DOCSLIB.ORG

The History Group’S Silver Jubilee

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The History Group’S Silver Jubilee History of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography Special Interest Group Newsletter 2, 2010 WORKING FOR YOU: CONTENTS THE HISTORY GROUP COMMITTEE Working for you........................................ 1 by Martin Kidds Starting blocks of scientific meteorology... 2 Hon Secretary of the History Group Weather in the diary of Samuel Pepys ..... 9 Here is a short note to give members an insight Howard Oliver meets Oliver Howard ........ 9 into the running of the History Group on their Comment ................................................. 9 behalf and to give early notice of some The What-house Effect?..........................10 forthcoming events. Recommended books .............................10 Throughout the year, your committee works British Antarctic Expedition......................10 hard to put together an interesting and varied In the Archive ..........................................11 programme for the Group’s members, and this British Rainfall Organization meeting.......12 forms the core of our discussions when we Pictures of a rain-gauge ..........................13 meet, which we do three times a year. Planning Weather and the performance envelope..14 for meetings, including consideration of suitable Clarification .............................................16 venues and potential speakers, typically begins Newly-published must-have book............16 about two years before the event itself. Closer to Jehuda Neumann Prize nominations.......17 the time, attention is paid to the details of the Thought for the day .................................17 programme and other arrangements. To give Weather, climate and health meeting ......18 readers an idea, here are some of the matters Forthcoming meetings.............................18 we were considering at our committee meeting Latest publications ..................................18 in March: 2010 members of the Group....................20 Putting the finishing touches to a meeting in London in April marking the 150th Many recent meetings have been adopted by anniversary of the British Rainfall Organization, also the Royal Meteorological the Society and become national Wednesday or Society’s two-day Summer Meeting in Saturday meetings. We always take heart from this, seeing it as recognition of the contribution Exeter in July 2010. The third in a series of ‘Classic Papers’ of the History Group and a greater prominence given by the Society to the history and meetings, this themed on the subject of Turbulence, to be held at the University of development of ideas in the science. We also Reading in November 2010. feel it is important that some meetings are A meeting on polar meteorology, to mark targeted at History Group members and that we the centenary of Scott’s 1910-13 Antarctic maintain a balanced programme to suit their varied interests and backgrounds. Expedition, hopefully at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, in the spring Other tasks that occupy us include keeping a of 2011. careful eye on the Group’s finances and A visit to the Thames Barrier in June 2011, maintaining a publication programme. The the meeting themed around coastal flooding. former, under the watchful supervision of Mick A meeting in the autumn of 2011 celebrating Wood in particular, ensures we have sufficient the centenary of the use of aircraft in reserves to fund suitable events for our meteorology. members and the ‘natural variability’ of our Looking further ahead, we are always keen to subscription income year to year (some of you identify anniversaries of significant naturally prefer to renew each year, others take advantage of the five-year renewal cycle). Many meteorological events or significant scientific advances – something the Society itself actively of our members – including several of the committee – also make contributions to Weather encourages. such as profiles of interesting meteorologists, 1 Past Presidents of the Society and (sadly) Street was the Royal Meteorological Society’s obituaries. Last, but not least, here is our headquarters for many years. Our normal newsletter, largely put together by our meeting place is the Fellows’ Room at the indefatigable Chairman Malcolm Walker. Many Society’s headquarters at Oxford Road in History Group publications are available free via Reading, where the photographs of the Royal Meteorological Society’s website, and distinguished past Presidents of the Society are also available through the National serve as one reminder of the rich history of the Meteorological Library and Archive. science of meteorology we hope to keep alive for the present and future. We are of course always delighted to hear from any members who might have ideas for meetings or, even better, if they can offer us some practical help in organizing them. Please THE STARTING BLOCKS OF SCIENTIFIC also feel free to contact any member of the METEOROLOGY committee if you have a question about the by Maurice Crewe running of the Group. We will always be … an article to mark the 350th anniversary of delighted to hear from you. the founding of the Royal Society Outreach BACKGROUND th This year marks the 350 anniversary of the In the 17th century, there was a boom in the Royal Society. With the BBC and others development of interesting devices, especially commemorating this milestone, and interest in on the continent, where they had contributed to our science ever growing, we thought it was a the introduction of plates to measure the wind good time to reach out to our members and ask speed, tubes to create vacuums, thermoscopes, for their ideas. hygrometers and rain-gauges, although the We are looking for ideas from members to latter had been around for