| Description | A bundle of forty letters and papers to James Watt, from Professor John Robison, 1781 to 1805.
There is a bundle label, written in red ink, as follows:
' Professor Robinson’s [sic] Letters. 1781 — 1805. No. 1 to 37.'
The letters are numbered in red ink. In addition to these 37, there are three other letters, one numbered 57 in red ink, and two not numbered. That numbered ’57 ’ was obviously once in a different bundle.
The letters have been arranged in chronological order.
There is a conspectus of old and new numbers at the end of the list.
The letters have a docket by James Watt with the name of the correspondent and the date, and some have summaries.
Any summary in square brackets has been provided by the cataloguer.
Most of the letters have been ticked in pencil by the docket. This may be an indication that they had been read by J.P.Muirhead.
Most of these letters have been transcribed for the book Partners in Science, eds. Eric Robinson and Douglas McKie (1970). The number of the published letter is given below at the end of the docket, as, for example, (Partners no.6).
One paper, no. 37, is a notice written by James Watt of letters of Professor Robison’s in his possession at the time of Robison’s death in 1805. |