Title
Aerial view 'Millennium Map showing Farthings', commissioned for Patrick Moore by the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday
Reference
MOOR/E/2/2/26
Production date
2000 - 2000
Creator
- The Daily MailBiographyBiography
The Daily Mail is a British national newspaper, first published as a broadsheet in 1896 by Alfred Harmsworth, later made 1st Viscount Northcliffe. The newspaper was formed as the result of a merger between the Hull Packet and The Hull Evening News. Harmsworth and his brother Harold edited and managed the paper. From 1900 the paper was printed simultaneously in London and Manchester. By 1902 circulation had reached over one million, placing amongst the top-selling newspapers of the day.
The Daily Mail has been published by the Daily Mail and General Trust since 1922, when the trust was created to oversee the Harmsworth family's media interests. In 1929 Esmond Harmsworth, son of Harold, took over the Chairmanship, alongside the 2nd Lord Rothermere. Under their aegis the trust was floated on the stock exchange in 1932.
In the 1930s the paper supported fascism, with favourable reporting on Mussolini, Hitler and Oswald Moseley's Blackshirts - The British Union of Fascists.
The postwar years saw the launch of a Scottish edition of the Mail, in 1946. Initially printed in Edinburgh, then Manchester, the paper was moved to Glasgow in 1995.
The Mail went from broadsheet to tabloid format in 1971. In the same year it took over The Daily Sketch.
The 3rd Lord Rothermere, Vere Harmsworth, became Chair of the Daily Mail and General Trust in 1978. He was succeeded by his son Jonathan Harmsworth in 1998. This period saw the launch of a sister paper, The Mail on Sunday, in 1982. The Mail stopped being printed in Manchester in 1987.
Today the Mail is Britain's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its headquarters are currently at 2 Northcliffe House, London. Its online presence, MailOnline, reaches a global audience. Recent editors include Paul Dacre, and Geordie Greig, who succeeded him in 2018.
- The Mail on SundayBiographyBiography
Extent
1 item
Physical description
Colour photograph, framed and glazed
Level of description
ITEM
Repository name
Science Museum, London
Associated people and organisations
- Moore, PatrickBiographyBiography
(1923-2012), amateur astronomer, writer, broadcaster
Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore was born at Pinner, Middlesex on 4 Mar 1923. When war came, he turned down a place at Cambridge and lied about his age to join the RAF, serving as a navigator with Bomber Command and rising to the rank of Flight Lieutenant. War brought personal tragedy as his fiancee, Lorna, was killed when an ambulance she was driving was hit by a bomb. He never married. After the war he momentarily taught at a prep school, but he pursued his interest in astronomy by building his own telescope in the garden of his Sussex home.
He produced detailed maps of the moon's surface which were used by Nasa as part of the preparations for the moon landing. A growing interest in extra-terrestrial matters persuaded the BBC to launch a new programme explaining the mysteries of space; Moore was chosen to present it. The first edition of The Sky at Night was broadcast on 24th April 1957; Moore presented the programme for more than four decades.
In 1965, for three years, he became the director of a new planetarium at Armagh, Northern Ireland. In 1969 he was part of the BBC commentary team to describe the moon landings. Despite his expertise on the solar system, Moore described himself as an amateur astronomer as he never had any formal training.
Moore was awarded an OBE in 1968 and was knighted and appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001. In 2009, after saving Airdrie Public Observatory from closure in 2002, Moore accepted the position of Honorary President of Airdrie Astronomical Association, a position which he held until his death. He wrote more than 70 books during his lifetime, most of the manuscripts banged out on a 1908 manual typewriter.
Moore died at his home in Selsey, West Sussex on the 9th December 2012, aged 89.
Conditions governing access
Open Access
Conditions governing Reproduction
Copies may be supplied in accordance with current copyright legislation and Science Museum Group terms and conditions
Finding aids
Box 46