Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution
Encyclopedia
The Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (also known as BRLSI) is an educational charity based in Bath, England
. It was founded in 1824 and provides a museum, an independent library, exhibition space, meeting rooms and a programme of public lectures, discussion groups and exhibitions related to science, the arts and current affairs.
, Edmund Halley and Robert Hooke
and the founding of the Royal Society
in 1662. Bath had long attracted students of chemistry and medicine keen to legitimise claims for the curative properties of its hot spring waters, and soon the patronage of the aristocracy heralded the first wave of the city's Georgian popularity. The first commercial public science (or natural philosophy
) lecture was presented by John Theophilus Desaguliers
in 1724, explaining the phenomenon of a total eclipse of the sun, which had occurred in May of that year. The lecture may well have been held at Mr. Harrison's Assembly Rooms
in Terrace Walk, already becoming a popular venue for the well-heeled visitor to the city. Although it would continue to be host to such itinerant lecturers, it would be another 53 years before the first of Bath's scientific societies was formed.
, its home moving from Bath to Shepton Mallett in 1974 after 196 years with its headquarters in the city). The Bath society published Aims, Rules and Orders and, like its London progenitor, offered prizes or 'premiums' for enterprising projects. These included improvements in areas such as animal husbandry, farm implements and country crafts. Members included William Smith
, the 'father of English Geology', whose connections through the society would encourage his geological work in identifying the relationship between rock strata and the distinctive fossils associated with them.
. The Bath Philosophical Societies did not quite have the staying power of the Birmingham-based forum and after three incarnations quietly folded. Despite its failure to thrive the society could still boast influential and important subscribers including William Herschel
, whose discovery of Uranus was made in 1781 whilst a resident of the city) and Joseph Priestley
who at Bowood House in nearby Calne was embarking on his most important scientific investigations on different kinds of air (including his discovery of oxygen
).
on the site of Harrison's Assembly Rooms in Terrace Walk (which had been destroyed by fire in 1820). The Duke of York
was the first patron of the Institution and its first president was Marquis of Lansdowne
(the son of Joseph Priestley's one-time employer, Lord Sherburne). The first curator of the Institution was William Lonsdale
. Lonsdale was a geologist and his study of fossils found in South Devon limestones informed the work of Adam Sedgwick
and Roderick Murchison
in establishing (after much controversy) the basis for a geological period between the Carboniferous and the Silurian: the Devonian Period. The 'Royal' prefix was added when Queen Victoria
continued the patronage bestowed upon the Institution by the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV
).
natural history libraries. Its archives contain bound volumes of letters from eminent scientists and naturalists such as Charles Darwin
, Professor John Stevens Henslow
and Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
. Smaller collections cover theology, government, travel and local history.
Four paintings by Andrea Casali
and a photography collection by the Reverend Francis Lockey (1796–1869) are also featured.
, a Grade I listed Greek Revival building designed by John Pinch the younger
in 1830 as a road improvement scheme entailed the demolition of the Terrace Walk.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It was founded in 1824 and provides a museum, an independent library, exhibition space, meeting rooms and a programme of public lectures, discussion groups and exhibitions related to science, the arts and current affairs.
Origins: Science Lecturing in Georgian Bath
The early eighteenth century witnessed a vogue for science lecturing in the wake of the pioneering endeavours of scientists such as Isaac NewtonIsaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
, Edmund Halley and Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but...
and the founding of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
in 1662. Bath had long attracted students of chemistry and medicine keen to legitimise claims for the curative properties of its hot spring waters, and soon the patronage of the aristocracy heralded the first wave of the city's Georgian popularity. The first commercial public science (or natural philosophy
Natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science...
) lecture was presented by John Theophilus Desaguliers
John Theophilus Desaguliers
John Theophilus Desaguliers was a natural philosopher born in France. He was a member of the Royal Society of London beginning 29 July 1714. He was presented with the Royal Society's highest honour, the Copley Medal, in 1734, 1736 and 1741, with the 1741 award being for his discovery of the...
in 1724, explaining the phenomenon of a total eclipse of the sun, which had occurred in May of that year. The lecture may well have been held at Mr. Harrison's Assembly Rooms
Bath Assembly Rooms
The Bath Assembly Rooms, designed by John Wood the Younger in 1769, are a set of elegant assembly rooms located in the heart of the World Heritage City of Bath in England which are now open to the public as a visitor attraction...
in Terrace Walk, already becoming a popular venue for the well-heeled visitor to the city. Although it would continue to be host to such itinerant lecturers, it would be another 53 years before the first of Bath's scientific societies was formed.
The Bath and West Society
In 1777 Edmund Rack, the son of a Norfolk labouring weaver, founded the first of Bath's scientific and literary societies. Although partly modelled on the Royal Society of London and other such institutions, Rack was particularly concerned with agricultural and planting improvements in the West Country and so the society would be known as the Bath and West of England Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (later to become the Royal Bath and West of England SocietyRoyal Bath and West of England Society
The Royal Bath and West of England Society is a charitable society founded in 1777 to promote and improve agriculture and related activities around the West Country of England. Based at the Royal Bath and West of England Society Showground near Shepton Mallet in Somerset, the society is a...
