HAND-LIST OF THE JEVONS ARCHIVES IN THE JOHN RYLANDS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MANCHESTER by PETER McNIVEN, M.A., Ph.D. SUB-LIBRARIAN, ARCHIVES, THE JOHN RYLANDS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY The Jevons archives in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, which are recorded in the list which follows, originated from two main sources. The greater part of the collec- tion comprises material given to the Library by Mrs Rosamond Konekamp, daughter of William Stanley Jevons's son Herbert Stanley. A first instalment consisting of papers relating to Jevons's professional career was deposited in the Library in 1961, and a quantity of family and other personal material was added in 1971. An exhibition of selections from these papers was held in the University Library in the Autumn of 1971 in connection with a History of Economic Thought Conference which took place in September. These archives have been recognised, since the 1960s, as a rich source of original material relating to the life and work of William Stanley Jevons,' best known for his studies in Political Economy, though they also contain a substantial body of material on other members of his family. They were used extensively in the production of the standard edition of Jevons's papers by Professor R. D. Collison Black and Mrs Konekamp (Macmillan, London, 1972-8 1, in 7 volumes). The second, smaller group consisted of papers relating to William Stanley Jevons which were originally entrusted to Dr Wolfe Mays, of Manchester University's Department of Philosophy, by Professor Herbert Stanley Jevons. These were eventually donated to the Library in 1978. This material has There is as yet no full-length biography of William Stanley Jevons. For general biographical information, see the "Biographical introduction" to the edition of Jevons's Papers and correspondence by R. D. Collison Black and R. Konekamp, i. (London, 1972). 1-52; also J. M. Keynes's "William Stanley Jevons, 1835-1882: a centenary allocution on his life and work as economist and statistician" in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, xcix. 5 16-48, reprinted in Keynes's Essays in biography, new ed., ed. G. Keynes (London, 1951), pp. 255- 309; and Dictionary of National Biography, xxix (London, 1892). 374-8. 214 THE JOHN RYLANDS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY received far less scholarly attention, and the general impression that it contains papers exclusively concerned with Jevons's work on Logic is rather misleading. There is also material relating to Political Economy and the Social Sciences, including notes on iron and coal, human nature, development and evolution, and family budgetting; approximately half the material does not deal with Logic. The scope of Professor Black's study is such that the Jevons archives in the Library may profitably be described in relation to his work. Professor Black's declared intention was to include only that correspondence which passed between William Stanley Jevons and students of economics, and only that family corre- spondence which touched upon 'external' affairs rather than purely personal matters. The seven volumes also contain Jevons's 'Journal' and a number of previously unpublished works on economic subjects. Thus, while the published correspondence contains letters on economic subjects which are not held in Manchester, the Jevons archives in the Library contain a large body of correspondence on a wide range of other academic subjects, as well as many largely unpublished letters between members of the Jevons family. In any study of Jevons's cor- respondence, the present list may therefore be used to maximum advantage in conjunction with the index (in volume VII) to Professor Black's work. Though the Library's holdings contain material relating to about 40 members of the family of Jevons, and another twenty members of the related family of Roscoe, the greater part of the collection (6/1/1-6/51/42) is directly concerned with William Stanley Jevons. This section contains over 600 items of corre- spondence, including 180 from family and relatives. About half the academically-related correspondence derives from the material handed down by Herbert Stanley Jevons. Most of this concerns Jevons's work in Logic and Philosophy, but a significant pro- portion does not, and some academics figure in both groups of archives. Jevons's work, and to a certain extent that of his correspondents, was interdisciplinary, and there seemed little virtue in attempting to subdivide the academic correspondence into subjects, thereby splitting the letters of individual writers and incurring the risk of locating some correspondence in inappropriate categories. Likewise, because of the related nature of the material in the two groups of archives, it did not seem THE JEVONS ARCHIVES 215 necessary to retain their separate identities for the purpose of this list. The original provenance of the individual items may still be traced if necessary. The