Richard Holmes - The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science (Vintage)

Frontispiece: A Philosopher giving that Lecture on the Orrery, in which a Lamp is put in place of the Sun, by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1766. Derby City Council

Joseph Banks, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1771-73. National Portrait Gallery, London

Chart of the island Otaheite, by Lieut. J. Cook, 1769. The David Rumsay Map Collection, www.davidrumsay.com

Sydney Parkinson. From the frontispiece to his Journal (1773).

A Woman and a Boy, Natives of Otaheite in the Dress of the Country. Engraving after Parkinson by T. Chambers, from Sydney Parkinson, Journal of a Voyage in the South Seas (1773). Reproduced by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library Mm.54.19

Omai, Banks and Solander, by William Parry, c.1775-76. National Portrait Gallery, London/National Museum Cardiff/Captain Cook Memorial Museum, Whitby

Dorothea Hugessen, Lady Banks, by Joseph Collyer the Younger, after John Russell, c.1790. National Portrait Gallery, London

Captain James Cook, by John Webber, 1776. National Portrait Gallery, London

William Herschel (locket), c.1760. With the kind permission of John Herschel-Shorland

Sir William Herschel, by Lemuel Francis Abbott, 1785. National Portrait Gallery, London

Caroline Herschel (silhouette), c.1768. By permission of the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford

William and Caroline Herschel. Coloured lithograph, 1890. Wellcome Library, London

Engraved frontispiece to John Bonnycastles Introduction to Astronomy (1811).

The constellations of Perseus and Andromeda, from John Flamsteeds Celestial Atlas (1729).

The seven-foot reflector telescope with which Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781. Royal Astronomical Society. Drawing by Sir William Watson. Royal Astronomical Society/Science Photo Library

Herschels seven-foot reflector telescope. Whipple Museum, Cambridge. Photograph by Richard Holmes.

Sir Joseph Banks holding an astronomical painting of the moon. Portrait by John Russell, RA, 1788 Private collection/Photograph by Alex Sounderson

Selenographia Moon Globe by John Russell, London, 1797. By permission of the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford

Detail from the original manuscript of Keatss sonnet On First Looking into Chapmans Homer (1816). By permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University

Detail from Herschels Astronomical Observation Journal for Tuesday, 13 March 1781. Royal Astronomical Society/Science Photo Library

Hubble Space Telescope image of Uranus, August 2003. NASA/ESA/STSCI/E. Karkoschka, U. Arizona/Science Photo Library

Herschels forty-foot reflector telescope. Royal Astronomical Society/Science Photo Library

Sir William Herschel. Stipple engraving by James Godby, after Friedrich Rehberg, 1814. National Portrait Gallery, London

The first balloon crossing of the English Channel, 7 January 1785. Oil painting by E.W. Cocks, c.1840. Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library

The first manned ascent in a Montgolfier hot-air balloon, Paris, 21 November 1783. Plate taken from Le Journal. Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library

William Blakes mocking view of scientific endeavour. Line engraving from For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise (1793). Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library

Early view of the earth from a balloon. Coloured engraving from a sketch by Thomas Baldwin, Airopaidia (1786). British Library Board. All Rights Reserved 1137.c.17

The first manned ascent in a hydrogen balloon, Paris, 1 December 1783. Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library

John Jeffries. Steel engraving after an original by Tissandier, c.1780s. Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library

Jean-Pierre Blanchard. Engraving by J. Newton after R. Livesay, 1785. Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library

Vincent Lunardi. Print published by E. Hedges, 1784.

James Sadler, by Edmund Scott, after James Roberts, 1785. Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library

Plaque to Sadler at Merton Field, Oxford. pbpgalleries/Alamy

Mungo Park. Miniature after Henry Edridge, c.1797. National Portrait Gallery, London

Park following his first African travels. Thomas Rowlandson, c.1805. National Portrait Gallery, London

Title page of the 1860 edition of Parks Travels in the Interior of Africa (1799).

A sketch map of the northern part of Africa, by Major John Rennell, 1790. Photograph by Alex Sounderson

The death of Mungo Park. From the 1860 edition of his Travels.

Coleridge, by Peter Vandyke, 1795. National Portrait Gallery, London

Byron, by Richard Westall, 1813. National Portrait Gallery, London

Keats, by Charles Armitage Brown, 1819. National Portrait Gallery, London

Erasmus Darwin. After Joseph Wright of Derby, 1770. National Portrait Gallery, London

Shelley, by Amelia Curran, 1819. National Portrait Gallery, London

Blake, by Thomas Phillips, 1807. National Portrait Gallery, London

Young Humphry Davy, by Henry Howard, oil on canvas, 1803. National Portrait Gallery, London

Rival safety lamps designed by George Stephenson and Humphry Davy, c.1816-18. Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library

Sir Humphry Davy, by Thomas Phillips, oil on canvas, 1821. National Portrait Gallery, London

Sir Humphry Davy, PRS, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, c.1821-22 or later. National Portrait Gallery, London

Scientific Researches! Gillray cartoon published by Hannah Humphrey, 1801. Courtesy of the Warden and Scholars of New College, Oxford/The Bridgeman Art Library

Dr Thomas Beddoes. Miniature by Sampson Towgood Roche, 1794. National Portrait Gallery, London

Edgeworth family portrait by Adam Buck, 1787. Michael Butler; photograph National Portrait Gallery, London

The Davy safety lamps. Published in Collected Works of Humphry Davy, Volume 6 (1840). The Royal Society

John Buddle, mining engineer, with Davy lamp.

Prototype safety lamps, 1815-16. Photograph, The Royal Society. The Royal Institution, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library

Unidentified female author, by Samuel John Stump, oil on canvas, 1831. National Portrait Gallery, London

Frontispiece of the 1831 edition of Frankenstein. British Library Board. All Rights Reserved 1153.a.9.(1)

Mary Shelley, by Richard Rothwell, 1840. National Portrait Gallery, London