James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford
James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford ( July 28, 1847 - January 31, 1913 ) was an English astronomer , politician , book collector and philatelist .
He was a prominent Freemason and Fellow of the Royal Society . Crawford was interested in astronomy and set up his own observatory at Dunecht House , for which he hired the astronomer David Gill , who worked there as a pioneer of astrophotography (including the comet of 1882). Crawford sent expeditions to Cadiz to observe the solar eclipse in 1870 and the transit of Venus to Mauritius in 1874. In 1878 he became president of the Royal Astronomical Society . With a donation of books and astronomical instruments, he saved the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh from closing in 1888 (it was reopened in 1896).
It had one of the largest private libraries ever with the Bibliotheca Lindesiana , including one of the largest philatelic book collections (in part owned by John Kerr Tiffany in St. Louis, the first President of the American Philatelic Society ). The library, which was mostly housed in Haigh Hall in Lancashire, was partly built by his father Alexander William Lindsay (1812-1880, the 25th Earl). He bequeathed the philatelic literature collection of 4,500 books to the British Museum , and it is now part of the British Library . The philatelic literary prize called the Crawford Medal is named after him. The library's manuscript collection was sold to the John Rylands Library in 1901, while other parts went to the National Library of Scotland, Cambridge University Library, the British Museum.
In 1874 he became a Conservative member of the House of Commons (constituency Wigan), which he remained until he took up his inheritance and title in 1880.
His son Sir Ronald Charles Lindsay (1877-1945) was British Ambassador to the United States from 1930 to 1939.
literature
- The World's Greatest Stamp Collectors. Fell Publishers, Inc., Hollywood, Florida, ISBN 0-8119-0668-X , pp. 193-212
- Wolfgang Maaßen : Who is who in Philately , Volume 1: A – D , Phil Creativ GmbH, Schwalmtal, 3rd edition from 2011, ISBN 978-3-932198-92-2 , pp. 246–249
- Large lexicon of philately. 1st edition, Albert Kurzl Verlag, Munich 1923, p. 148
- Peter Fischer: Viktor Suppantschitsch and an Earl Crawford. In: Deutsche Briefmarken-Zeitung , issue No. 19/2012, p. 24
- The Crawford Library of Philatelic Literature at the British Library and for the World in Digital Form. Supplement to the March 2016 edition of The London Philatelist ( online at globalphilateliclibrary.org ), Volume 125, with 27 pages by David R. Beech (Curator of the British Library Philatelic Collection 1983-2013)
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Crawford, James Lindsay, 26th Earl of |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English astronomer, politician, book collector, philatelist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 28, 1847 |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 31, 1913 |