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Fitzroy, Robert, Edward Sabine and others--Three
Description
- bronze relief plaques with portraits of 1.) Robert Fitzroy, 2.) Robert Henry Scott and Edward Sabine, and 3.) Henry J.S. Smith and Richard Strachey, dark brown patina, each 186 x 528mm., British, late 19th - early 20th century
Catalogue Note
These three bronzes represent the leading figures of the Meteorological Department (and its successors) in the second half of the nineteenth century. Robert FitzRoy was appointed head of the department established under the Board of Trade in 1854 and died 1865. Two years later the department was reconstituted as the Meteorological Office under the directorship of Robert Henry Scott (appointed by Edward Sabine, who became chairman), and he remained as executive head for thirty-three years (until 1900). The office's constitution changed in 1877, control passing to a meteorological council to which Henry J.S. Smith, the mathematician, was appointed chairman. He died in 1883 and was succeeded by Richard Strachey.
The plaques were formerly housed in the Royal Meteorological Society Office and whilst Fitzroy and Strachey may still be considered pre-eminent in the field of meteorology, Fitzroy is perhaps best remembered as the captain of the Darwin's Beagle. Edward Sabine served as astronomer on John Ross's expedition in search of the north west passage in 1818, and on that of William Edward Parry to the Arctic in 1819-20.