyard, 29 January 1872 (RGO 6/133).

Quote is from De la Rue to Airy, 12 October 1869 (RGO 6/122); see also Airy to Tennant, 3 November 1868,29 July 1869; Tennant to Airy, 8 November 1868,27 March 1869; De la Rue to Airy, 23 October 1869 (RGO 6/122). Again, this situation parallels art reproduction: See Dyson , Pictures to print (ref. 16), 33, 38–40.

On other uses of composites in science, see Daston and Galison , “The image of objectivity” (ref. 1), 101–3. Composite photographs were also popular in artistic photography in this period: Harker Margaret F. , Henry Peach Robinson: Master of photographic art, 1830–1901 (London, 1988), chaps. 3–4; Ranyard , “On a remarkable structure visible upon the photographs of the solar eclipse of December 12, 1871” (ref. 46), 366.

Ibid., 365–6.

Caveats like these were often placed on engravings to assure readers of their authenticity as scientific rather than artistic products: See De la Rue , “On heliotypography” (ref. 24), quote on plate following p. 278; idem, “On a photo-engraving of a lunar photograph” (ref. 24), 171, plate following p. 171.

Ranyard , “On a remarkable structure visible upon the photographs of the solar eclipse of December 12, 1871” (ref. 46), 365.

De la Rue , “On the total solar eclipse of July 18th, 1860” (ref. 10), 338; De la Rue to Airy, 26 August 1860 (RGO 6/123).

Wesley , “Editorial note [obituary of A. Cowper Ranyard]”, Knowledge, 1 February 1895, 25–27, p. 25.

Ranyard to Airy, 20 June 1872 (ref. 48); Lord James Lindsay to Airy, 28 June 1872 (RGO 6/135).

Tennant , “Report of the total eclipse of the Sun, August 17–18, 1868” (ref. 10), 33; De la Rue to Airy, 17 July 1869 (RGO 6/122); Airy replied that “they really are very pretty”: Airy to De la Rue, 19 July 1869 (RGO 6/122).

Tennant , “Report of the total eclipse of the Sun, August 17–18, 1868” (ref. 10), 48, 36. This bears an obvious resemblance to Robert Boyle's listing of witnesses of experiment, and served the same function: See Shapin , “Pump and circumstance: Robert Boyle's literary technology”, Social studies of science, xiv (1984), 481–520.

Ranyard to Airy, 9 September 1872 (RGO 6/135). On production times, see Hill George Thomas , The essentials of illustration: A practical guide to the reproduction of drawings and photographs for the use of scientists and others (London, 1915), 1; on relief etchings, Gascoigne , How to identify prints (ref. 15) sec. 6–8.

Twyman Michael , Lithography 1800–1850: The techniques of drawing on stone in England and France and their application in works of topography (Oxford, 1970), chaps. 1, 5; Gascoigne , How to identify prints (ref. 15), sec. 19a-e.

Ranyard to Airy, 9 September 1872 (RGO 6/135).

Tennant to Lockyer, 9 September 1872 (JNL, Lockyer Letters, File T).

De la Rue to Airy , 3 September 1872 (RGO 6/135). De la Rue expressed similar opinions about mezzotint during the printing of Tennant's report: See De la Rue to Airy, 23 October 1869 (RGO 6/122). Fading was a well-known problem of mezzotint: See Blanc , Grammar of painting and engraving (ref. 17), chap. 5.

Airy to De la Rue, 31 August 1872 (RGO 6/135).

Ranyard to Airy, 14 November 1872 and 3 December 1872 (RGO 6/135). Sales figure is from advertisements for portraits, Illustrated news of the world, 5 January 1861, 6. Information on Pound's work is in Hake H. M. , Catalogue of engraved British portraits preserved in the department of prints and drawings in the British Museum, vi: Supplement and indexes (London, 1925), 665, and entries for individual portraits in vols i-iv. The albums included Drawing room portrait gallery of eminent personages (London, 1859–62), Portraits and memoirs of the royal family of England (London, 1862), and The statesmen of England (London, 1862).

Pound Daniel J. to Pound Daniel J. , 2 December 1872 (RGO 6/135).

Ranyard to Ranyard , 14 November 1872 and 3 December 1872 (RGO 6/135).

Ranyard , “Estimate for each photograph copied”, n.d. (RGO 6/135).

Ranyard to Ranyard , 28 December 1872 (RGO 6/135).

Report of Council, MNRAS, xxxv (1875), 164; xxxvi (1876), 135; xxxvii (1877), 141; xxxviii (1878), 142; and xxxix (1879), 215. Advance copies of the first 480 pages were available in March 1878: Ranyard to Charles Young, 7 March 1878 (CAY, File “Ranyard, A.C.”).

Dupman G. L. to Dupman G. L. , 10 February 1874 (RGO 6/135); the article was Ranyard , “On a remarkable structure visible upon the photographs of the solar eclipse of December 12, 1871” (ref. 46). The pictures were also published in the Memoirs eclipse volume as Plates 10–17.

Henry Draper to Ranyard, 10 August 1880; Samuel Langley to Ranyard, 28 April 1880; Pickering to Ranyard, 3 August 1880; Ball to Ranyard 7 May 1880 (RAS MSS 6); Proctor , “The Sun's corona and his spots”, Contemporary review, September 1878, 322–338.

Hale Ellery George , “Arthur Ranyard, 1845–1894”, Astrophysical journal, i (1894), 168. Ranyard tried to tempt Charles Young into writing for Knowledge with the promise to “do anything I could to illustrate a paper for you … [with] any photograph you wished reproduced”: Ranyard to Young, 31 May 1893 (CAY, File “Ranyard, A.C.”).

Huggins , “On some results of photographing the solar corona without an eclipse”, repr. in William and Huggins Margaret (eds), The scientific papers of William Huggins (London, 1909), 324–6, p. 324; Hufbauer Karl , “Artificial eclipses: Bernard Lyot and the coronagraph”, Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences, xxiv (1994), 337–94.

“The little drawing looks so beautiful: I think now we ought to have put your name to it”, Turner to Wesley, 3 March 1898 (RAS Papers, File “H. H. Turner”); Henson Samuel , “On a crystal of apatite”, Mineralogical magazine, v (1883), 198. Wesley appears to have developed a relationship with the printing firm of West, Newman & Co. Thirteen of fifteen lithographed plates in the Monthly notices were printed by them, at a time when almost all Monthly notices plates were printed by Spottiswoode & Co. Wesley also contributed short articles to Knowledge: See “The formation of coral reefs”, 1 November 1888,4–7; “Footprints of a prehistoric man”, 1 December 1888, 28–30; “The volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands”, 1 March 1889, 97–100.

Boeddicker Otto , The Milky Way from the North Pole to 100° of south declination drawn at the Earl of Rosse's observatory at Birr Castle (London, 1892); Wesley and Blagg Mary A. , IAU map of the Moon: Based on the fiducial measures of S. A. Saunders and J. Franz (London, 1935).

Waters Sidney , “On two distribution maps of the nebulae and clusters in Dr. Dreyer's catalogue of 1888”, MNRAS, liv (1894), 526–8, p. 526.

Turner to Wesley, 18 November 1896 (RAS Papers, File “H. H. Turner”).

Ralph Copeland had originally described Wesley as a “draughtsman”, but changed the word to “expert”: Copeland to Committee on Scientific Endowment, University of Edinburgh, 27 January 1899 (ROE, File 36.262).

Andrew A. Common to Copeland, 28 April 1899 (ROE, File 36.262).