[Nhcoll-l] Save Charles Lyell's Notebooks

[Liath Appleton]

Posting on behalf of the SPNHC 2020 Scotland LOC:

You may have recently seen in the press that the University of Edinburgh is
currently trying to acquire the scientific notebooks of the great geologist
Sir Charles Lyell. The collection has been described by  Professor James
Secord (University of Cambridge), Professor Charles Withers and Geographer
Royal for Scotland as \"Perhaps the most important scientific collection
still in private hands.\" You will be aware that Sir Charles Lyell was
widely recognised in his day as one of the world’s foremost scientists and
is regarded as one of the founders of modern geology and earth sciences.
Largely unpublished, this substantial and almost entirely complete
collection of notebooks provides evidence of Lyell\'s influential thinking
and the development of his ideas on a wide range of scientific and social
topics including geology, evolution, climate change, slavery, educational
reform and the role of women in science. Lyell was a colourful speaker
having a broad influence on the general public and on fellow scientists,
including Charles Darwin.

Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections could help with
the University’s efforts to save these notebooks. If you were able to share
news of our campaign and our web address:
https://www.ed.ac.uk/giving/save-lyell-notebooks with your members, or
tweet using #SaveLyellNotebooks perhaps on your website and through your
mailing lists, we would be very grateful. We’re confident that if enough
relevant people learn about this exciting opportunity we can get enough
support to succeed. And of course we’d be delighted to add your name to our
online list of prominent supporters and endorsers.

If we are successful in saving Lyell’s notebooks we plan on making them
fully and freely accessible; physically in our centre for research
collections and in UK and international exhibitions, but also digitally and
online; so that everyone can benefit from this unique and remarkable
geological and natural history archive.

Please do get in touch to discuss further or ask any questions.

Thanks in advance for your help

David
National Museums Scotland, Scottish Charity, No. SC 011130
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