A formal garden of suitable extent might include a Temple of Worthies containing portrait busts of those admired by its builder. This digital version is basically a portrait gallery of eminent scientists and engineers. (For a collection of eminent humanists, see the "Garret (for Artists and Writers)," also presented by lemur.com) Most of these figures are quite well known (Newton, Galileo, etc.) A few, while well known, are less well known to me (such as the botanists Ray and Hales) but have been included because they were in the source material I used. A few are quite important to me, but perhaps less well known than they should be (especially Maudslay). In many of these latter cases, I don't yet have any freely copyable images of them.
The interpretation of history as the creation of a few "Great Men" is certainly false. Still, only a few of the many who shaped our history are recorded, and it is through them that we can look back. So ignore the "great man" and try instead to see the mind and personality behind the face in the old engraving.
Augusta Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace
English (1815-1852).
Mathematician, computer writer, colleague of Babbage.
No portrait yet.
See:
The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive entry on Lovelace
John Couch Adams
English (1819-1892).
Astronomer, mathematician.
From Macfarlane, Physicists, frontis.
Louis Agassiz
Swiss/American (1807-1873).
Naturalist.
From Bolton, frontis.
George Biddell Airy
English (1801-1892).
Astronomer.
From Macfarlane, Physicists, frontis.
John James Audubon
American (1780-1851).
Naturalist.
From Bolton, facing p. 167.
Francis Trevelyan Buckland
English (1826-1880).
Naturalist.
From Bolton, facing p. 396.
Charles Babbage
English (1791-1871).
Mathematician, mechanician.
From Macfarlane, Physicists, frontis.
Robert Boyle
English (1627-1691).
Natural Philosopher.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 72.
In turn from a painting by F. Kerseboom in the posession,
in 1917, of the Royal Society.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
No portrait yet.
William Congreve
English (1772-1828).
Inventor.
From Harris.
Copernicus
(Mikolaj Kopernik or Nicolaus Koppernigk)
Polish (1473-1543).
Astronomer.
From Holden, frontis.
See:
The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive entry on Copernicus
Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert,
Baron Cuvier
French (1769-1832).
Naturalist.
From Bolton, facing p. 65.
John Dalton
English (1766-1844).
Atomic physicist.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 16.
In turn from a painting by R. R. Faulkner in the posession,
in 1917, of the Royal Society.
Charles Robert Darwin
English (1809-1882).
Biologist, theorist of evolution.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 268.
In turn from a photograph by Maull & Fox.
An engraved portrait, from Bolton, facing p. 347.
Erasmus Darwin
No portrait yet.
Humphry Davy
English (1778-1829).
Chemist.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 112.
In turn from a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence in the posession,
in 1917, of the Royal Society.
An engraved portrait, from Bolton, facing p. 139.
Rowland Emett
Actually, it's rather unlikely that I'll ever find a public domain
portrait of Emett.
He's a hero of mine, though, so I wanted to include him here.
Michael Faraday
English (1791-1867).
Experimental physicist.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 32.
In turn from a painting by A. Blakely in the posession,
in 1917, of the Royal Society.
Joseph von Fraunhofer
German (1787-1826).
Optical instrument maker, physicist.
From Holden, frontis.
This "head shot" is taken from
a larger painting
showing Fraunhofer demonstrating his spectroscope.
Here is an intermediate image cropped from the same,
showing only
Fraunhofer's head and the spectroscope.
A 1929 Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. catalog reproduces a portion
of a copy of this painting,
indicating that the original was painted by K. Wimmer
and was owned by Dr. Otto Schott (of optical glass fame).
Galileo
Italian (1564-1642).
Mathematician, physicist, astronomer.
From Fahre, plate XXXIX,
between pages 206 and 207.
Here is a different portrait. It is from the Perry-Castañeda Library Portraits.
Here is yet another portrait, of a younger Galileo It is from Abbott.
An engraved portrait, similar to the one from Fahre, from Bolton, on verso before p. 1.
Stephen Hales
English (1671-1761).
Physiologist and inventor.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 236.
In turn from a portrait by Thomas Hudson.
William Harvey
English (1578-1657).
Physician.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 294.
In turn from a painting by Cornelius Janssen
in (1917) the College of Physicians.
Here is a different portrait. It is from the Perry-Castañeda Library Portraits.
Joseph Henry
American (1797-1878).
Physicist.
From Bolton, facing p. 275.
Caroline Herschel
German/English (1750-1848).
Astronomer, sister of William Herschel.
From Bolton, facing p. 81.
William Herschel
German/English (1738-1822).
Astronomer, composer, brother of Caroline Herschel.
From Bolton, facing p. 81.
Here is what appears to be another version of this same portrait, from Macfarlane, Physicists, frontis. In Macfarlane, this portrait is identified as "Herschel" and accompanies an essay on John Frederick William Herschel (1792-1871, son of William Herschel and nephew of Caroline Herschel). Both portraits seem to be derived from the same source, however. Here are the two side by side.