centuries in India. promote the History Group (and the Royal The point is that different people invented Meteorological Society more generally) to a ingenious instruments in different places, but wider audience and of course to support our initially many of them were solutions looking for aims to promote the study of the history of a problem to solve; they had curiosity value but meteorology and physical oceanography. little known practical use. Inventions are only of value when they can be put to some useful If a topic in the development of meteorology or purpose. It was in England under the auspices physical oceanography is of particular interest to of the Royal Society that the value of a few you, would you like to write about it? Could you foreign ideas developed into a practical set of commit to write a few hundred words about it? meteorological instruments with instructions We are hoping a number of Historical Fact about how they should be used. Sheets or ‘articles’ could run alongside our Occasional Papers on the Royal Meteorological THE ROYAL SOCIETY Society’s web site. This could be about a great A key factor in the story is that in the late 1640s weather event you witnessed, about potentially there were informal gatherings of natural exciting ‘stories’ that led to significant philosophers (later becoming scientists) in developments in science. They could perhaps London and Oxford; they called themselves the support a forthcoming meeting. “invisible college”, and when the monarchy was If you have any ideas, please don’t hesitate to restored in 1660 they met more regularly and contact the editor or another member of the openly and then in 1662 they became committee. incorporated formally when Charles II granted a charter to the Royal Society of London for the Historic locations in meteorology Promotion of Natural Knowledge. They were The March meeting of the committee was granted a charter and gained moral support hosted by Meteogroup in a modern office block from the crown but no money, unlike some of in London – but it turned out this was a very the academies and institutes on the continent, historic location for meteorology, as 172 years where the ruler or the state established and paid ago G J Symons had been born just round the for societies but at the cost to their members of corner in what is now Buckingham Palace Road. some of their independence. The ‘Founder Also, 63 Victoria Street nearby was home to the Fellows’ of the Royal Society were elected on Met Office from 1869 until 1910 and 70 Victoria 20 May 1663. 2 Amongst the forty original names on the suggested that it was Boyle who brought the provisional list of members were John Wilkins, first barometer to England when he returned who chaired a preliminary meeting in 1660, from studying on the continent. In 1726, William Dr Jonathan Goddard (one of the most noted Derham claimed that it was Christopher Wren medical men of the time), Sir William Petty (a who suggested to Boyle that he should use a pioneer in the use of statistics), John Wallis (a mercurial barometer to examine the theories of mathematician who wrote on the barometer and René Descartes, thus persuading Boyle to make thunder and set his pupil Isaac Newton on the a practical barometer, and Boyle has also been track of calculus) and then first secretary Henry credited with coining the term ‘barometer’. Oldenberg, who wrote, among other things, on However, Boyle, with help from his assistant the effect of thunder on a ship’s compass (well Hooke, constructed an air pump and he thought it was a good idea at the time!). The investigated the springiness of air – work that most noted early members from our point of eventually led to Boyle's Law – perhaps the only view were Robert Boyle (‘pigeonholed’ for bit of science that many remember from school, PV = a constant), Christopher Wren (known as a but that is just as well because it is not only a builder of churches, especially St. Paul’s), first step in learning about air but it may have Robert Hooke (who most people think just been the first equation ever published relating to stretched a bit of wire) and Edmond Halley (who the quantitative study of the atmosphere. happened to notice a comet that returns every Boyle's interest in air also led him to write ‘New 76 years).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • John Dryden and the Late 17Th Century Dramatic Experience Lecture 16 (C) by Asher Ashkar Gohar 1 Credit Hr
    JOHN DRYDEN AND THE LATE 17TH CENTURY DRAMATIC EXPERIENCE LECTURE 16 (C) BY ASHER ASHKAR GOHAR 1 CREDIT HR. JOHN DRYDEN (1631 – 1700) HIS LIFE: John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the “Age of Dryden”. The son of a country gentleman, Dryden grew up in the country. When he was 11 years old the Civil War broke out. Both his father’s and mother’s families sided with Parliament against the king, but Dryden’s own sympathies in his youth are unknown. About 1644 Dryden was admitted to Westminster School, where he received a predominantly classical education under the celebrated Richard Busby. His easy and lifelong familiarity with classical literature begun at Westminster later resulted in idiomatic English translations. In 1650 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1654. What Dryden did between leaving the university in 1654 and the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 is not known with certainty. In 1659 his contribution to a memorial volume for Oliver Cromwell marked him as a poet worth watching. His “heroic stanzas” were mature, considered, sonorous, and sprinkled with those classical and scientific allusions that characterized his later verse. This kind of public poetry was always one of the things Dryden did best. On December 1, 1663, he married Elizabeth Howard, the youngest daughter of Thomas Howard, 1st earl of Berkshire.
