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A ‘Philosophical Storehouse’: The life and afterlife of the Royal Society’s repository
Jennifer M. Thomas Submitted for PhD examination
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- ABSTRACT -
In June 1781, the Royal Society’s repository was transferred to the British Museum. Though ostensibly as a result of the limited space in the Royal Society’s purpose built accommodation at Somerset House, the Society were perhaps also a little relieved to relinquish a collection that had proved to be somewhat burdensome during its residence at the Society and which was frequently criticised for its decaying specimens, broken items and missing, possibly stolen, objects. However this seems to be only part of the story. Drawing upon manuscript material in the Royal Society and the British Library, this study will examine the repository’s pattern of usage, collecting strategies and intellectual output throughout its life, in addition to exploring its afterlife at the British Museum using the British Museum’s, Royal College of Surgeon’s and Natural History Museum’s extensive archives. This thesis will seek to reveal an alternative account of the Royal Society’s repository arguing that it was comprised of a substantial and significant collection that the British Museum, at least initially, appears to have been grateful to receive and which, periodically, played a central role in the Society’s and naturalists' work.
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- TABLE OF CONTENTS -
List of Figures 4
Acknowledgements 5
Notes on Transcription 6
Introduction 7 A ‘Philosophical Storehouse’: The life and afterlife of the Royal Society’s Repository
Chapter One 17 ‘A Safe and Lasting Repository’? The Life and Transfer of the Royal Society’s Museum
Chapter Two 47 ‘Compiling God’s Great Book [of] Universal Nature’: The Royal Society’s collecting strategies
Chapter Three 82 ‘For Considerable Philosophical and Usefull Purposes’: The use of the Royal Society’s repository
Chapter Four 119 ‘[Preserved] out of regard to the memory of Swammerdam’: The Afterlife of the Royal Society’s repository
Chapter Five 148 ‘The Soul of the Collection’: The documentation of the British Museum’s natural history collections, 1781 1836
Conclusion 186
List of Appendices 194
Appendix 1 196 Royal Society Archive
Appendix 2 210 British Library Archive
Appendix 3 212 British Museum Archive
Appendix 4 215 Royal College of Surgeons Archive
Appendix 5 222 Natural History Museum, Tring Archive
Bibliography 228
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