Russell, Henry Chamberlain (1836 - 1907)

Summary

Henry Russell was Assistant Astronomer at the Sydney Observatory 1859-1870, and Government Astronomer of New South Wales 1870-1905.

Details

"Russell was Australia's first native born Government Meteorologist, the first graduate of Sydney University to be elected a Fellow, Royal Society, and the first President of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. After his permanent appointment as Government Astronomer and Meteorologist in 1870 he initiated a rapid expansion of the observing networks throughout New South Wales. In July 1877 he issued the first synoptic chart published in an Australian newspaper, and in 1879 he convened the first of the intercolonial meteorological conferences aimed at achieving uniformity in data collection. He wrote extensively on scientific matters and was the first to describe the behaviour of the migratory southern hemisphere anticyclones. He retired in 1905." A Hundred Years of Science and Service, by John Zillman, Bureau of Meteorology, 2001.

Chronology

1859 - 1870

Career position - Assistant Astronomer, Sydney Observatory

1870 - 1905

Career position - Government Astronomer, Sydney Observatory

1881

Career position - President, Royal Society of New South Wales

1884

Career position - President, Royal Society of New South Wales

1888

Career event - Original [founding] member, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1888

Career position - Founding President, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1891

Career position - President, Royal Society of New South Wales

1893

Career position - President, Section A (Astronomy, Mathematics and Physics), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1901

Career position - President, Royal Society of New South Wales

Related entries

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Henry Chamberlain Russell - Records, 1870 - 1905, Uncatalogued MSS set 223; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Henry Chamberlain Russell - Records, 1856 - 1912, ML MSS 6755; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Henry Chamberlain Russell - Records, 1880 - 1895, MS 6539; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Collins, David, Chemistry in 19th Australia - Select Bibliography, An exhibition of the Encyclopedia circa 2005 with assistance from Ailie Smith and Gavan McCarthy., eScholarship Research Centre (original publisher), Melbourne, 2009, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/ciab/ciab_ALL.html. Details

Books

• Gibbs, W. J., The Origins of Australian Meteorology, Metarch Papers No. 12 (Bureau of Meteorology, 1998). Details
• Russell, H. C., The Sydney Observatory: history and progress (Sydney: Thomas Richards, Govt. Printer, 1882). Details
• Wood, H. W., Sydney Observatory, 1858 to 1958 (Sydney: 1958). Details

Book Sections

• O'Gorman, Emily, '"Soothsaying" or "science"?: H. C. Russell, meteorology, and environmental knowledge of rivers in colonial Australia' in Climate, science, and colonization: histories from Australia and New Zealand, Beattie, James, O'Gorman, Emily and Henry, Matt, eds (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), pp. 177-93. Details
• Orchiston, Wayne, 'Tebbutt vs Russell: Passion, Power and Politics in Nineteenth Century Australian Astronomy' in History of Oriental Astronomy, S.M.R. Ansari, ed. (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2002), pp. 169-201. Details
• Walsh, G. P., 'Russell, Henry Chamberlain(e) (1836-1907), astronomer and meteorologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 6: 1851 - 1890 R - Z, Bede Nairn, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1976), pp. 74-75. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060085b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Bhathal, R., 'Henry Chamberlain Russell: 19th Century Astronomer, Meteorologist and Organizer of Australian Science', Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 124 (1991), 1-21. Details
• Miller, Julia, 'What's Happening to the Weather? Australian Climate, H. C. Russell, and the Theory of a Nineteen-Year Cycle', Historical Records of Australian Science, 25 (1) (2014), 18-27, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR14006. Details
• Orchiston, Wayne, 'Politics and Personalities in Australian Astronomy: the Russell-Tebbutt Feud', AAO Newsletter, 95 (2000), 8-11. Details
• Orchiston, Wayne, 'Illuminating Incidents in Antipodean Astronomy: H.C. Russell and the Origin of the Palomar-Type Mounting', Journal of the Antique Telescope Society, 19 (2000), 13-15. Details
• Priestley, C. H. B., 'The Global Atmosphere: a memorial to H. C. Russell', Search, 2 (8) (1971). Details
• Russell, H. C., 'Address by the President, at the First Meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science', Report of the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 (1889), 1-19, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15813070. Details
• Russell, H. C., 'Exhibition of a model for fine distance adjustments [Abstract]', Report of the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 (1889), 106, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15813194. Details
• Russell, H. C., 'A Proposed Method of Recording Variations in the Direction of the Vertical', Report of the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 (1889), 106-108, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15813194. Details
• Russell, H.C., 'Astronomical and Meteorological Workers in New South Wales, 1778-1860', Report of the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 (1888), 45-94, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15813133. Details
• Russell, Henry Chamberlaine, 'On a New Modification of the Bichromate Battery', The Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science (1878), 201-202. Details
• Tyler, Peter J., 'Seeing Stars in the City: a History of Early Astronomy in Sydney', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 142 (3/4) (2009), 1-14. Details
• Wood, H., 'Sydney Observatory 1858-1983', Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 5 (2) (1983), 273-281. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1323358000017094. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/15550421. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q4355964. Details
• 'Russell, Henry Chamberlain (1836-1907)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-522698. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Russell, Henry Chamberlain', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P000764p.htm. Details
• Gibbs, W. J., 'The Origins of Australian Meteorology', in Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0805.html. Details

Theses

• Stevenson, T., 'Measuring the stars and observing the less visible: Australia's participation in the Astrographic Catalogue and Carte du Ciel', Thesis, University of Sydney, 2015, 381 pp. Details

See also

• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_r.html. Details
• Lomb, Nick, 'Australian solar eclipse expeditions: the voyage to Cape York in 1871', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 19 (1) (2016), 79-95. Details
• Lomb, Nick; and Stevenson, Toner eds, Eclipse chasers (Clayton South, Vic: CSIRO Publishing, 2023), 216 pp. Details
• MacLeod, Roy, 'Organizing Science Under the Southern Cross' in The Commonwealth of Science: ANZAAS and the Scientific Enterprise in Australasia, 1888-1988, Roy MacLeod, ed. (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 19-39. Details
• Orchiston, Wayne; Clark, Barry A. J.; Frew, David; and Andropoulos, Jenny, 'The development of astronomy and the foundation of astrophysics in Australia' in The emergence of astrophysics in Asia: opening a new window on the Universe, Nakamura, T.; and Orchiston, W., eds (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2017), pp. 395-452. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-319-62082-4_17.pdf. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details