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The Royal Society of New South Wales. Report on Historical Significance

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The Royal Society of New South Wales. Report on Historical Significance Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, Vol. 139, p. 75–99, 2006 ISSN 0035-9173/06/020075–25 $4.00/1 The Royal Society of New South Wales Report on Historical Significance peter tyler Keywords: Royal Society of NSW, Library Collection, Community Heritage Grant THE BRIEF ture.1 The name was changed to ‘Philosophical Society of New South Wales’ in 1856, the year In November 2005 the Royal Society was that the Colony gained responsible government. awarded a Community Heritage Grant to fund In May 1866, Queen Victoria granted permis- a Significance and Preservation Survey. The sion to assume the present title ‘The Royal So- Community Heritage Grants Program is man- ciety of New South Wales’. The Society was aged by the National Library of Australia and incorporated under this name by Act of the jointly funded and supported by the Australian NSW Parliament on 16 December 1881 ‘for the Government through the Department of Com- encouragement of studies and investigations in munications, Information Technology and the Science, Art, Literature and Philosophy’. Arts, the National Library of Australia, Na- Because the Royal Society was incorporated tional Archives of Australia, the Australian under its own Act of Parliament, it can only Film Commission and the National Museum of be dissolved by legislation, unlike most corpo- Australia. rate bodies where this power is vested in the The grant is seen as a first step in support- members. Until 1935 women were not admit- ing the effort to preserve the Royal Society’s ted to the Society, although scholarly papers collection of scientific books, journals and his- by women such as by Fanny Cohen and Marie torical documents by engaging professional ex- Bentivoglio were accepted for reading or pub- pertise to guide the ongoing management and lication. The first woman to be elected Presi- preservation of the collection. dent was Dr Ida Browne, a palaeontologist who In addition to an appraisal of the collection, achieved that distinction in 1953. this report gives a brief overview of the Soci- The Royal Society of NSW (henceforth de- ety’s development and an assessment of its sig- scribed as ‘the Society’) set up ‘Sections’ deal- nificance in the intellectual life of New South ing with particular branches of knowledge, in- Wales from early colonial times. cluding agriculture, architecture, astronomy, bi- ology, chemistry, engineering, ethnology, fine THE ROYAL SOCIETY arts, geography, geology, literature, mathemat- ics, medicine, microscopy, physics, and public The Royal Society of New South Wales traces health. Those Sections gradually dispersed as its origins to the ‘Philosophical Society of Aus- new societies or professional associations were tralasia’ formed in 1821 when six men met at formed to cater for specialised interests in those the home of Judge Barron Field. It soon grew fields. For example, the Linnean Society was to a dozen members, meeting in their homes founded in 1874 to promote ‘the cultivation and by rotation. Nevertheless after about twelve study of the science of natural history in all its months the society lapsed until another organ- branches’, with considerable financial support isation with similar objectives was formed in from its first President, the politician and am- 1850 as the ‘Australian Philosophical Society’. ateur biologist Sir William Macleay. The par- By that time the educated population of the ticular focus of the Linnean Society has always Colony was large enough to support such a ven- been the biological sciences. Macleay was also 1 In the first census year of 1828, the total population of NSW was 35,960. This had grown to 178,668 by 1851. 76 TYLER a foundation member of the Philosophical Soci- In 1975 the building was resumed by the ety of NSW, and the two societies retained close NSW Government with a view to its demo- links for many years. lition as part of The Rocks redevelopment Despite the proliferation of specialised sci- scheme. Changed community attitudes towards entific bodies, the Royal Society retained an in- the value of heritage buildings prevented that terest in all these fields, as perusal of the pub- grandiose redevelopment taking place; never- lications and activities will attest. Research theless the government retained the property, was fostered through regular meetings, sym- re-named Sports House while it was occupied posia, publications and international scientific by sporting associations that later moved to exchange. Membership of the Society is now Wentworth Park. The change in nomenclature open to any person interested in these activ- and usage perhaps reflected the priorities of the 2 ities. From 1875 the Society rented premises NSW Government. in the Clark Assembly Rooms at 5 Elizabeth The Society held its last meeting in Sci- Street, Sydney, a property that it