H. M. Harrison, ‘Life of J. C. Adams’. English, c.1994.

[Hilda Mary Harrison]: mixed draft-copy of a biography of the astronomer and mathematician, John Couch Adams (1819-1892). Harrison eventually published a book entitled, Voyager in Time and Space: The Life of John Couch Adams, Cambridge Astronomer (1994), but this appears to be an earlier version and bears the alternate title of Worlds Unknown – Exploring the Ocean of Truth. Adams was admitted to St John’s College, Cambridge, as a sizar in 1839,  and graduated with a B.A. in 1843, as Senior Wrangler. He held a lay Fellowship at St John’s until 1852, upon which he transferred to a lay Fellowship at Pembroke College. Among his many honours, Adams was awarded the Adams Prize (1848) by St John’s College, for the best treatise on a mathematical subject; fellowship of the Royal Society, London (1849); honorary fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1849); and presidency of the Royal Astronomical Society (1851-1853; 1874-1876). His most famous academic achievement was successfully to predict the existence and position of the planet Neptune, through mathematical equation.