“Astronomers Royal “  Saturday 20^th April – A Report by Gerard Gilligan

Synopsis

“I was annoyed that my turn for reading was so much disapproved of, and thought it unjust that women should have been given a desire for knowledge if it were wrong to acquire it.”

 Mary Somerville (1780-1872), author of five books covering topics such as mathematics, astronomy, geology, chemistry and physics, was truly a polymath and the first person to be called ‘scientist’ in print.  She is often portrayed as having received little education but in this talk Ruth will show how we need to think differently about what we mean by education and how Mary’s thirst for knowledge never stopped.  Even the skills she learnt as a young lady in order to attract a husband helped shape her work.

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Ruth currently works for the Scottish Book Trust on their Early Years programme called Bookbug, but also freelance as a tour guide (particularly on women’s history walking tours in Edinburgh), speaker and historical researcher.  Ruth has previously worked for the National Library of Scotland as their John Murray Archive Project Curator, and has also done historical research for authors and TV programmes such as ‘Who Do You Think You Are’.  Women’s history is her real passion and (when time and funding allows) Ruth is currently researching and writing a biography about Mary Somerville, and also researching the Scottish 1911 census and the suffrage movement.

Please visit : www.ruthboreham.com

For further details on attending the talk contact webmaster@shastro.co.uk

Today marks the 20th Anniversary of the formation of the Society for the History of Astronomy on 29th June 2002.

One of the core activities of the Society is to collect details of lesser-known figures in astronomy and their related organisations, buildings/structures/sites, known as ‘The Survey’. The information gathered can be found on the website constructed for this purpose. https://shasurvey.wordpress.com/

A celebration Book has been written to commemorate the anniversary.

Details of how to purchase a copy of this book can be obtain from the chair, Gerard Gilligan, at chairman@shastro.org.uk

Details of the Society can be found on https://societyforthehistoryofastronomy.com/

at The Birmingham & Midland Institute, 9 Margaret St, Birmingham, B3 3BS.

Speakers
Emily Winterburn : Tracking down the lost & forgotten astronomical women of Empire
Daniel Belteki : James Glaisher and the Editor-ship of Illustrated London Almanack
Lee Macdonald : Proposals to move Greenwich Observatory
Hilary Forbes : Aristarchus
Allan Chapman : From Hershel’s 48inch to the JWST in 200 years. Where next?

Conference Poster

Conference Flier

Speaker Information

Booking Form WORD

Booking Form PDF

This is being made freely available to all who wish to download it.

This is because of the unprecedented Global Coronacrisis we are all in.

The SHA Council hope you find it interesting and that it leads to you wanting to know more about Astronomy and its fascinating History

SHA BULLETIN 33

Dear Members and friends of the SHA.

The Society will suspend all meetings and BMI Library openings until further notice. This is  due to the current situation and the need for containment of the C-19 virus outbreak. We will keep members informed and council officers will be in contact with those members, in the next few days, who have paid for meetings attendance and associated refreshments already. Venues, Invited speakers and visitors are being contacted separately by members of council.

While we realise that the cancellation and postponement of events and meetings will cause some inconvenience and disappointment, the health and wellbeing of our society members, venue staff and visitors is our highest priority.

We hope to re-arrange some events/meetings later in the year.

I wish you good health at this time, and please follow the official advice:

NHS/Public Health Service advice.

Gerard Gilligan

Chairman The Society for the History of Astronomy.

14th March 2020.