The John Tyndall Correspondence Project

The Project

The John Tyndall Correspondence Project is an academic research project to transcribe the letters of the celebrated nineteenth century Anglo-Irish scientist John Tyndall (1820-1893).  Best known today as a founding father of climate science, he was most widely known in Victorian Britain as a physicist who entertained thousands with his popular scientific lectures and books and whose views on religion and politics sparked some of the most heated controversies of the period.  Despite his notoriety and fame, historical studies of Tyndall are comparatively rare.  The Tyndall Correspondence Project aims to fill the considerable gap in current scholarship by transcribing, and publishing online, all of Tyndall’s 8,000 letters.  The letters cover a wide range of topics including the physical and life sciences, religion, politics (especially relating to Ireland), philosophy, and literature.

The Project is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and National Science Foundation and the host institution is York University, Canada.  The Project participants include the University of Exeter and a host of higher education institutions in Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the United States of America.  Postgraduate student transcribers have already been recruited at the majority of these institutions.  The University of Exeter’s contribution will be coordinated by Dr. Richard Noakes at the Cornwall Campus.  As well as publishing the letters, the Project is building a lively network of postgraduate students and more senior academics whose interpretations and discussions of Tyndall’s letters are rapidly developing current understanding of Victorian sciences and culture.

The Project aims to provide postgraduate students with important research skills and important material for career development.  It is expected that transcribers will use their work as the basis for a postgraduate degree qualification, as well as for material presented at scholarly conference and in undergraduate teaching.

Skills

The transcribers will need to have excellent literacy in English.  A good, first degree in history, English literature, or related field is essential.  An understanding of nineteenth century British history is preferable but not essential.  Transcribers will be provided with digital images of letters which they will transcribe according to a protocol detailed here.

Hours of Work

The total bursary awarded to the University of Exeter by the Tyndall Project is £2,600.

We are looking for two postgraduate students who would be able to transcribe a minimum of 125 letters and be paid £8.50 an hour, working 5 hours a week for 30 weeks.

Application Procedure

Applicants should send a CV and covering letter to Dr. Richard Noakes, Department of History, The University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, Treliever Road, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9EZ.  The deadline for applications is 1 August 2010.  The start date is September 2010.

Applicants must be registered on a postgraduate programme at the University of Exeter in October 2010 to be eligible for this bursary.

For further details about the project please click here.