Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.19609

    Portrait of Edmond Halley

    Date
    19th century
    Sitter
    Edmond Halley (1656 - 1742, British) , Astronomer
    Creator
    William Thomas Fry (1789 - 1843, British) , Engraver
    After
    Michael Dahl (1659 - 1743, Swedish) , Painter
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 150mm
    width (print): 100mm
    Subject
    Description
    Half-length portrait of Edmond Halley, wearing a wig, with a robe and bands over a coat. A curtain and some volumes on a bookshelf are shown behind the sitter, who is turned to the right as viewed.

    Plate from a grangerized copy of A history of the Royal Society, with memoirs of the Presidents…by Charles Richard Weld (London, John W. Parker, 1848). In this edition, the original two volumes were extended to eight volumes with the addition of extra-illustrations and documents, by Alexander Meyrick Broadley.

    The print appears at p.303 in volume 3 of the adapted set of Weld’s History. Weld relates how Halley was elected as Clerk to the Royal Society in 1686, on the resignation of Francis Aston as Secretary.

    Inscription below: ‘Engraved by W.T. Fry. HALLEY. From an original Picture ascribed to Dahl, in the possession of the Royal Society. Under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.’

    Edmond Halley (1656-1742) British astronomer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1678. He served as Secretary, 1713-1721.
    Object history
    Print from Charles Richard Weld's A history of the Royal Society, vol. 3... (London, John W. Parker, 1848) grangerized by the writer and collector Alexander Meyrick Broadley (1847–1916) into 8 volumes, adding illustrative material and manuscript items to Weld's text. The books were initially owned by Ludwig Mond FRS (1839–1909), and according to an inscription by his son Robert Ludwig Mond FRS (1867–1938) they were intended for presentation to the Society. This eventually happened in late 1959, the donor being the politician Harry Nathan (1889–1963), Lord Nathan of Churt.
    Related fellows
    Charles Richard Weld (1813 - 1869, British) , Author
    Associated place
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