‘Two Enlightenment collections of scientific instruments in Hanoverian Britain’

Abstract

• Research into scientific instrument collections over the past forty years has shown that it is only relatively recently that instruments have been collected for antiquarian reasons. This lecture will discuss two long-dispersed collections owned by two Scottish noblemen, and attempt to characterise the reasons for their contents. Both collectors were politically powerful and wealthy, and lived most of their lives close to London. They were also interested in aspects of contemporary science. They were: Archibald Campbell, 1st Earl of Ilay and 3rd Duke of Argyll (1682-1761), and his nephew, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713-1792).