    [Show full text]
  • Pepys Greenwich Walk
    Samuel Pepys’ Walk through the eastern City of London and Greenwich Distance = 5 miles (8 km) Estimated duration = 3 – 4 hours not including the river trip to Greenwich Nearest underground stations: This is planned to start from the Monument underground station, but could be joined at several other places including Aldgate or Tower Hill underground stations. You can do this Walk on any day of the week, but my recommendation would be to do the first part on a Wednesday or a Thursday because there may be free lunchtime classical recitals in one of the churches that are on the route. The quietest time would be at the weekend because the main part of this Walk takes place in the heart of the business district of London, which is almost empty at that time. However this does mean that many places will be closed including ironically the churches as well as most of the pubs and Seething Lane Garden. It’s a good idea to buy a one-day bus pass or travel card if you don’t already have one, so that you needn’t walk the whole route but can jump on and off any bus going in your direction. This is based around the Pepys Diary website at www.pepysdiary.com and your photographs could be added to the Pepys group collection here: www.flickr.com/groups/pepysdiary. And if you aren't in London at present, perhaps you'd like to attempt a "virtual tour" through the hyperlinks, or alternatively explore London via google streetview, the various BBC London webcams or these ones, which are much more comprehensive.
    [Show full text]
  • Hans Sloane's a Voyage to Jamaica
    <title>Natural history collections and the book <sub-title>Hans Sloane’s A Voyage to Jamaica (1707-1725) and his Jamaican plants <running header> Natural history collections and the book Edwin D. Rose The Jamaican herbarium assembled by Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) in 1687 formed a recorded part of his extensive museum collection from the 1730s until its purchase by the British state in 1753. The detailed examination of the organization of the botanical specimens which account for the first seven volumes of the Sloane herbarium illustrates the use of printed books in natural history collecting practices in mid-eighteenth-century Britain. Sloane’s personal copy of his own work, A Voyage to Jamaica (1707-25), played a central role in the cataloguing and classifying this highly organized natural historical collection. The collection was arranged according to a coherent, rational system, composed of a range of printed works, manuscripts and specimen labels which interacted with the physical spaces in which they were kept. IN 1687, Hans Sloane (1660-1753) journeyed to Jamaica as physician for James II’s newly appointed governor, the Duke of Albemarle. Following the wishes of John Ray (1627-1705), who had asked Sloane to ‘search out and examine thoroughly the natural varieties of that island [Jamaica]’,1 he returned to England in 1689 with a huge quantity of natural history specimens. Perhaps the best known of these are his collections of plants, pressed in seven volumes containing nearly 800 new species.2 These formed the basis for his magnum opus: A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S.
    [Show full text]
  • Greenwich Park
    GREENWICH PARK CONSERVATION PLAN 2019-2029 GPR_DO_17.0 ‘Greenwich is unique - a place of pilgrimage, as increasing numbers of visitors obviously demonstrate, a place for inspiration, imagination and sheer pleasure. Majestic buildings, park, views, unseen meridian and a wealth of history form a unified whole of international importance. The maintenance and management of this great place requires sensitivity and constant care.’ ROYAL PARKS REVIEW OF GREEWNICH PARK 1995 CHAIRMAN’S FOREWORD Greenwich Park is England’s oldest enclosed public park, a Grade1 listed landscape that forms two thirds of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. The parks essential character is created by its dramatic topography juxtaposed with its grand formal landscape design. Its sense of place draws on the magnificent views of sky and river, the modern docklands panorama, the City of London and the remarkable Baroque architectural ensemble which surrounds the park and its established associations with time and space. Still in its 1433 boundaries, with an ancient deer herd and a wealth of natural and historic features Greenwich Park attracts 4.7 million visitors a year which is estimated to rise to 6 million by 2030. We recognise that its capacity as an internationally significant heritage site and a treasured local space is under threat from overuse, tree diseases and a range of infrastructural problems. I am delighted to introduce this Greenwich Park Conservation Plan, developed as part of the Greenwich Park Revealed Project. The plan has been written in a new format which we hope will reflect the importance that we place on creating robust and thoughtful plans.
