Abstract
This account of Maxwell as professor of natural philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen, fills in many details that have been left out of Maxwell's biographies. It discusses the degree programme that Maxwell taught on, the nature of his colleagues, the type of student he had in his classes and the range of activities involved in his teaching. Evidence is cited that Maxwell was an enthusiastic and effective teacher, contrary to the often repeated but thinly supported view to the contrary. Following a brief summary of Maxwell's research interests while at Aberdeen, the myth that Maxwell was sacked from the University of Aberdeen is exploded and the detail of why he moved on is spelt out.
Footnotes
One contribution of 20 to a Theme Issue ‘James Clerk Maxwell 150 years on’.
↵A distant reminiscence by a former student of Maxwell at Aberdeen is recorded by Walker (1916) but is disappointingly dependent on Campbell and Garnett's biography. Robert Walker became assistant to the professor of mathematics at the University of Aberdeen from 1868 to 1870, university librarian from 1877 to 1893 and was secretary to the University Court for 30 years.
↵A mass of factual information on Marischal College was accumulated by two Royal Commissions in the nineteenth century, investigating the possibility of a merger with neighbouring King's College. The details quoted in this paper are not individually referenced throughout. See the General Report of the Commissioners under the Universities (Scotland) Act 1858 (Edinburgh, HMSO 1863). A useful summary of the arts teaching was published by the university librarian and former assistant to the professor of natural philosophy, Anderson (1892).
↵Both for information and to attract private students, the courses at Marischal College were advertised in the press. For example, The Aberdeen Journal, 22nd October 1856 for the first appearance of Prof. Maxwell's name in the advertisements.
↵Graduation cost £5, comparable to the annual class fees and equivalent to approximately £1000 in year 2000 currency. The reluctance of some able students to collect their degrees was understandable.
↵The Fasti (Anderson 1898) pp. 3–77 contain short biographical notes on all officers of Marischal College, from the foundation.
↵The Senate minutes of Marischal College 1845–1860 are recorded in Aberdeen University Library Ms M45.
↵H,arman (1,9,9,0,a–,i) reproduces extant correspondence of Maxwell. Letter to P. G. Tait, 3 December 1856. See p. 480. Many letters, although not this one, are also quoted in Campbell & Garnett (1882).
↵The class rolls of Marischal College from 1605 to 1859 have been published by Anderson (1898). Data for table 1, and some subsequent information on Maxwell's students, come from this volume.
↵J. A. Galbraith and S. Haughton produced a monograph series available in the 1850s including: ‘Manual of mechanics’; ‘Manual of hydrostatics’; ‘Manual of optics’; ‘Manual of astronomy’ (Longman, London). Other manuals covered mathematical topics.
↵The honours degree clearly took time to establish itself. A student at the University of Aberdeen after Maxwell left was the formidably able George Chrystal who studied under Maxwell in Cambridge after taking his Aberdeen degree. He commented ‘When I went to the University of Cambridge, I found that the course there for the ordinary degree in Arts was greatly inferior in educational quality to the Scottish one. On the other hand, the courses in honours were on a very much higher standard.’ G. Chrystal, Promoter's address to graduates of arts, University of Edinburgh, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 11 April 1908.
↵Relevant advertisements for the ‘Aberdeen School of Science’ appear in The Aberdeen Journal, 21 October 1857, 28 April 1858, 20 October 1858, 27 April 1859, 19 October 1859. The April advertisements detail the prizemen and women.
↵The link with the Aberdeen Mechanics' Institution, is discussed by Fraser G. M. 1912 Aberdeen Mechanics' Institute, ch. X, Aberdeen University Press. See also Aberdeen Mechanics Institution Minute Book No. 3 in Aberdeen Public Library Lo370.6 Ab 3.4 for the details of the running and examinations of the School of Science and Art from 1856 to 1859. Further details are in Minutes of the School of Science & Art Aberdeen Book no. 9 in Aberdeen Public Library Lo 370.6 Ab3.4 52215.
↵By the beginning of the twentieth century, Maxwell was cited as one of the outstanding academics in the 400-year history of the University of Aberdeen. P. J. Anderson (ed.) Record of the Celebration of the Quatercentenary of the University of Aberdeen, Appendix G ‘Addresses presented by Universities and Learned Societies’. The Royal Society's tribute under the name of the President Lord Rayleigh singles out Maxwell with the words ‘within living memory the UNIVERSITY has numbered among its professors the world-renowned path-finder JAMES CLERK MAXWELL’. The Royal Academy of Sciences in Amsterdam is even more explicit ‘In Vestra Urbe Maxwellus ille Faradayanum cogitatum “spinam dorsalem” fieri posse intellexit novae rationis electrodynamicae, quae doctrinas de lumine et electricitate in unum coniunctura erat opus splendidum magnificumque, quaeque immortalem ipse Maxwello gloriam afferens postea nastis Viris doctis viam munitura erat, qua in novam quondam possent penetrare naturae regionem, de qua ante hac ne suspicati quidem quidquam errant hominess’. Other tributes from Cambridge, the University of Leyden and the British Academy all mention Maxwell.
↵A posthumous bust by the Edinburgh artist Charles D'Orville Pilkington Jackson, created for the centenary of his appointment to Marischal College and displayed on the wall of the Marischal College Picture Gallery; a plaque outside his former lodgings in 129 Union Street, also erected in 1956; a suburban street named after him, Clerk Maxwell Crescent.
- © 2008 The Royal Society
