Thirty Years' Work of the Royal Geo-Graphical Society Author(s): J. Scott Keltie Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 49, No. 5 (May, 1917), pp. 350-372 Published by: geographicalj Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1779657 Accessed: 03-06-2016 09:09 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), Wiley are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal This content downloaded from 143.89.105.150 on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 09:09:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ( 350 ) THIRTY YEARS' WORK OF THE ROYAL GEO- GRAPHICAL SOCIETY J. Scott Keltie, LL.D. Read at the Meeting of the Society, 5 February 1917. I HAVE been urged to put together some reminiscences of my official con- nection with the Society during the last thirty-three years in the form of a paper to be given at one of the evening meetings, before I finally retire from the Society's service. I have thought it might be of some interest to put what I have to say in the form of a brief review of the varied work of the Society during the years of my connection with it, referring to some of the outstanding episodes that have marked the Society's evolution towards its present position and Lowther Lodge. The year I880 seems a convenient starting-point from which to review the growth and work of the Society in recent years, as that was the date at which the late Sir Clements Markham concluded his history of the first fifty years of the Society's existence. I myself became a Fellow of the Society three years later, in I883, just thirty years after Sir Clements joined it. My official connection began in I884, and if I no longer occupy the dizzy position of the fly on the wheel, or, as some may regard it, the Secretarial throne, I am still on the staff, though transferred to what I may call "the Upper House." It may be useful to take stock of the position of the Society in the year of its jubilee, when it may be said to have entered upon a new career which has been marked by not a few interesting episodes. Who were the men who had the destinies of the Society in their hands at its start in I830 and again some thirty-seven years ago? It may be of some interest to compare the composition of the first Council of the Society with that of the governing body which was in office fifty years later, and to inquire to what extent, if any, its character had changed. While it was stated in the original resolution advocating the formation of the Society that " its sole object should be the promotion and diffusion of that most important and entertaining branch of knowledge-geography," still from the first the social element was a prominent feature in its constitution. This is not surprising when we remember that the Society originated in the Raleigh Club, which as the Geographical Club still flourishes and enter- tains the travellers and others who bring us their papers. The first list of the Society numbered 460 and was composed almost entirely of men of high social standing. While it may thus be regarded as having been to some extent a Society Institution to which everybody who was anybody was expected to belong, still the services, science, travel, literature, scholar- ship, and other callings were well represented. The first Council of the Society was thoroughly representative of the membership. The first President was Viscount Goderich, Secretary of This content downloaded from 143.89.105.150 on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 09:09:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THIRTY YEARS' WORK OF THE R.G.S. 351 State for the Colonies, and most of the councillors had travelled in one capacity or another; as a whole the Council was well qualified to direct the work of the Society, which was mainly the promotion of exploration and the publication of its records. It was at a later date that the first bye-law affirmed that the Society was founded for "the Advancement of Geographical Science." The first list of Council included two Secretaries, one the Rev. G. Renouard, Hon. and Foreign Secretary, the other Captain Maconochie, R.N., a paid Secretary, but included in the Council list. It was not until I847 that two Honorary Secretaries (besides the Foreign Secretary) were instituted. In I849 the designation of the paid Secretary was changed to Assistant Secretary, and so remained till I896, when the designation of Secretary was restored; but the actual duties of the permanent Secretary have remained the same throughout, while the functions of the Honorary Secretaries have varied with their idiosyncrasies. A Librarian was appointed in 1832, but it was not till 1874 that an assistant was added. The Librarian, it is to be presumed, had also charge of the maps, as it was not till twenty- two years later, in I854, that a Map Curator was appointed, and three years later an assistant. Presumably up to 1873 the maps published by the Society were produced by outside map-makers, as it was only in that year that a map-draughtsman was appointed, and until I883 one draughtsman was apparently sufficient for the Society's work. So far as the general character of the Council is concerned there had been practically no change in i880. Charles Darwin was a member for one year, I840, and I believe audited the Society's accounts, Huxley for one year in I870, and Dr. Whewell for two years in I853-4. Sir Roderick Murchison had been on the Council almost continuously from I833 to his death in I87I, holding the Presidency altogether for sixteen years. Charles Enderby, a worthy representative of the old merchant adventurer, was on the Council in the early years of'the Society and did much to promote Antarctic exploration. On the Council list of I880, we find the names of several men who might be regarded as geo- graphical specialists-Clements Markham, Henry Rawlinson, Richard Major, Douglas Freshfield, Richard Strachey, Francis Galton. But their energies were directed rather to the history of geographical dis- covery and to the exploration of particular regions than to geography as a department of scientific research. In the period covered by the first half-century of the Society's career there was such a vast area of the Earth unexplored that the Society naturally and rightly devoted its resources, mental and material, in the first place to the filling up of the great blanks without a knowledge of which the geographical student was seriously lacking in the data required for the solution of the problems with which he had to deal. From this point of view the men who were responsible for the conduct of our affairs were well qualified by training and personal experience to carry out the objects of This content downloaded from 143.89.105.150 on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 09:09:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 352 THIRTY YEARS' WORK OF the Society, as may be seen by any one who cares to consult the fifty volumes of the old Journal, and the twenty volumes of the old Proceedings. Indeed, they must have been often embarrassed by the abundance of the materials placed at the Society's disposal. In vol. o0 of the old Journal (1840) fifteen papers are published, and a list of thirty-three papers are given which had been received and read, but not yet published. When I became officially connected with the Society in I884 the Council was pretty much of the same character as it had been from the beginning. The late Lord Aberdare was President, singularly handsome, dignified, and genial, an admirable chairman both in the Council Room and in the Meeting Hall. His favourite attitude when speaking was to stick his hands in the tail pockets of his coat. Of all the Council of that date there is only one survivor, our present President, Mr. Douglas Freshfield, who was then one of the Honorary Secretaries along with the late Sir Clements Markham, and to whose influence I am mainly indebted for having become an official of the Society. That Council, let it be noted, contained one distinguished professional geographer, the late Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, who, though by birth a German, was a very lovable one. At one time it was proposed to make him the chief cartographer of the Society, but he would only accept it on condition that he was allowed to smoke on the premises. So shocking a proposal could not possibly be accepted by the Council of that day, and thus the Society was deprived of Ravenstein's valuable services - Tempora mzuantur / On that Council there were several names of distinction besides the two Secretaries; names such as Francis Galton, Henry Rawlinson, Richard Strachey, Lord Houghton, John Lubbock, Rutherford Alcock, Blanford the Indian Geologist, Bunbury whose 'History of Ancient Geography' is a classic, Frederic Goldsmid, Colonel Grant, Speke's old companion, Leopold McClintock, William Mackinnon, founder of British East Africa, R.