Scriven Bolton 1883-1929 is a Yorkshire astronomer whose life and
work is hardly known yet his contributions in particular in the field
of astronomical illustrations were incredible and his work almost
certainly influenced the famous American space scientist Chesley
Bonestell.
Bolton was honoured with the award of the Gold Medal at the Franco British exhibition in 1908 and in 1910 was presented with a diploma at the Japan British exhibition. In 1924 he was elected as a fellow of the royal society of arts.
Born in 1883 Thomas
Simeon Scriven Bolton he inherited his mother’s maiden surname and
was always known as Scriven. His father was a mill owner from Yeadon
near Leeds. At the time of his birth the woollen textile business was
thriving. A small recession in the early 1890 meant that his father
took a aprt share in a mineral oil merchanting business, and the
family moved to Waterloo Lodge an out of town villa in Bramley Leeds.
Scriven followed his father into the business and it was a t Waterloo
Lodge that he would build his large observatory housing his 26 inch
reflector.
Scriven must have
had an interest in astronomy from a young age because in 1899 at the
age of 16 he joined the Leeds Astronomical Society. By 1906 his
skills of drawing were such that he was sending drawings of the
planet Jupiter to the astronomer royal William Christie. It was
around this time that his work attracted attention from within the
commercial world. He was soon sending astronomical drawings to the
Illustrated London News, The New York Times, popular Science Monthly,
the Sphere, The Graphic, Science and Invention, National Geographic
and the Yorkshire Post. Plus numerous contributions to the English
Mechanic. He drawings also appeared in the journals of the British
Astronomical Association , The Royal astronomical society of which he
was a fellow and of course Leeds AAS.
There is no definite
list of the various publishing houses and authors who used his work,
but the ones we know of include Chambers’s Astronomy, Hutchinsons
Splendour of the Heavens and HH turner’s A Voyage in Space.
His drawings include
those of the Earth and other bodies in the solar system, Bolton’s
work clearly influenced Chesley Bonestell the legendary American
space artist. Bonestell copied Bolton’s idea of making a 3 d
plaster model and then photograph the models as a basis for their
illustrations. This is the early 20th century version of
CGI.
With his
observations of the sky he made an observatory the so called
Waterloo Observatory which housed his 26 inch reflector together wit
a 10 inch reflector and a 6 inch refractor.in 1908 the University
made available its new Cecil Duncombe observatory on Woodhouse Moor,
Florence Taylor the Yorkshire astronomer had donated £100 to the
building of the observatory. Scriven Bolton was only one of two
members of Leeds AS who were allowed time on the 18 inch telescope.
Scriven’s home was within easy walking distance of this
observatory.
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