To celebrate 300 years since the birth of Scottish geologist James Hutton, on 3 June 1726, a manuscript copy of his groundbreaking book 'Theory of the Earth' will be on display in the Library at Burlington House throughout June.
Image credit: James Hutton in the field with his geological hammer by John Kay, 1787. © National Portrait Gallery, 16838.
James Hutton (1726–1797) was a Scottish geologist, agriculturalist, chemical manufacturer, naturalist and physician. Often referred to as the "Father of Modern Geology," the principles described in ‘Theory of the Earth’ (1795) were fundamental to the shaping of modern geological science.
The Library's document, on display for the whole of June, is the only known surviving geological manuscript by James Hutton and contains a partial draft of the contents of the remaining parts of ‘Theory of the Earth’.
It is written in a fair hand and was nearly ready to be sent to the printers for publication as Hutton has only annotated a few pages here and there with corrections or directions.
Playfair then gave the manuscript to his friend John Webb Seymour (1777-1819) who he accompanied on a field trip to Glen Tilt in 1807. The manuscript contained Hutton’s descriptions of his visit there in 1785 which Seymour referenced throughout his own 1814 paper on the geology of the area.
Both Playfair and Seymour died in 1819 and the manuscript then passed to Seymour’s brother the Duke of Somerset, who in turn gave it to Leonard Horner (1785-1864).
Horner, who was the father-in-law of Charles Lyell and a keen Huttonian, finally gave the manuscript to the Geological Society in 1856 “to be preserved in the Library, as an interesting document in the History of Science”.
The manuscript will be displayed in the Society's Library in Burlington House, London throughout June.
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