Resource: Transit of Venus 1874

12201035884?profile=originalThe transit of Venus in 1874 has long been of interest to the photographic historians and the periodicals of the period. A newly released collection of digitised papers at Cambridge Digital Library has been added to the successful Board of Longitude Collection that was released in 2013. The Transit of Venus collection includes a selection of papers and photographs from the Royal Greenwich Observatory archive, including journals kept by Captain George Lyon Tupman as he oversaw training at Greenwich from 1872, led the expedition to Honolulu in 1874 and returned to the Observatory to process the mass of observations until 1880. There are also images and lists of the instruments and stores taken, and the Kailua sub-station journal kept by George Forbes.

In addition to this we have had permission to photograph private papers from the Tupman family, including an album and private journal kept by Tupman and two wonderful volumes of caricature drawings by one of the Honolulu observers, Lieutenant E.J.W. Noble. 

You can see and search the collection here: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/tov

You can read an introductory post here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2016/oct/10/astronomy-expedition-history-hawaii

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