Herschel Resources
DOCUMENTARY RESOURCES ON THE HERSCHEL FAMILY
There are several publicly available sources of documents produced by or relating to the Herschel family
The Royal Astronomical Society ( https://ras.ac.uk/ )has a valuable archive of Herschel papers, almost all as a result of donations from the Herschel family, accessible via its website here: https://ras.ac.uk/library/about-the-library%3Fid%3D78
It is divided into four sections: papers of Caroline Herschel (marked HERSCHEL C), of John Herschel (HERSCHEL J), of William Herschel (HERSCHEL W) and books and papers from the Herschel family which do not fall into one of these groups (Herschel Miscellaneous).
In June 2024 the Royal Society launched the results of its project to digitise their archive of John Herschel’s letters. There is a direct link to the letters here, and they can also be accessed via their Science in the Making archives portal.
More papers related to Caroline and William Herschel can be found by searching for “Herschel” in the Royal Society Archives catalogue: https://royalsociety.org/collections/catalogue-search/
John Herschel papers held by the Royal Society are also included in the Adler Planetarium on line database of his correspondence here: http://historydb.adlerplanetarium.org/herschel/?p=about
The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas ( http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/ ) is another major source of papers, particularly relating to John Herschel. They can be accessed using their search engine here : http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00568
Other Herschel papers remain with the family, but they can only be accessed by special arrangement.
The Herschel Museum of Astronomy in Bath ( http://www.herschelmuseum.org.uk )has a varying range of exhibits relating to the Herschel family but does not itself maintain a documentary archive on the family.
There are further resources elsewhere:
The Linda Hall Library in Kansas City USA owns William Herschel’s commonplace book of 1759. A link to the catalogue description is here:
https://catalog.lindahall.org/permalink/01LINDAHALL_INST/19lda7s/alma995520043405961
Dr Wolfgang Steinicke, an astronomer and historian, has an impressive collection of material on the deep sky catalogues produced by the Herschels and others at his website here: