Item 18-34 - List of recipients of papers of Arthur Cayley, with copies of letters to them from W. W. Rouse Ball

18 single typescript sheets, fastened together with butterfly clips.

The list gives the name of each recipient, and a brief note of what they were sent of Cayley's papers by Rouse Ball. The copies of letters sent to recipients are in most case form letters, explaining that on the death of Cayley's widow his papers were put into Rouse Ball's hands with a request that he should destroy or dispose of them as he saw fit; 'all involving matter which might be published was dealt with years ago, and what was preserved has no interest beyond the fact that it is a specimen of his work'. Longer letters were sent to G. T. Bennett, also asking whether he would like to see the models of Archimedean and other solids made by W. W. Taylor, and to D. E. Smith, also taking the opportunity to send a paper on Euler which might be of interest to the American Mathematical Monthly. A long second letter to E. H. Neville gives details of the nature of Cayley's papers, and the principles by which Rouse Ball decided what should be destroyed: 'As for letters to him, of which many hundreds were put in my hands, I laid down the rule that in general such letters should be destroyed or sent back to the writers if they were alive'; lists the few exceptions; the letter also suggests that Neville take a look at Monge's Card-Shuffling Problem.