Frederick Crace Calvert (1819–1873) was a professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution, Manchester. From 1835 to 1846 he lived in France, studying chemistry under the chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889), who was famous for his work on dyestuffs. In the first lecture (pp. 3–20), Calvert describes naturally occurring dyes (e.g., indigo, lac, and madder). The second lecture (pp. 21–43) covers the newly discovered dyes derived from coal tar, and the third (pp. 44–64) describes the techniques of calico printing. On page 23 there is a specimen of cloth dyed with mauveine, discovered by William Henry Perkin (1838-1907) in 1856.