Alexander von Humboldt
From Bolton, facing p. 107.
James Prescott Joule
English (1818-1889).
Physicist.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 160.
In turn from a photograph by Lady Roscoe.
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin
English (1824-1907).
Physicist.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 190.
In turn from a photograph by by Messrs. Dickinsons.
Here is another portrait, from Macfarlane, Physicists, frontis.
Leonardo da Vinci
Italian (1452-1519).
Uomo universale.
From Singer.
Here is a different portrait. It is from the Perry-Castañeda Library Portraits.
Carl (or Carolus) Linnæus
(Carl von Linné)
Swedish (1707-1778).
Biological taxonomist.
From Bolton, facing p. 49.
Charles Lyell
English (1797-1875).
Geologist.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 310.
In turn from a daguerreotype by J. E. Mayal.
An engraved portrait from Bolton, facing p. 246.
Henry Maudslay
No portrait yet.
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)
English (1831-1879).
Physicist, mathematician.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 86.
This image from Shuster & Shipley,
curiously identified as
John Clerk Maxwell,
does seem to be of James Clerk Maxwell
(John, 1787-1856) was his father).
It is identified as being from an engraving by G. J. Stodard
in Nature
of a photograph by Fergus of Glasgow.
Here is another version of this same portrait, from Macfarlane, Physicists, frontis.
Samuel Finley Breese Morse
American (1791-1872).
Artist, inventor.
From Bolton, facing p. 202.
Isaac Newton
English (1642-1727).
Mathematician, physicist, alchemist.
From Shuster & Shipley, frontispiece.
In turn from an engraving of
from a painting by Kneller,
in the possession, in 1917, of Lord Portsmouth.
Another portrait, from Abbott.
Another portrait, from Bolton, facing p. 28.
Another portrait, from Holden, frontis.
Another portrait, from the Perry-Castañeda Library Portraits.
William John Macquorn Rankine
English (1820-1872).
Physicist.
From Macfarlane, Physicists, frontis.
John Ray
English (1627-1705).
Botanist.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 232.
In turn from an original portrait,
by a painter not identified,
in (1917) the British Museum.
George Gabriel Stokes
Irish/English (1819-1903).
Mathematician, physicist.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 124.
In turn from a photograph by Fradelle & Young.
Here is another portrait, from Macfarlane, Physicists, frontis.
William Whewell
English (1794-1866).
Philosopher of science.
From Macfarlane, Physicists, frontis.
Thomas Young
English (1773-1829).
Physicist.
From Shuster & Shipley, facing p. 212.
In turn from a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence.
Abbot, C. G. [Secretary, Smithsonian Institution] "Astronomy in Shakespeare's Time and in Ours." pp. 109-122 + 6 bw plates. In Annual Report of the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution Showing the Operations, Expenditures, and Condition of the Institution For the Year Ended June 30 1936. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1937. Smithsonian Publication No. 3405.
Bolton, Sarah K. Famous Men of Science. NY: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1889.
Fahre, J. J. "The Scientific Works of Galileo (1564-1642) [:] With Some Account of His Life and Trial [;] Being a Review of Favaro's Edizione nazionale delle Opera di Galileo (1890-1909)." In Singer, Charles, ed. Studies in the History and Method of Science, Volume ii. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1921.
Harris, Elizabeth M. "Sir William Congreve and his Compound-Plate Printing." United States National Museum Bulletin 252, Contributions from The Museum of History and Technology" as Paper 71. (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office / Smithsonian Institution Press, 1967). "For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office." As U.S. Government publication, this work is in the public domain.
Holden, Edward Singleton, ed. Essays in Astronomy: by Ball, Harkness, Herschel, Huggins, Laplace, Mitchel, Proctor, Schiaparelli, and Others. NY: D. Appleton and Company, 1900.
Macfarlane, Alexander. Lectures on Ten British Physicists of the Nineteenth Century. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1919.
Perry-Castañeda Library, University of Texas at Austin. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/photodraw/portraits/index.html, in turn digitizing from:
The Perry-Castañeda Library makes it clear that these images are and remain in their digitizations in the public domain.
Shuster, Arthur and Arthur E. Shipley. Britain's Heritage of Science. London: Constable & Co. Ltd., 1917.
Singer, Charles, ed. Studies in the History and Method of Science, Volume ii. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1921.
The portraits of
Galileo, Harvey, Leonardo, and Newton
from the
Perry-Castañeda Library of the
University of Texas at Austin
are in the public domain,
but have not been dedicated using the
Creative Commons process.
Important disclaimers of warranty
and liability in the presentation of public domain material.
The following works are in the public domain.
The reprints of them here are dedicated to the
Public Domain.
Important disclaimers of warranty
and liability in the presentation of public domain material.
Drawing of a Corinthian temple from the Cyclopedia of Architecture, Carpentry and Building. Chicago: American Technical Society, 1911.
A Collection of Portraits of Scientists and Engineers (all of the images except those noted above).
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copyright © 2004 by David M. MacMillan.
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