A History of Popular Astronomy in Australia in the Era of the Lantern Slide
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Abstract This is the first extended study of popular astronomy in Australia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There has been considerable interest in the history of popular science in Britain in this period but less study of practices elsewhere. This thesis provides both original research and a comparison. The periodization 1825–1910 corresponds to the era of the lantern as a major media format, reflecting the importance of visual and material practices. Beyond the general Victorian-era interest in visuality, ‘teaching through the eye’ had particular relevance to the visual science of astronomy. It is argued that the public knowledge practices of popular astronomy are intimately connected with the technologies of visual and material communication and that the lantern was a particularly high-impact medium. Research primarily involved analysis of newspapers, magazines, and manuscripts. This included a broad survey of astronomy in popular culture through sources such as travel diaries and weather almanacs, and detailed case-studies, such as the 1880 tour of Australia and New Zealand of the British astronomer Richard Proctor and the use of popular astronomy by freethought lecturers of the 1890s. A contention of the thesis is that practices of astronomical popularization change on multiple timescales. Scientific discovery can be fast while cultural frameworks change more slowly. Analysing these multiple timescales needs approaches beyond the microhistorical techniques common in recent scholarship. This thesis adopts an analytic framework of cultural schemata, which can trace how ideas work through social and material technologies at various timescales. Five cultural schemata relating to astronomy are described: Australia is a land under the southern stars; astronomy tells of a sky that is a source of power and danger; astronomy gives insight into religion; astronomy is an exemplary science; and astronomy speaks to the human condition through the possibilities of life elsewhere. The astronomical sublime is considered as a combination of these. All are shown to be persistent cultural resources that both reflected and shaped experience. This unique combination of cultural schemata distinguishes popular astronomy from other forms of popular science and scholars should consider ‘popular science’ as a hybrid category in a similar way that historians of science have considered ‘science’. The local performance of these practices shaped the identities of colonial Australia in a particular way while simultaneously being tied into a worldwide trade in knowledge and entertainment. Astronomy is a notable factor in sustaining the global imagination of colonial Australians. Acknowledgements Doing a cultural history of ideas teaches that all knowledge is created in community. Yet it rings true that undertaking a PhD is a lonely exercise. Many people have bridged that gap for me. The Swinburne Institute for Social Research was an amazingly productive environment. I particularly wish to thank fellow candidates and ex-candidates for their friendship and support: Robyn Sampson, Amanda Lawrence, Christina Ting, Jennifer Witheridge, Regina Sirendi, Juliana Lobo De Queiroz and Emily van de Nagel. Staff and researchers of the Institute also welcomed me and guided my research: Scott Ewing, Ramon Lobato, Angela Daly, Karen Hughes, Kerry Ryan, Peter Browne, Lorenzo Verancini, Terry Newton, Aneta Podkalicka, Andrew Dodd, Sean McNelis, Stephen Glackin, Sandy Gifford, Linda Briskman, Brian Costar and Viv Waller. This incredible environment was due to the work of Grace Lee and her team of administrators, including Teresa Calabria, Lourdes Jeyacumar and Maria Han. Administrative staff, library staff and associates elsewhere in Swinburne are too numerous to name. I may not have always understood your systems but I have always appreciated your help in navigating them. Primary research for this thesis was only possible because of the work of librarians, archivists, collection managers, curators and the digital humanities across Australia and New Zealand. I want to thank especially Lorenzo Iozzi from Museums Victoria and Vanessa Jacobs from the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences for making your collections available to me. Tanya Hill of the Melbourne Planetarium was quick to assist and Gail Davis from State Records New South Wales went to extraordinary efforts for me on a fruitless hunt. The roll-call of always-pestered yet ever- helpful librarians, archivists and collection managers from Museum Victoria, the State Library of Victoria, the National Library of Australia, the Queen Victoria Museum, the Mitchell Library, the Allport Library, the Fryer Library, the Turnbull