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Palace Green Library
Palace Green
DURHAM
DH1 3RN
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)191 334 2972
Email: pg.library@durham.ac.uk
General
Resources for some specific areas are highlighted below, but resources for many more specific topics can be discovered by searching for the appropriate topic (such as Mathematics, or Arithmetic, or Algebra, or Geometry, or Mechanics) in Discover and by restricting the search to ‘Durham Archives’ or by searching the printed catalogue by selecting the topic as a subject or keyword and restricting the search to ‘Special Collections’ or ‘Ushaw College’.
Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall, and his book - Mathematical Bishops of Durham
One of the earliest and most significant works on Mathematics in the collections is Cuthbert Tunstall’s book on Arithmetic, De arte supputandi, originally published in 1522. He went on to be Bishop of Durham 1530-1559, but he was not the only mathematician to become Durham’s bishop: both Joseph Lightfoot (bishop 1879-1889) and Ian Ramsey (bishop 1966-1972) excelled early at Mathematics. Their papers are amongst the collections at 5 The College.
Printed Works on Mathematics
ASC’s collections are rich in books on Mathematics, including more than one copy of the first edition of Newton’s seminal work Principia (1687). There are various editions of the mathematicians of the classical world such as Euclid and Archimedes, studies of Mathematics as an academic discipline, and text books for it for school pupils. There are also runs of such as The Gentleman's diary, or The mathematical repository; An almanack … for various years in the 18th and 19th centuries. Works are not just English, but also from such as France and Germany. Many of the books are from the collection of Sir Edward Collingwood (1900-1970), eminent mathematician, chair of the university’s council and dedicatee of Collingwood College. His collection also includes his own research papers and an extensive collection of offprints of fellow mathematicians.
There is also an extensive collection of books on Mathematics in the Big Library in Ushaw College, many from the 19th century and earlier, acquired for the training of its seminarians.
Mathematics at the University
The teaching of Mathematics has always been part of the degree courses of the university with such as Euclid featuring from the earliest days. So the university’s archive contains much on that teaching, including course syllabuses, exam papers, marks and pass lists of student successful in the subject. There is also material on the subject’s wider development within the university, and of the development of the department and its members. Papers are held of some of the earliest figures in the discipline at Durham, including Charles Whitley (1808-1895) first Reader in Mathematics and Temple Chevallier (1794-1873) first Professor of Mathematics, and also astronomer.
Astronomy and Surveying
The 18th century Thomas Wright was an eminent mathematician and astronomer whose papers feature work on the universe, comets, longitude, and the divine nature of visible creation, along with a collection of material about him, accumulated through the later researches of Professor F.A. Paneth. Then there is also the extensive archive of the university’s Observatory c.1839-1953, which also includes material for other observatories, and papers of the university’s astronomer and Professor of Mathematics R.A. Sampson (1866-1939).
The papers of Tankred Tunstall-Behrens (1878-1939) feature his boundary surveying work in Uganda 1902-1906, Peru-Bolivia 1910-1911, and Austria-Italy 1920-1924. The Sudan archive of contains papers of various British officials involved in surveying work in that part of Africa in the 20th century, including C.F. Ryder, R.C. Wakefield, P.M. Tottenham, C.W.L. Crompton and S.L. Milligan.