later pur- ence House on 4 August 1976, at which time chased. When this was sold in 1927, the Society the Institution of Engineers decided to move moved into temporary quarters in Castlereagh its national headquarters to Canberra. The Street previously occupied by the University Royal Society and Linnean Society then ac- Club. quired Clarence House at 35 Clarence Street In 1931, the Society moved into the purpose- formerly owned by printing ink manufacturer built ‘Science House’ at 157 Gloucester Street W.T. Wimble. This was re-named as the Sci- on land granted by the NSW Government. The ence Centre, where the Society remained until building, designed by architects Peddle, Thorpe 1983. The new arrangement did not prove vi- and Walker, won the first Sulman Prize for ar- able, so the two partners were forced to sell this chitecture in 1932. building. The Royal Society moved into two cottages owned by Macquarie University, but later had to compress its activities into a sin- gle unit at 136 Herring Road, North Ryde. Be- cause there was insufficient room for the library, the collection had to be dispersed or placed in storage. The Linnean Society moved to Milsons Point, where it still functions. The Royal Society now operates from a small terrace house at 121 Darlington Road, Darling- ton, owned by the University of Sydney on the fringe of the University campus. Although held under lease, there is no security of tenure; at any From the Society’s collection, a print from a time the University may require the premises for sketch of Science House showing when it won its own expansion. the Sulman Prize for Architecture in 1932. The building is well-protected against intru- Other scientific societies and professional as- sion by metal grilles on all doors and windows, sociations also occupied Science House, in par- with a connection to the University security ser- ticular the Linnean Society and the Institution vice, but there are no smoke alarms. Fire ex- of Engineers Australia, both of which were co- tinguishers are plentiful, but this is meaning- owners. The libraries of the Royal Society and less when the premises are only occupied inter- the Linnean Society shared the same room, al- mittently. The corrugated iron roof is rusty in though they were catalogued separately. patches, and may be liable to leak. 2 The building has since reverted to its original name of Science House, and is occupied by commercial tenants, including the Sydney campus of Curtin University of Technology from Western Australia. REPORT ON HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE 77 In place of the specialised interest sections J.L. Gerard Krefft (1830–1881) was curator that ceased to exist as other associations took and secretary of the Australian Museum. He their place, the Royal Society of NSW devel- served on the council of the Philosophical Soci- oped a decentralised structure to cater for scien- ety of NSW and became a member of the Royal tific interests in regions where universities were Society until 1874, when he left the Museum. A established or industry flourished. This move number of his zoological papers were published was in line with political and social pressures for in the Transactions of the Philosophical Society. greater decentralisation of services. The first re- gional division of the Society was the New Eng- Professor Archibald Liversidge (1846– land Branch, which began on 24 March 1961 1927) was Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, and operated very successfully for many years, and later Professor of Chemistry at the Univer- although it is currently in recess. The exis- sity of Sydney. An active President of the Soci- tence of this Branch was a significant factor ety, he bequeathed his extensive library to the in the relocation of portion of the Society li- Society. brary to Armidale. An active Southern High- J.H. Maiden (1859–1925) was the curator of lands Branch currently provides a strong focus the new Technological Museum in Sydney be- for the Society in that area of New South Wales, fore becoming Director of the Botanic Gardens where its regular activities are accessible to peo- in 1896. He founded the National Herbarium in ple from Canberra. 1901. He was twice President of the Society. PROMINENT MEMBERS H.C. Russell (1836–1907) became the NSW Government Astronomer in 1870. He wrote ex- Notable scientists who have made a significant tensively on scientific matters and established contribution to the reputation of the Royal So- uniform meteorological data collection proce- ciety of NSW include: dures throughout the Australian colonies. He Rev. W.B. Clarke (1798–1878) was unofficial was President of the Royal Society on four occa- Geological Surveyor of New South Wales 1851– sions, and became the foundation President of 3, and reported on the goldfields in NSW. He the Australasian Association for the Advance- was Vice President of the Society during a pe- ment of Science. riod when the Colonial Governor customarily held the office of President.
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