McIlvaine, William, 1786 - 1854 (American businessman, member of American Philosophical Society, and amateur geologist. Organiser of Lyell's Lowell Lectures, and correspondent with Mary Lyell, based Burlington and Philadelphia)

Scope and Contents Includes two letters to Mary Lyell from McIlvaine from 1846-47. Earliest dated letter is summarised as 'on Hopkins 400m of crust of earth 1846', the other letters are conversational in manner, updating both Lyells [tone assumes both are reading the letters] on local news and associates - summarised as to Charles 'on Holy Innocents', and to Mary on 'Glenroy, Season for Cropping, [Mayall's] Daguerreotype, Calendars, Meteor, Abolitionist, Black Church, Tariff', to Mary, an unsummarised letter,...

Scope and Contents This notebook contains Charles Lyell's notes from 26 April 1846 to 4 May 1846 [the stated end date is inferred from the start date of the following notebook]. The Lyells returned to Philadelphia, following an absence of several months, at the end of April. Charles left his wife with friends at Philadelphia and traveled to Richmond, Virginia to resume his examination of the coal fields, ‘left half-finished in December last’. He made excursions to coal mines north and south of Blackheath,...

Scope and Contents Notebook 183 contains notes from 30 April to 3 July 1853. Many pages throughout the notebook are headed "Manual," referencing the fourth edition of Lyell's "A Manual of Elementary Geology." These notes were used in preparation for the fifth edition, which was published in 1855. In May 1853, Lyell embarks on his fourth trip to the United States, serving as Britain's representative at the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations. He traveled via the steamship Canada, landing in Nova Scotia on...