The Proctor-Parkes Incident: Politics, Protestants and Popular Astronomy in Australia in 1880

Bush, Martin

doi:10.1071/hr17001

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Whether they would do so was very much in question. 8 See Bush (2017) for a description of the major controversies of this tour. 9 Proctor's first wife died in 1879.…”

Section: The Institutions Of Astronomy In Australia At the Time Were In Fluxmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mary Proctor and the Cawthron observatory project: a lost history of the Mount Stromlo Observatory

Bush¹

2022

Hist. Rec. Aust. Sci.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Between 1912 and 1914, the Anglo-American popularizer of astronomy, Mary Proctor, undertook a tour of Australia and New Zealand in order to promote a solar observatory project that would ultimately be realized as the Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia. Proctor came at the request of Walter Geoffrey Duffield, who would go on to be the first Director of the Mt Stromlo Observatory and who saw the need to raise funds and public support for the project. Proctor’s tour was high-profile and nearly saw the realization of a solar observatory as part of the Cawthron Institute at Nelson, New Zealand. Despite this, Proctor’s tour is absent from histories of Mount Stromlo and, until recently, had also been overlooked in New Zealand. I argue that this historical lacuna speaks to a number of historiographical biases: for success over failure; against the role of public activities in scientific work; and downplaying the contribution of women. Mary Proctor was a significant transitional figure in the history of early twentieth-century science-communication who should be more widely recognised.

show abstract

“…Whether they would do so was very much in question. 8 See Bush (2017) for a description of the major controversies of this tour. 9 Proctor's first wife died in 1879.…”

Section: The Institutions Of Astronomy In Australia At the Time Were In Fluxmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mary Proctor and the Cawthron observatory project: a lost history of the Mount Stromlo Observatory

Bush¹

2022

Hist. Rec. Aust. Sci.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Freethought was well associated in Australia and New Zealand with the visit of astronomer Richard Proctor, and the controversies that visit engendered. (Bush, 2017b) Collins himself would draw upon the banning of Proctor's lecture by Henry Parkes in order to enlist memories of the astronomer in the cause. (Sydney Morning Herald, 1890) Joseph Symes, Collins' forerunner as NSS lecturer in Australia, had an even greater focus on astronomy than Collins, albeit with an unusual interpretation.…”

Section: Each Disputant Deployed Traditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Astronomy was an important cultural resource for freethinkers by 1891. An important memory associating astronomy with Freethought for audiences at the Tuam Street Hall would have been that of the controversial visit to Australia and New Zealand of Richard Proctor (Bush, 2017). One month after his debate with Hosking, Collins would engage on the platform with another opponent with astronomical inclinations.…”

Section: Astronomy Was Important To These Disputes In the Nineteenth Centurymentioning

confidence: 99%

1891: The Collins–Hosking debate, Christchurch

Bush

2018

Public Underst Sci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over four nights in December 1891 two men traded verbal barbs at the Tuam Street Hall in Christchurch, New Zealand. At dispute was the worth of belief in God. The wrangling largely turned on how their audiences would understand science. Freethought activist William Whitehouse Collins had challenged any Christian minister in Christchurch, New Zealand to meet him on the platform. On the 8 th December through the pages of the Press, Free Methodist minister John Hosking accepted. (Press, 1891a) The Collins-Hosking performance was one of the most scientifically oriented debates between secularists and christians of the late nineteenth century, anywhere in the world. Both proponents mobilised contemporary facts of science in pursuit of particular ends by harnessing them to well understood cultural associations: of science, astronomy and the cosmos. This debate is a powerful example of how popular science thrives through cultural meaning, rather than the epistemic value that is so persistently a part of the self-perception of popularisers. COLLINS AND HOSKING WERE EXPERIENCED DEBATERS William Whitehouse Collins (Figure 1) trained as a professional secularist lecturer. Born to a politically radical tradition, i Collins initally trained as a Baptist Minister before throwing his

show abstract

The astronomical lantern slide set and the Eidouranion in Australia

Bush

2019

Early Popular Visual Culture

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Astronomical lantern slide sets were amongst the first to be commercially produced, and also the most long-lasting. The visual techniques of lanternism were shaped by earlier practice of stage astronomy, involving devices like the Eidouranion and the Dioastrodoxon. I describe the extent of this tradition in colonial Australia and argue that an examination of less central examples is revealing of its full influence. Evidence for a number of transparent orrieries in Australia is presented, including that of John Cox in Sydney, and Phineas Moss in Tasmania. Other references to the devices of stage astronomy, such as by Laurence Hynes Halloran, are also described. Visualisations of stage astronomy were significant in Australia as in Britain for the practice of astronomical lanternism. The transfer of visual techniques is interesting at both ends of the magic lantern period.

show abstract

The Proctor-Parkes Incident: Politics, Protestants and Popular Astronomy in Australia in 1880

Cited by 4 publications

References 8 publications

Mary Proctor and the Cawthron observatory project: a lost history of the Mount Stromlo Observatory

Mary Proctor and the Cawthron observatory project: a lost history of the Mount Stromlo Observatory

1891: The Collins–Hosking debate, Christchurch

The astronomical lantern slide set and the Eidouranion in Australia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About