11. Augustus De Morgan

Abstract

Correspondence and mathematical papers generated by De Morgan can be found in numerous libraries throughout the British Isles and, to a lesser extent, in the United States. The collections are of different sizes and levels of importance, including family letters among others at Senate House Library, University of London, correspondence with publishers (letters to the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge at University College London) and communications with scientific organisations (the Royal Astronomical Society, kept at the RAS). Above all there are his letters to numerous scientists and mathematicians, such as Sir William Rowan Hamilton (Trinity College Dublin), Charles Babbage (British Library), William Whewell (Trinity College, Cambridge), Sir George Airy (Cambridge University Library), and Sir John Herschel (Royal Society). Some letters to De Morgan also survive through having been pasted into his books, now at Senate House Library. This chapter summarises the emphasis and salient features of each of the multiple archival collections to provide an overview, of a sort never attempted before.