collection of Jevons's diaries and notebooks (61411-22) contains, in addition to the published 'Journal' and 'diary of a journey to the diggings', a number of diaries for c. 1854-62, including material on his career in Australia. Jevons's Australian days, however, are perhaps recorded most vividly in the well- known collection of original photographs, most of which are contained in two albums (3311 /l -2). The most extensive section of the whole archive is the collection of material written or collected by Jevons in his study of a wide range of academic disciplines. These are arranged in the following categories. i) Logic (615). ii) Political economy - general (616). iii) Political economy - specific subjects in alphabetical order (617-6126). iv) Natural sciences in alphabetical order (6127-6132). v) Social science topics in alphabetical order (6133-6144). vi) Miscellaneous 'minor' topics (6145-48). In addition to the manuscripts of his principal published works, there are a number of substantial pieces of lesser-known writidg. These include 'A fundamental error in the late Prof. Boole's method of probabilities' (615112); 'The solar influence on commerce' (612111); 'Experimental legislation and the drink traffic' (613313); and 'The rationale of free public libraries' (614111). Other material includes printed copies of Jevons's articles and pamphlets, newscuttings and other printed items relating to his subjects of study, and copies of articles by contemporary students of the same fields of scholarship. Above all, there is a mass of rough notes and drafts on a great range of subjects which provide invaluable evidence as to the nature of Jevons's preliminary research and thoughts. There is a particular profusion of such notes on J. S. Mill's logical methods (615142-96); the quantification of the predicate (6/5/104-50); logic in general (61511 52-220) ; banks and banking (6171 1- 142) ; coal (61914- 142) ; iron and steel (611 311 -58) ; land (611411-52) ; sunspots and economic fluctuations (612113-62); taxation (612213-54); trade and commerce (612311-117) ; human nature and evolution (613611 -83) ; and population (614213-93). Of particular sociological interest are 216 THE JOHN RYLANDS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY certain groups of material on matters not usually associated with Jevons's work. These include the original forms from a survey on family budgetting (6/34), contemporary data on infant mortality and welfare (6138) and material for a study of the social consequences of the employment of women (6144). Jevons's papers are followed by three small compilations consisting of documents relating to his career (6/49), printed comments on his work (6150) and obituary material (6151). Of the forty or so other members of the Jevons family who figure in the archives, the best represented are William Stanley's father Thomas (3); the latter's eldest daughter Lucy (4); Harriet Ann, William Stanley's wife (7); and their son Herbert Stanley (8). There is a substantial body of largely unpublished correspondence addressed to Thomas and Harriet Ann. Documents trace the career of Thomas as a businessman and inventor, while Lucy's papers include a lengthy manuscript entitled 'Recollections of my brother', written shortly after his death. A number of Harriet's diaries of touring holidays survive, as do ephemera relating to Herbert Stanley's childhood. The remaining family correspon- dence includes 36 letters from William Stanley Jevons to his elder brother Herbert, 44 to his younger sister Henrietta Elizabeth ('Henny'), and 18 to his youngest brother Thomas Edwin. There is valuable genealogical information on the families of Jevons and Roscoe, and a few items relate to Harriet Ann Jevons's relations, the Taylors and the Boyces. The ephemera which conclude the list include numerous family photographs; an original watercolour painting of Bay Lodge, Bowdon, the family home of Harriet Ann Jevons and her sisters, and three original tinted drawings; three printed books bound by the young William Stanley Jevons; and a small collection of nineteenthcentury maps of London. Indexes to persons, and to places, institutions and subjects have been supplied. I. WILLIAM JEVONS (1760-1852), GRANDFATHER OF WILLIAM STANLEY JEVONS 1/1/1-10. CORRESPONDENCE Thomas Jevons, son (1802, 1817), 2; Timothy Jevons, father (1799, 1801), 2; William Jevons, son (18 13-17), 3; Thomas William Hill, father of Rowland Hill (1 847). THE JEVONS ARCHIVES 217 Letters from William Jevons to William Jevons, son (1845) (photocopy), and unidentified (1850). 1/2/13 MISCELLANEOUS 1/2/12 Writings. Thoughts on his 80th birthday, l l October 1840; lines written at the Christmas dinner, 1843, with a list of those present. (Photocopies). 11213. Brief anonymous account of his life. Printed, n.d. 11. ANN JEVONS, NEE WOOD (1767-1846), WIFE OF WILLIAM JEVONS Ann Jevons, daughter ( 18 17, n.d.), 3 ; William Jevons, son (1815). 111. THOMAS JEVONS (1791-1855), ELDEST SON OF WILLIAM AND ANN JEVONS 3/1/1- 3/2/19.