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George Boole Ancillary Collection: Item Descriptions

George Boole Ancillary Collection: Item Descriptions

The George Boole Ancillary Collection has been fully catalogued and is listed below.

If you find material relevant to your research, please note the call number(s) and click here to arrange an appointment to visit.

Royal Irish Academy File

BP/1/A/1    17 Jan 1953 – 24 May 1954 

File on plans to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the publication of George Boole’s publication The Laws of Thought (published in 1854). The proposal is for a celebration to be held in the Royal Irish Academy (RIA), Dublin, in May 1954, with papers being given by distinguished speakers on Boole’s philosophical and mathematical views and the development of Boolean algebra. Includes mss and tss letters from Felix E. Hackett, RIA, to Sir Geoffrey Taylor (grandson of George Boole), Trinity College, Cambridge, outlining the plans for the event; an invitation to attend; the programme (proposed); and items related to Boole and Mary Everest Boole (his wife) deposited in the RIA. Hackett asks Taylor questions relating to Boole’s work, upbringing and family during the course of preparations for his paper for the event. Also printed programme for the Centenary of the Publication of The Laws of Thought by George Boole, and printed pamphlet by Hackett entitled “George Boole and Symbolic Logic” presented at the event. Also notice of a general meeting of the RIA and papers to be read (13th April 1953). 

16 items

Emeritus Professor Des MacHale Donation

BP/1/A/2/1  26 Oct 1849
see also
BP/1/6 & 7
Mss letter by George Boole, Queen’s College, Cork, to Mary Ann Boole (his sister) letting her know that he has found lodgings close to the College “in a delightful situation quite indeed like the country”. Others in the same house include [E. Larken]. He signs off stating he needs to copy out papers in preparation of an examination.
2pp
 
BP/1/A/2/2    [17 Oct 1851]
Mss lecture notes entitled “On a district in the south of Ireland A lecture delivered before the members of the Lincoln Mutual Improvement Society, by Professor Boole”. Noted on the last page of the notes is “published in the Lincoln Chronicle of [Oct] 17th 1851”.
42pp
 
BP/1/A/2/3    21 Jun 1856
see also
BP/1/194
Mss letter from George Boole, Cork, to a “dear friend” [Dr. Bury], happily informing him to the birth of his first daughter, commenting on his observations of his wife’s confinement and how well it went for her.
4pp
 
BP/1/A/2/4    8 Jul 1858
see also
BP/1/A/2/5
Mss letter from [Thomas Henry Marmion], 11 North Mall, Cork, to Sir Robert Kane (President), Queens College, Cork, asking him to intervene in his believed misunderstanding of a letter showing Marmion’s qualifying mark in Mathematics that Dr. Boole has “declined to sign” until he passes a supplemental examination. Marmion explains he is qualified “in all other respects to present...a candidate for the diploma of C.E. [Civil Engineer]. Written in a different hand on the first page is “to be returned RK”.
4pp
 
BP/1/A/2/5    14 July 1858
see also
BP/1/A/2/4
Ms letter from George Boole, Cork, to Sir Robert Kane (President), Queens College, Cork, explaining his reasoning relating to the matter of a supplementary examination for the student Mr. Marmion (see previous letter dated 8 Jul 1858).
1p
 
BP/1/A/2/6  1865
Heavily used copy of Purcell’s Commercial Cork Almanac 1865, with ink stamp of “Univ. Corcai. Bibliotheca 20 Apr 1929” on it. Between pp.52-53 is a newspaper cutting titled “Lincoln Mechanic’ Institute” detailing amongst other events, a lecture delivered by George Boole on the “Life and Discoveries of Newton” and praising the natural intelligence of the youthful and self-taught 19 year old Boole. On p.53 there is a handwritten annotated correction of the name of the Apothecary employed in the Cork Fever Hospital.
2 items
 
Marni Rosner Donation 

BP/1/A/3    18 Aug 1935

Mss letter from Geoffrey Ingram Taylor, Huntington Road, Cambridge to Carmelita Hinton informing her of the sudden death of his mother Margaret Boole Taylor (daughter of George and Mary Everest Boole) only two days previously on Friday 16th August, aged 77. He explains his mother was visiting he and his wife, Stephanie, for a holiday, staying on the yacht 'Frolic'. She was in good form when she arrived on Wednesday but had chest pains by Thursday that did not ease. Taylor went ashore for medical assistance and a local doctor examined her, diagnosed acute indigestion and left instructions, with all believing she would improve overnight. On Friday her breathing "was quick" and she needed further medical treatment. Taylor rowed ashore to make arrangements, and on his return to the yacht Stephanie informed him "mother had died very suddenly and without a struggle shortly after I had left...it seems quite certain that mother did not have any idea that the end was so near." 
He reflects on the situation, giving his immediate thoughts "I can imagine no better way of dying than this, the end coming suddenly without anticipation while still in full possession of the power of enjoying life. It is certainly what mother would most wish for..." Having started to go through her letters - "is it the most miserable job in the world" - he realises that his mother was "the connecting link between old friends whose busy lives would inevitably have carried them away from one another if it had not been that mother was in constant touch with both" and promises to keep in contact with Carmelita. The loss of his mother is going to make a "terrible hole...in our lives here." He finishes with the information his mother is to be buried in the same grave as his father "and same [     ] my grandmother Mrs Boole." and closes the letter with greetings to "Jean + Billy & Joan" (Carmelita's three children). 
3pp

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