A Science Fit for the Chapel: Astronomy in Nineteenth-Century Wales

• Author / Creator

  Bridges, Jake E.

• Astronomy was a culturally prominent practice during the nineteenth century in Britain. In this thesis I examine the development of astronomy in one area, Wales. Astronomy became an important subject in the lecturing industry that emerged during the century as lecturers promoted astronomical narratives using sublime images with religious aspects. Using orreries, magic lanterns, and planetariums, lecturers brought astronomical phenomena to a new and engaged public. Town halls, chapels, Sunday schools, and theatres were transformed into temporary spaces for the consumption of scientific knowledge to ever-growing audiences. Scientific interests grew from lectures, and in the 1830s local science societies were established in numerous Welsh towns that sought to create a permanent space for the production and consumption of knowledge. By 1848, the British Association for the Advancement of Science’s meeting in Swansea demonstrated Welsh people’s desire to link to the centre of a growing scientific community in England. A growing Welsh literate public engaged with astronomy through new publications that expressed astronomy’s connection to cultural myths, heritage, and folklore. The start of Welsh- language astronomical initiatives placed science at the forefront of a new Welsh culture and identity as authors characterized astronomy as a distinctly Welsh tradition. Publications framed astronomers as druids who were the gatekeepers of scientific knowledge and the wielders of cultural and scientific authority. Books, periodicals, and journals helped shape the public’s understanding of astronomy and forwarded notions of religious devotion, practical education, and a scientific heritage.Astronomers were sometimes portrayed by newspapers and periodicals as new-age druids and bards who embodied a Welsh cultural tradition. The most prominent Welsh astronomers, including Robert Roberts, Edward Mills, and John Jones, exemplified astronomy as a Welsh activity. They became local heroes in the public imagination because of their status as Welsh- speaking poet-astronomers. The Welsh public perceived them as pious educators and social leaders who were the torch bearers of a druidic heritage. Their observatories and telescopes became symbols of astronomical and cultural authority that further enshrined astronomy as a devout and enlightening practice. The first decades of the century saw astronomers, popular lecturers, and publishers work to establish a foundation for an astronomical community which flourished in the midcentury with the growth of astronomical activities, institutions, and publications. By the late century, the Astronomical Society of Wales represented the unification of Welsh astronomical efforts into a single institutional entity. Its journal, the Cambrian Natural Observer, reflected Welsh perceptions of astronomy as a communal and cooperative endeavour where members worked together to pursue astronomy as a serious leisure activity. Astronomy in Wales has been largely ignored by historians of British science in the nineteenth century, and by more general Welsh historians. However, its development over the century reveals the profound significance of science in public culture. Popular science lecturers, astronomers, and publications solidified astronomy’s position as a particularly Welsh activity. I will argue that astronomy reflected Welsh themes of religious devotion, practical education, and cultural heritage because it played an important role in reconstituting Welsh culture and identity in the nineteenth century.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • History
  • Astronomy
  • Science
  • Wales

• Graduation date

  Spring 2018

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R30863M63

• License

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