    [Show full text]
  • English Radicalism and the Struggle for Reform
    English Radicalism and the Struggle for Reform The Library of Sir Geoffrey Bindman, QC. Part I. BERNARD QUARITCH LTD MMXX BERNARD QUARITCH LTD 36 Bedford Row, London, WC1R 4JH tel.: +44 (0)20 7297 4888 fax: +44 (0)20 7297 4866 email: [email protected] / [email protected] web: www.quaritch.com Bankers: Barclays Bank PLC 1 Churchill Place London E14 5HP Sort code: 20-65-90 Account number: 10511722 Swift code: BUKBGB22 Sterling account: IBAN: GB71 BUKB 2065 9010 5117 22 Euro account: IBAN: GB03 BUKB 2065 9045 4470 11 U.S. Dollar account: IBAN: GB19 BUKB 2065 9063 9924 44 VAT number: GB 322 4543 31 Front cover: from item 106 (Gillray) Rear cover: from item 281 (Peterloo Massacre) Opposite: from item 276 (‘Martial’) List 2020/1 Introduction My father qualified in medicine at Durham University in 1926 and practised in Gateshead on Tyne for the next 43 years – excluding 6 years absence on war service from 1939 to 1945. From his student days he had been an avid book collector. He formed relationships with antiquarian booksellers throughout the north of England. His interests were eclectic but focused on English literature of the 17th and 18th centuries. Several of my father’s books have survived in the present collection. During childhood I paid little attention to his books but in later years I too became a collector. During the war I was evacuated to the Lake District and my school in Keswick incorporated Greta Hall, where Coleridge lived with Robert Southey and his family. So from an early age the Lake Poets were a significant part of my life and a focus of my book collecting.
    [Show full text]
  • John Locke (1632–1704)
    The following text was originally published in PROSPECTS: the quarterly review of education (Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. 24, no. 1/2, 1994, p. 61–76. ©UNESCO: International Bureau of Education, 1999 This document may be reproduced free of charge as long as acknowledgement is made of the source. JOHN LOCKE (1632–1704) Richard Aldrich John Locke was a great educator on several counts. In an immediate sense he was himself a practitioner and publicist of good education. This profile is concerned with his life in education, his theory of knowledge, his advice to parents on the upbringing of their children, and his educational priorities with specific reference to the curriculum. But Locke also made significant contributions to human understanding in such fields as theology, economics, medicine and science, and particularly political philosophy. This dual prominence places Locke, arguably the most significant educationist in English history, in a long and honourable tradition. As Nathan Tarcov observed: ‘philosophers have been able to stand out in the realms of both educational theory and political theory ever since the two fields of thought first flowed from their common fountainhead, the Republic of Plato’ (Tarcov, 1984, p. 1–2). Seventeenth-century England In the seventeenth century England experienced two revolutions. In 1649, after years of civil war, the first culminated in the execution of King Charles I of the Stuart family and the establishment of a Commonwealth, replaced in 1653 by a Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell. In 1660 the monarchy was restored under Charles II and, on his death in 1685, the throne passed peaceably enough to his younger brother, James.
