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Lowell Lectures, Boston, 19 October 1852 - 26 November 1852

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Identifier: Coll-203/B14/15

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Scope and Contents

Since Lyell's last visit to the US, Louis Agassiz had given a series of Lowell Lectures in Autumn 1846, which Lyell had nominated him for, and Lyell had been invited by Prince Albert to join the Royal Commission for the Great Exhibition, held in Crystal Palace. Lowell travelled from Boston to London, and engaged Lyell to present yet another course of Lowell lectures in Autumn 1852.
Lyell had given six lectures at Royal Institution (4 of which dealt with American Geology). His new lectures for this Boston trip, covered six topics, each covered by two lectures, so 12 in all, on Tuesday and Friday evenings, in Boston.
The first eight of these Lowell lectures were modified versions of the Royal Institution, in Mildenhall (Lect.1) and Ipswich (2-8) - these records contain earlier drafts and abstracts prepared for Ipswich. Wilson states: “He revised, rewrote and rethought each lecture before it was delivered” p372.
A newspaper clipping produced by Cotting, advertises a series of 12 lectures, stating the topics as:
The Changes now in progress in the physical geography of the globe which illustrate geological revolutions;
The Tertiary and Creatceous Strata of Europe;
The comparatively modern date of the Alps as as mountain chain;
The alluvial deposits of the Mississippi;
The fauna, flora, climate and atmosphere of the Coal period;
Theory of extinction, and birth of species, and the progressive development of Animal Life in successive epochs.

  1. 1st Lecture, October 1852. Numbered list of illustrations of lectures taken to Boston, assigned numbers from 3-219, a list of specimens No. 1-11. Sheet relating to Lecture One, with references made to Notebooks 177 pg. 14 and 178 pg. 77 (reference Coll-203/A1/177 and 178).
  2. 2nd Lecture, 22 October 1852. Short and long notes. Printed pages from Journal of Science and Art, No.1827, 24 Jan[uary], featuring an announcement of Lyell’s fourth edition of 'A Manual of Elementary Geology'.
  3. 3rd Lecture, Cretaceous'. With original newspaper packet including drafts and abstracts. In preparing this lecture, it appears Lyell reused a lot of a lecture given for Ipswich Museum, 17 December 1851, held at the Corn Exchange. Included here, is a printed advertisement for the lecture at Ipswich Museum. Notes – with timings - are written on the reverse of other papers, including notes on the Drift wood of Iceland; 'Index notes'; 'Index to 1st set of M.S'. There are also several illustrations: of landscapes with church buildings, signed Caroline; of ‘Rocks near [Bastey or Bartley?], copy from Sir E[?] Head; and printed illustration ‘View of a chalk pit, at Horstead Norfolk, Sep 1st 1838, 'Showing the pot stones, in their natural position but so buried in the chalk that the shape of each individual stone cannot be distinguished', by Mrs [Harriet] Gunn of Irstead and S.P Woodward. File also include short notes ‘Part 2, Negative facts and Progressive Development’.
  4. 4th Lecture, 27 October 1852, 'Alps newer than Eocene'. Long and short notes.
  5. 5th Lecture, 30 October 1852. 'On the Delta of the Mississippi'. Detailed drawing showing layout of Lyell's illustrations - which can be identified, with a message from the technician that all 'up safe'. Sketch of the plan of the Mississippi. Includes original newspaper packaging - The Daily News 1848- and notes from a lecture given in Southampton 1846, on same topic. Edited notes, cut and pinned onto newsprint.
  6. 6th Lecture, 3 November 1852, 'Coal compared to the Mississippi Delta'. Long and short notes.
  7. 7th Lecture, 6 November 1852, 'Coal and Greensburg Cheirotherium'. Long notes and list of illustrations.
  8. 8th Lecture, 12 November 1852, original newspaper wrapping from The Express 1851, marked 'Rainprints', and that 'Lecture also given 4 April 1851 at Royal Institution Short notes, plus correspondence with Dr. Webster, Redfield and Woodward sent from Kentville and New York.
  9. 9th Lecture, 9 November 1852, 'Carboniferous Reptile Airbreathers'. Long notes - with news cutting pinned to the back, ‘Fossil Reptile’ - report of the Lowell Lecture.
  10. 9th Lecture. Second folder of material on the 9th Lecture, originally part of the GEN 1999 series. MS of lectures on Geology, delivered at the Lowell Institute, by C Lyell, Boston 1852. Includes original correspondence from James Hall on trains of erratics. Long notes drafting the lecture. Printed paper 'Account of Two Remarkable Trains of Angular Erratic Blocks in Berkshire Massachusetts' by Prof. Henry D. Rogers and Prof. William B. Rogers. Plan of the Mouths of Cut Off & Red River by G. T, Dunbar, Engineer, State of Louisiana. Pencil drawings showing lower town of Natchez from Bellevue Mill, 1838, drawings of parts of Mylodon, views of dwelling house at Bellevue Mill,1836. Long dated noted April 1855 - these could relate to Lyell's paper on Berkshire Erratics, and are heavily edited and crossed out. .
  11. 10th Lecture, 19 November 1852, 'Extinction of Species'. short and long notes, list of illustrations.
  12. 11th Lecture, 20 November 1852, 'Creation of New Species'. Original wrapping is a French newspaper Le Siecle, 20 July 1852. Long and short notes. Folded map, 'The Regions of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere coloured blue show the extent of the permafrost of the ground' signed Dr. Berghaus, Prof. of Geography Berlin'. List of illustrations. Reference to Notebook 177 pg. 18.
  13. 12th Lecture. Manuscript notes, and full copy, on Progressive Development, given November 26 1852, in Boston with newspaper cutting of an article by Hugh Miller on same, in The Witness, 14 January 1852. Includes list of props used in Lecture. [Previously Lyell 7/4]

Dates

  • Creation: 19 October 1852 - 26 November 1852

Creator

Full Extent

12 folders

Language of Materials

English