In 1897 The Nineteenth Century, a popular magazine, published an essay by William Huggins on ‘The new astronomy’ and his role in its development. In it, Huggins imposed an artificial order and rationale upon his programmatic decisions by enumerating a neat sequence of pioneering projects that began with his first efforts in stellar spectroscopy and ended with his design of a spectroscopic method to determine stellar motion in the line of sight. He fleshed out the story with vivid descriptions of the career risks he took, the instrumental and methodological challenges he faced, as well as the rewards he gained throughout his long and illustrious career in consequence of his decision to devote his observing programme to the spectroscopic study of celestial bodies. The captivating eyewitness account carried readers behind the scenes of scientific discovery in a very personal and dramatic way.

Huggins and his wife, Margaret, later reprinted extended excerpts from it in both their Atlas (1899) and Scientific Papers (1909) thus making its passages readily available to interested scientists and laymen alike. Indeed, after his death in 1910, ‘The new astronomy’ was the reference of choice for obituarists and biographers who lacked the time and energy required to read Huggins's many published papers, let alone the access necessary to examine his unpublished correspondence and notebook records.