George Biddell Airy and Information Management at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich: Library, Archive, and Uses of the Historical Past

Abstract

This article demonstrates that the organisation of the library and manuscript collections was crucial to George Biddell Airy’s reform of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, resulting in the creation of a vast archive that continues to this day. It analyses the official papers and reports Airy produced to identify the development of the library and the technique of document management. Airy understood that the systematic and orderly organisation of information, books, and papers was the foundation of scientific research and the running of the observatory. He also attached great significance to the preservation of the archives, intending to hold a complete record of observations at the Royal Observatory since its foundation and contribute to the study of the history of science in the future. This article argues that the primary aim of collecting documents and observations was to tighten the link of the nineteenth-century Royal Observatory with its tradition and history. In doing so Airy sought to justify the observatory’s current status and research programmes and to forge its institutional identity.

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