Rebekah Higgitt

Profile

Curator of the History of Science and Technology

Rebekah Higgitt I research, speak and write about the NMM’s collection of instruments and objects relating to astronomy, the history of the Royal Observatory and the role of science and technology in Britain's maritime past.

My favourite subject to talk about

I'm fascinated by the ad hoc nature of the Observatory’s buildings: new astronomical techniques were developed, new instruments arrived, unforeseen needs arose and so a new building was thrown up or an old one knocked down. They tell us a lot about the development of astronomy between the 17th and early 20th centuries.

The questions I'm asked most often

Why is the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory?

There are an infinity of meridian lines around the globe, running from pole to pole, but they only become important when they are used as a reference point. This happens, for example, when astronomers set up their instrument on a meridian and make observations from that position. The more people who refer to a particular meridian – for determing their position in longitude or for determining time – the more important it becomes. By the 1770s the Greenwich Meridian was a reference point for most British sailors, astronomers and map-makers, and by 1880 it was used to determine standard time in Great Britain and was the most commonly used Prime Meridian for international shipping. Since 1851 the Greenwich Meridian has been defined by the Transit Circle installed by George Airy, 7th Astronomer Royal. This line slowly became an international Prime Meridian around the turn of the 20th century as, one by one, nations around the world decided to use it in their maps and to adopt a standard time linked to GMT.

Did anyone do astrology at the observatory?

The short answer is, no. However, John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, did draw up an astrological chart marking the foundation of the observatory on 10 August 1675. While this seems to have been a bit of a joke, Flamsteed, when he was younger and like many of his contemporaries, had been convinced by aspects of astrology. As Astronomer Royal he occasionally supplied astronomical observations to the authors of astrological almanacs, or made use of the almanacs himself. However, for most of the observatory’s history astrology had ceased to be a concern of the scientific elite.

My recommended books and links

A brief introduction to the history of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, can be found on the ROG's website, but the most thorough history of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich is the three volumes by Eric G. Forbes, A. J. Meadows and Derek Howse: Greenwich Observatory is available in the Museum's Caird Library.

Howse is also author of Greenwich Time and Longitude. For a fantastic, illustrated snapshot of what the Observatory was like at the end of the 19th century see E. Walter Maunder's The Royal Observatory, Greenwich: a Glance at its History and Work (1900) and my historic blog Cosmic Diary: Greenwich 1894 , which is based on the working journals of the Astronomer Royal and Chief Assistant.

Academic profile

Curator for the History of Science and Technology

Biography

After completing my PhD in 2004 at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at Imperial College London, I undertook postdoctoral research at the Institute of Geography at the University of Edinburgh. I arrived at the NMM in May 2008.

Collections responsible for

Astronomical instruments and related material (including armillary spheres, astrolabes, hour-glasses, nocturnals, orreries, quadrants, sextants, sundials, telescopes)
Magnetic instruments (including dip circles, galvanometers and magnetometers)
Meteorological instruments (including anemometers, barometers, thermometers and instruments for measuring rainfall and sunshine)

Areas of research and interest

My current research interest is the relationship of the Royal Observatory in the 19th century with other scientific institutions and with the public. I am interested in how the government-funded staff at the observatory understood their role within the scientific world, how they explained their work to the public, how and why they popularised astronomy more broadly and their understanding and use of the observatory’s heritage in these contexts.

Current NMM projects

I am one of the team working on an academic project with the University of Cambridge on the history of the Board of Longitude. I am also currently working on two forthcoming temporary exhibitions for the new Samy Ofer Wing. One looks at the Thames as a 'royal river' and the other will display the use and representation of astronomy from the earliest time to the 18th century.

Past NMM projects

To celebrate the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, I put together an exhibition for Collections Online on Popular Astronomy in the 18th and 19th centuries. As part of the Royal Observatory's Solar Season in early 2010, I worked on the small temporary exhibition, Solar Story.

External fellowships/honorary postitions/membership of professional bodies

Honorary Fellow – Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London
Member of Peer Review College, Arts and Humanities Research Council
Book Reviews Editor for Endeavour

Selected publications

Books

Recreating Newton: Biographies of Newton and the Making of Nineteenth-Century History of Science (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2007)
(ed.) Nineteenth-Century Biography of Isaac Newton: Public Debate and Private Controversy, vol. 2 of Rob Iliffe, Milo Keynes and Rebekah Higgitt (eds), Early Biographies of Isaac Newton, 1660-1885 (2 vols, London: Pickering & Chatto, 2006)

Articles:

With Graham Dolan, 'Greenwich, time and the line', Endeavour 34 (2010), 35-39
‘Science and sociability: women as audience at the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1831-1901’, Isis 99 (2008), 1-27
With Charles W.J. Withers and Diarmid Finnegan, ‘Historical geographies of provincial science: themes in the setting and reception of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Britain, 1831-c.1939’, British Journal for the History of Science (forthcoming 2008)
‘Discriminating days? Partiality and impartiality in nineteenth-century biographies of Newton’, in Thomas Söderqvist (ed.) The Poetics of Biography in Science, Technology and Medicine (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), 155-72
With Charles W.J. Withers and Diarmid Finnegan, ‘Geography’s other histories? Geography and science in the British Association for the Advancement of Knowledge, 1831-c. 1933’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 31 (2006), 433-51
‘Why I do not FRS my tail: Augustus De Morgan and The Royal Society’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 60 (2006), 253-59
‘President, patron, friend and lover: Charles Montagu’s significance to the history of science’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 59 (2005), 155-70
‘Astronomers against Newton? Francis Baily’s Account of the First Astronomer Royal’, Endeavour 28 (2004), 20-24
‘“Newton dépossédé!” The British response to the Pascal forgeries of 1867’, British Journal for the History of Science 36 (2003), 437-53