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Arthur Schuster Papers

Date range: 1851-1934

Medium: Archive

Papers of Sir Arthur Schuster (1851–1934), Langworthy Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester (formerly Owens College) from 1888 to 1907, and a pioneer in several areas of scientific study.

Schuster’s interests included terrestrial magnetism, optics, solar physics, and the mathematical theory of periodicities. He introduced meteorology as a subject studied in British universities. After his retirement in 1907 he devoted himself to the administration of the Royal Society, and to the organization of international co-operation in science.

The collection contains correspondence between Schuster and many of the leading scientists of the period, such as Lord Rutherford. Correspondence with Sir Robert Falcon Scott and the meteorologist Sir George Clarke Simpson concerns Scott’s last, ill-fated Antarctic Expedition.

Schuster’s papers include personal documents such as his academic certificates and diplomas. There are a number of papers relating to the construction of the Physical Laboratories at Manchester (a building which Schuster personally helped finance) and his work with the Royal Society. There is a relatively small amount of correspondence in the collection, including letters from Lord Rutherford, George Stokes and Henry Roscoe. There are also letters from Sir Robert Falcon Scott (these are mainly transcripts of original documents not held by the Library) and the meteorologist Sir George Clarke Simpson concerning Scott's last, ill-fated Antarctic Expedition.

The Schuster Papers are a useful source of information for the development of academic physics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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Further information:

Catalogue available online via ELGAR.

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