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Hi John, I’m indeed a new BAA member and eager to see the notebooks. I’ll privately write you about the matter, as I’ll gladly have a look at them live, and not just online.
Elementary, my dear Watson! And now I’ll add Memoirs of the British Astronomical Association to the list of collections or journals that mention her. Thank you! I could get used to your ability to find sources; I’m writing a book on the history of globular clusters, focusing on descriptions and sketches from the 1800s (I have around 400 sources from books of that era so far, and this is what then led me to start purchasing them. I now own about a hundred), but I’ll open that topic in another dedicated thread.
Thanks again for the interesting material. I owe you a beer when I’m next in the UK.
Having read your request for information re the above named….
Hi David C., I see you’re an excellent sleuth! I had set my father loose on Ancestry, but he didn’t find much. Thank you for the information; it’s very interesting for placing Mary in the right context. Could you please send me the links to the sources (I know they might be behind paywalls, but my father has at least an Ancestry account)? The patent issue is also intriguing; I’ll try to figure out how to dig into old patents, as the topic has piqued my curiosity, even though it likely has nothing to do with astronomy.
Thank you for taking an interest in this person who, I believe, deserves more credit and recognition, even if it’s just by creating a single point with all the information about her, digitizing her notes (I’ll gladly help), and linking and citing all the journals she interacted with. There are so few women active in astronomy from that era, and it’s a shame she has remained in the shadows.
By the way, I just realized that the book she owned, with her signature attached, was a book from the BAA! I imagine it was chosen to be sold because there was a better copy, but if I were you, I would have kept it just for Mary’s autograph!
Yes the BAA does have Mary Ashley’s notebooks in its archives. To look at these you would have to speak to the archivists: see the inside back page of the Journal for their contact details. I’ll also message you privately about this.
David Arditti (President)
Hi David, will surely do! I can’t wait to dive into her notes; they must be truly fascinating. For now, I’ve enjoyed overlaying the only sketch of hers that I’ve managed to find within a publication (Selenographical Journal) onto a modern image. It’s just a draft without any pretensions, but it was interesting to see how attentive she was to certain details. I also plan to select some of the areas she observed and draw them myself, if I haven’t already done so in the past, to compare the sketches. I’ll get in touch with the archivists and as soon as I can, I’ll fly over to visit you. Literally.
