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/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