    [Show full text]
  • 1901 Matthew Henry 0.Pdf
    ' . MATTHEW HENRY AND HIS CHAPEL H. D. ROBERTS LIVERPOOL THE LIVERPOOL BOOKSELLERS' COMPANY, LTD., 70, LORD STREET PREFACE 7%ALL CONCERNED:- c' The oldest NOnconfor?~iStChapel in Chester celebrates this year a two hundredth Anniversary ;for the foundation stone was laid in the i~zonthof September, 1699 . lC Those who wonhi$ in this Chafed hold it as a trust fj,, the men and women of two hundredyears ago. It is their dzcty to see to it that the House pf God, at all times, is seem& for His Worshe. " Is it too wuch to hope, at this epoch, for yet another Celztury of existence, for our old historic 'Meeting House ' .? " (Calendar, Jan. I 899.) " The present Congregation, wishing to reltew the Chapelfor another and vzkorous Century of dzye, called in Messrs. T. M. Lockwood, F.R.I.B.A., and Sons, to make a thoroagh examination of the old structure. They declared the roof dangerous, and instead of the amenities of a Bi-Centenary, we found ourselves confronted,flnaldy, with the raisingof L9oo. Towavds this we have raised L700 ;and on work actual& comjkted we are L100 in &bt. A new roof is on, and in place of the old ceiling-, lying $at on the arches, is a tu$le-coved ceiling. This, 4F iii in thorough keeping with the architecture, has greatly receipt of £70 tn donations. One hulzdved pounds iwoved the ChapeC, adding hezght and giving grace: would loose an earnest and worthy congregation fro?lz Dry rot was found in the vestry and gallevy ;both have Ziabilities creeping on towads A~,ooo.
    [Show full text]
  • Age of Dryden Summary
    AGE OF DRYDEN SUMMARY John Dryden, (born August 9 [August 19, New Style], 1631, Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire, England—died May 1 [May 12], 1700, London), English poet, dramatist, and literary critic who so dominated the literary scene of his day that it came to be known as the Age of Dryden. The son of a country gentleman, Dryden grew up in the country. When he was 11 years old the Civil War broke out. Both his father’s and mother’s families sided with Parliament against the king, but Dryden’s own sympathies in his youth are unknown. About 1644 Dryden was admitted to Westminster School, where he received a predominantly classical education under the celebrated Richard Busby. His easy and lifelong familiarity with classical literature begun at Westminster later resulted in idiomatic English translations. In 1650 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1654. What Dryden did between leaving the university in 1654 and the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 is not known with certainty. In 1659 his contribution to a memorial volume for Oliver Cromwell marked him as a poet worth watching. His “heroic stanzas” were mature, considered, sonorous, and sprinkled with those classical and scientific allusions that characterized his later verse. This kind of public poetry was always one of the things Dryden did best. When in May 1660 Charles II was restored to the throne, Dryden joined the poets of the day in welcoming him, publishing in June Astraea Redux, a poem of more than 300 lines in rhymed couplets.
    [Show full text]
  • Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn: the Diarist of the Seventeenth Century
    Vol. 4(4), pp. 61-64, April 2016 DOI: 10.14662/IJELC2016.030 International Journal of English Copy© right 2016 Literature and Culture Author(s) retain the copyright of this article ISSN: 2360-7831 http://www.academicresearchjournals.org/IJELC/Index.htm Review Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn: The Diarist of the Seventeenth Century Arjun N. Khobragade Assistant Professor of English, Yeshwant Mahavidyalaya, Seloo, Dist. Wardha, RTMNU, Nagpur University, Nagpur. E-mail: [email protected] Accepted 8 May 2016 Diaries written in the Restoration age provides us an insight into the day to day life of that period. These diaries were not written with an intention of being read by others. The writers did not wish to make any claim to having produced literature. These are frank and sincere accounts of what actually happened. Diaries and memoir writers supplied one of the most remarkable divisions of prose of the seventeenth century. The development of newspaper and the periodical is also an interesting literary sideline of this era. The civil war undoubtedly stimulated a public appetite for up to the minute news which was supplemented by a new way of living and thinking. The most well known of the diary writers are Samuel Pepys, John Evelyn and Roger North. Samuel Pepys’s diary provides us an accurate picture of the social and political life of that age. Through the diary Pepys seemed to be talking to himself. His language is spontaneous. He wrote what comes to his mind and did not try to refine it. One comes across slips and abbreviation in his writing.
