Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1906-1939 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
1 volume, with a file of loose material (8 single sheets, 2 folded sheets).
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Arthur Stanley Eddington was born in 1888 into a Quaker family, and remained of that religion all his life. He was educated at Brynmelyn School, Weston-super-Mare, and Owen’s College, Manchester, before coming up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1902. He graduated in 1905 and spent a short time in Cambridge as a mathematical coach, but in 1906 went to Greenwich as Chief Assistant to the Astronomer Royal. He returned to Cambridge in 1913 as Plumian Professor of Astronomy, and the following year was also appointed Director of the Cambridge Observatory. He held these posts for the rest of his life. Eddington’s most significant scientific contributions were to the study of the structure and movements of stars, the implications of Einstein’s theory of relativity, and the search for a ‘fundamental theory’ to unite the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Gift from E. J. Elliot (matr. 1902), Dec 1958.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Includes: personal 'Chronology'; list of 'Examinations, Decrees, Scholarships and Appointments'; chronological record of places visited; books read (with dates) - a second version towards the rear of the book is ordered alphabetically; list of works authored, including reviews; table of miles cycled per month between 1898 and 1917; chronological record of cycling tours; list of longest rides, 1891-1921. Amongst the diary entries, further lists appear, for example of books read or theatre attended in a particular year; a map of travel in 1905 is also drawn in.