Tancock Collection

The Tancock Collection holds about 3,000 books and pamphlets, mostly published in Britain, the majority on astronomy but also some works on geology, physics and chemistry. Also holds a number of Tanock's personal papers.

Europe Science and technology

Key items in the collection

Highlights from this collection demonstrate its historical significance and variety.

The collection contains about 300 books and pamphlets, mostly published in Britain. The majority of the works relate to astronomy and there are also some works on geology, physics and chemistry.

There are no great rarities in the collection.

Among the authors represented in the collection are:

Sir David Brewster
Albert Einstein
Sir John Herschel
H Spencer Jones
Sir Oliver Lodge
Sir Charles Lyell
EW Maunder
Percy Molesworth
George Seabroke
HB Woodward.

There are also several serials, the most substantial being the Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 1933–1968 (incomplete).

The small group of personal papers, extending from 1914 to 1968, include:

notebooks
a diary
letters
photographs
newspaper cuttings
printed ephemera.

There is also a minute book that Tancock kept as secretary of the Education Committee of the British Astronomical Association. Some of the letters from George Philip & Son refer to the design by Tancock and KN Munro of the 'Astroglobe', which revealed the approximate position of a star or constellation at a particular date or place.

About Ernest Tancock

Ernest Osborne Tancock (1886–1971) was born in Norwich, England, and educated at Tonbridge School and Cambridge University.

Tancock was a master at Giggleswick School in Yorkshire and then served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during World War I.

In 1918 he was appointed a master at Wellington College, Berkshire, and from 1928 to 1946 he was a housemaster.

Lifelong interest in astronomy

Tancock had a lifelong interest in astronomy and was in charge of the school observatory. He joined the British Astronomical Association in 1910 and was secretary of its Education Committee for many years. He was also a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. In his retirement he lived in Oxford.

Writer

Tancock was the:

author of Elements of Descriptive Astronomy (1913), which was rewritten as Starting Astronomy (1951)
editor of Philip’s Chart of the Stars (first issued in 1940).