    [Show full text]
  • Today We Will Be... Finding out About Samuel Pepys and His Diary
    The Great Fire of London Today we will be... Finding out about Samuel Pepys and his diary. www.planbee.com This is Samuel Pepys. He lived in London at the time of the Great Fire. Samuel Pepys was born in 1633 so was 33 when the Great Fire happened. He married his wife, Elizabeth, in 1655 when Elizabeth was just 15 years old. His parents were not rich but he had a rich relative who helped him to get a good job. How do you think we know so much about Samuel Pepys and his experience in the Great Fire of London? www.planbee.com Pepys wrote a diary and recorded his experiences. This is how we know so much about the Great Fire and what he did during it. He wrote his diary in secret and didn’t mean for anyone else to read it. He wrote it in code and it wasn’t published until 150 years after the fire. Pepys was a Member of Parliament so he was quite involved in fighting the fire. In his diary, he writes about the decisions of the Lord Mayor and the king took to fight the fire. www.planbee.com He also tells us about things he did like putting his wife on a boat to Woolwich to make sure she was safe and burying cheese and wine in his garden! This picture shows an actual page from Pepys’ diary. What is the writing like? www.planbee.com What did he see? He saw the fire the night it started when his maidservant woke him up to tell him about it.
    [Show full text]
  • Genealogy of the Pepys Family, 1273-1887
    liiiiiiiw^^^^^^ UGHAM YOUM; university PROVO, UTAH ^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Brigham Young University http://www.archive.org/details/genealogyofpepysOOpepy ^P?!pPP^^^ GENEALOGY OF THE PEPYS FAMILY. r GENEALOGY OF THE PEPYS FAMILY 1273— 1887 COMPILED BY WALTER COURTENAY PEPYS LATE LIEUTENANT 60TH ROYAL RIFLES BARRISTER-AT-LAW, LINCOLN'S INN LONDON GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET COVENT GARDEN I 1887 CHISWICK PRESS :—C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT CHANCERY LANE. 90^w^ M ^^1^^^^K^^k&i PREFACE. N offering the present compilation of family data to those interested, I wish it to be clearly understood that I claim to no originality. It is intended—as can readily be seen by those who . read it—to be merely a gathering together of fragments of family history, which has cost me many hours of research, and which I hope may prove useful to any future member of the family who may feel curious to know who his forefathers were. I believe the pedigrees of the family I have compiled from various sources to be the most complete and accurate that ever have been published. Walter Courtenay Pepys. 6l, PORCHESTER TeRRACE, London, W., /uly, 1887. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE 1. Arms of the Family, &c. 9 2. First Mention of the Name 1 3. Spelling and Pronunciation of the Name . .12 4. Foreign Form of the Name . 14 5. Sketch of the Family Histoiy 16 6. Distinguished Members of the Family 33 7. Present Members of the Family 49 8. Extracts from a Private Chartulary $2 9.
    [Show full text]
  • The Royal Society of London and the Royal College of Physicians: the Struggle for Intellectual Dominance in Restoration London
    Linda Friday Ex Historia 34 Linda Friday1 University of Reading The Royal Society of London and the Royal College of Physicians: The Struggle for Intellectual Dominance in Restoration London A common theme in the histories of the College of Physicians and the Royal Society is that the two organisations became involved in a fractious competition for learned and medical institutional supremacy in London in the early years of the Restoration. The College of Physicians was concerned that the Royal Society was critical of the College’s Galenic medical tradition, and - as a new learned institution with aspirations to erect a college devoted to the pursuit of the new experimental philosophy - that the Royal Society had positioned themselves in direct competition with the College of Physicians for intellectual dominance. This article will re-examine this perception, mostly from the point of view of the Royal Society and its Fellows, using one of the key texts used by the Royal Society to promote their organisation: Thomas Sprat’s History of the Royal Society of London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge. Begun in 1663/1664 and eventually published in 1667, this text reveals that the Royal Society’s focus was not on competing with the College of Physicians, nor was there an institutional aim to undermine the College’s position as a medical authority. Rather, the preoccupation of the Royal Society in this period was to gather membership and wealthy benefactors to facilitate the realisation of the goal of founding a college, and thereby ensure the organisation’s long-term future. They adopted what amounted to marketing methods to access a popular consumer interest in rare and curious natural objects and artefacts, both foreign and 1 Linda Friday ([email protected]) is a PhD candidate in Early Modern History at the University of Reading.
    [Show full text]