Library, the National Maritime Museum, the Ballarat Art Gallery, the University of Tasmania Special Collections, the University of Sydney Special Collections, the University of Melbourne Special Collections, Deakin University Special Collections, Victoria University Special Collections, the Public Records Office of Victoria, the State Records of New South Wales, the State Archives of Queensland, the Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office and the Melbourne Athenaeum would fill a volume in itself. Although I have not met them I would also like to put a shout-out to the facilitators of Trove. It is an incredible asset for Australia without which a study like this would not be possible. Long may it grow. The subject matter of my study is broad. I could not have managed without the assistance offered by people who know far more than I do. Encountering this generosity of spirit and meeting wonderful people with a passion for knowledge is truly the chiefest delight in doing academic work. Wayne Orchiston, Ruth Barton, Ian Edwards, Zoe Robertson, Tiffany Shellam, Clay Djubal, Allister Hardiman, Mark Butterworth, Peter Love, Colleen Boyle, Richard Smith, James Chase, Emmaline Bexley, Hsiang-Fu Huang, Jan Golinski, John Stenhouse, Simon Nathan, Alexander Hall, Ian Hesketh, Paul Robertson, Jeffrey Smith, Tanya Zoe Robinson and Stephen Szabo: all of you have taught me important things. This thesis reflects that weakly but my gratitude is strong. Of course all errors remain my own unique contribution to this field. To my mother: you gave me the love of learning. To my father: you taught me the value of work. To the Okes: your support has been invaluable. To Remi, to Aida: you have lifted my every step. One advantage of doing a thesis a little later in life is to have so many role models amongst my friends. Alex McDermott, Simon Booth, Julie Connolly, Tom Clark, Jess Whyte, Mark Cote, Jen Pybus, Becky Batagol, Cathy Oke, Alison Oke, Anna Clark: you are all inspiring. Help from friends goes well beyond that: assistance and encouragement from Collette O’Neill, Con Tuohy, Simon Kent, Sam Searle, Nick Melchior, Karin Moning, Helen Lawson Williams, Ben Tiefholz and Mark Cornelius was crucial. Did I mention the support the Okes have given me? I have been fortunate to have several people read my work closely and give invaluable assistance: Bernard Lightman, Richard Gillespie, Fiona Fidler, Rob Oke. At every stage, my panel Liam Burke and Jason Bainbridge encouraged me. My examiners, Charlotte Bigg and Rod Home, engaged with this text in many important ways. Special thanks to panel chair Ellie Rennie for advice throughout. Gratitude to Mike Leach is heartfelt, if just for letting me lift the joke in the first paragraph above. My supervisors Jock Given, Julian Thomas and Chris Fluke deserve whatever plaudits are due to this thesis. The training you have provided me is far beyond reasonable expectation. Your imprint on my work is everlasting. I can only hope to give credit to that in the future. My sister Stacey Bush deserves to be acknowledged in every paragraph above. You have been family, friend, mentor, inspiration, reader and subject expert. Thank you. To my partner Nicole Oke, undying gratitude. To say that this thesis would have been impossible without you is an understatement. To say that I would have few reasons for it without you is not an overstatement. I will never forget the work you have done and the sacrifices you have made to get me to completion. I am glad we are past putting each other through this. Declaration I declare that this thesis contains neither material by myself that has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma nor—to the best of my knowledge—material written by another without due reference. An edited version of Chapter 3 has been published in the Historical Records of Australian Science. ____________________ Martin Bush 1/11/2017 Contents List of Tables ....................................................................................... xii List of Figures .................................................................................... xiii Prologue ............................................................................................ 1 1: Studying Popular Astronomy ........................................................ 9 1.1 The practice of popular science ................................................. 11 1.2 The problem of multiple timescales .......................................... 16 1.3 Lantern slides and materiality .................................................... 22 1.4 Scope of thesis ............................................................................ 26 1.5 Sources ........................................................................................ 29 2: A survey of Australian colonial popular astronomy ................