Andrew Ure papers

• Reference:GB 249 OM/202
• Dates of Creation:1812 - 1876, 2004
• Name of Creator:
  Ure, Andrew, 1778-1857, chemist
• Language of Material:English
• Physical Description:
  0.1 metres

• Scope and Content

  Correspondence; class ticket; subscriptions by students for Ure's benefit; prospectus of lectures; copies of Ure's published papers; licence from Andrew Ure to Patrick Cruikshank to use equipment for evaporating syrups and juices on St Vincent; details of patents by Ure; notice regarding his appointment at Belfast Academical Institution; items on his experiments with galvanism; articles about his work; biographical information and obituaries.

• Administrative / Biographical History

  Andrew Ure was born in Glasgow in May 1778 and graduated MD from Glasgow University in 1801. After a brief spell as an army surgeon, Ure was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at Anderson's Institution in 1804, in succession to George Birkbeck. In the spirit of John Anderson, he gave highly successful evening lectures on chemistry and mechanics for the working people of the city and built up a reputation as a competent practical chemist. He published a 'Dictionary of chemistry' in 1821 and a much-criticised 'New system of geology' in 1829. An account of the cotton industry followed in 1836 and a 'Dictionary of arts' in 1839. He was director of the short-lived Garnethill Observatory from 1808. Ure was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1822, and played a leading part in the founding of the Pharmaceutical Society in 1840. In 1818, Ure achieved notoriety by galvanising the body of an executed criminal and apparently bringing it back to life. His personal life was stormy, and he divorced his wife in 1819 after her affair with his colleague, Granville Sharpe Pattison, Professor of Anatomy. Ure resigned his chair at the Andersonian in 1830 and established himself as a consulting chemist in London, where he died in 1857.

• Access Information

  Open

• Note

  Andrew Ure was born in Glasgow in May 1778 and graduated MD from Glasgow University in 1801. After a brief spell as an army surgeon, Ure was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at Anderson's Institution in 1804, in succession to George Birkbeck. In the spirit of John Anderson, he gave highly successful evening lectures on chemistry and mechanics for the working people of the city and built up a reputation as a competent practical chemist. He published a 'Dictionary of chemistry' in 1821 and a much-criticised 'New system of geology' in 1829. An account of the cotton industry followed in 1836 and a 'Dictionary of arts' in 1839. He was director of the short-lived Garnethill Observatory from 1808. Ure was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1822, and played a leading part in the founding of the Pharmaceutical Society in 1840. In 1818, Ure achieved notoriety by galvanising the body of an executed criminal and apparently bringing it back to life. His personal life was stormy, and he divorced his wife in 1819 after her affair with his colleague, Granville Sharpe Pattison, Professor of Anatomy. Ure resigned his chair at the Andersonian in 1830 and established himself as a consulting chemist in London, where he died in 1857.

• Other Finding Aids

  Item level list available in reading room.

• Archivist's Note

  Created by Victoria Peters, February 2010.

• Additional Information

  published

• Subjects

  Science