Edmund Halley (after a 1712 painting by T. Murray)

Artist John II Faber (British; English, 1695 - 1756)

Artistic Source Murray, T., 1663-1734, British

Date1712 - 1722

Place of ManufactureEurope

Mediummezzotint

DimensionsOverall (support; plate - 34.5 x 25.0): 45.4 x 29 cm

ClassificationsFINE ART

Credit LineGift of Thomas G. Watson

Object number1962.272.001

DescriptionEdmund Halley, 1656 - 1742, born at London. The greatest English astronomer of the 17th & 18th Centuries, we associate this vivacious & charming man with the comet whose cylical return he first predicted, but often forget that throughout his long life he was envolved with many aspects of science & that he, together with Newton & Boyle, is one of the remarkable men who made the Royal Society renowned throughout Europe, a society to which he was elected at twenty-two. He laid the foundation of austral stellar astronomic observation, an early product of a life time of such observation. He published Newton's 'Principia' at his own expence, proposed a theory to account for the variations of the compass & in 1699 penetrated 52 deg. south, the farthest south anyone had then been & surveyed the coasts of the South Atlantic. He also produced the first map of tides in the English Channel. In 1713 he was appointed Secretary to the Royal Society & in 1721 he was made Astronomer Royal.

Status

Not on view