, its home moving from Bath to Shepton Mallett in 1974 after 196 years with its headquarters in the city). The Bath society published Aims, Rules and Orders and, like its London progenitor, offered prizes or 'premiums' for enterprising projects. These included improvements in areas such as animal husbandry, farm implements and country crafts. Members included William Smith
William Smith (geologist)
William 'Strata' Smith was an English geologist, credited with creating the first nationwide geological map. He is known as the "Father of English Geology" for collating the geological history of England and Wales into a single record, although recognition was very slow in coming...
, the 'father of English Geology', whose connections through the society would encourage his geological work in identifying the relationship between rock strata and the distinctive fossils associated with them.
The Bath Philosophical Societies
The first of three Philosophical Societies was inaugurated in 1779, founded by Thomas Curtis with Edmund Rack once more at the helm, as secretary. With the aim of being a select Literary Society for the purpose of discussing scientific and philosopical subjects and making experiments to illustrate them, the model for this venture would have been provincial discussion groups such as the Lunar SocietyLunar Society
The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 in Birmingham, England. At first called the Lunar Circle,...
. The Bath Philosophical Societies did not quite have the staying power of the Birmingham-based forum and after three incarnations quietly folded. Despite its failure to thrive the society could still boast influential and important subscribers including William Herschel
William Herschel
Sir Frederick William Herschel, KH, FRS, German: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel was a German-born British astronomer, technical expert, and composer. Born in Hanover, Wilhelm first followed his father into the Military Band of Hanover, but emigrated to Britain at age 19...
, whose discovery of Uranus was made in 1781 whilst a resident of the city) and Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
who at Bowood House in nearby Calne was embarking on his most important scientific investigations on different kinds of air (including his discovery of oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
).
The Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution
It was in 1824 that the most robust of Bath's literary and scientific societies was founded. Its first home was a grand new building designed by George Allen UnderwoodGeorge Allen Underwood
George Allen Underwood was an architect in Cheltenham.He was a pupil of Sir John Soane from 1807 to 1815 and then started his own practice in Cheltenham...
on the site of Harrison's Assembly Rooms in Terrace Walk (which had been destroyed by fire in 1820). The Duke of York
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
The Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany was a member of the Hanoverian and British Royal Family, the second eldest child, and second son, of King George III...
was the first patron of the Institution and its first president was Marquis of Lansdowne
Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne
Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne KG, PC, FRS , known as Lord Henry Petty from 1784 to 1809 and then as The Earl of Kerry to 1818, was a British statesman...
(the son of Joseph Priestley's one-time employer, Lord Sherburne). The first curator of the Institution was William Lonsdale
William Lonsdale
William Lonsdale , English geologist and palaeontologist, won the Wollaston medal in 1846 for his research on the various kinds of fossil corals.-Biography:...
. Lonsdale was a geologist and his study of fossils found in South Devon limestones informed the work of Adam Sedgwick
Adam Sedgwick
Adam Sedgwick was one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Devonian period of the geological timescale...
and Roderick Murchison
Roderick Murchison
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet KCB DCL FRS FRSE FLS PRGS PBA MRIA was a Scottish geologist who first described and investigated the Silurian system.-Early life and work:...
in establishing (after much controversy) the basis for a geological period between the Carboniferous and the Silurian: the Devonian Period. The 'Royal' prefix was added when Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
continued the patronage bestowed upon the Institution by the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV
William IV of the United Kingdom
William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death...
).
Some notable members of the BRLSI
- Leonard Jenyns (later Blomefield) (1800–1893) founded the Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club in 1855, which operated under auspices of the BRLSI. Jenyns was a lifelong friend of Charles DarwinCharles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
and famously turned down the opportunity to be the naturalist aboard HMS BeagleHMS BeagleHMS Beagle was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames, at a cost of £7,803. In July of that year she took part in a fleet review celebrating the coronation of King George IV of the United Kingdom in which...
's voyage to South America. Jenyns recommended the young Charles Darwin to Captain Robert FitzRoyRobert FitzRoyVice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy RN achieved lasting fame as the captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin's famous voyage, and as a pioneering meteorologist who made accurate weather forecasting a reality...
. - Charles MooreCharles Moore (geologist)Charles Moore , geologist, the second son, but third child, of John Moore, by his wife Sophia , was born at Ilminster, Somerset, on 8 June 1815. He attended the commercial school of that town from an early age till 1827, when he was removed to the free grammar school for one year...
(1815–1881) was an eminent geologist whose most spectacular fossil finds came from a single strata 15 cm-thick at Strawberry bank near IlminsterIlminsterIlminster is a country town and civil parish in the countryside of south west Somerset, England, with a population of 4,781. Bypassed a few years ago, the town now lies just east of the intersection of the A303 and the A358...
. His discovery of what he named the 'saurian, fish and insect bed' was made after observing two boys rolling a pebble, or nodule, to each other, which upon splitting apart revealed a beautifully preserved fossil fish of the genus PachycormusPachycormusPachycormus is an extinct genus of fish from the Jurassic.-Sources:* Fossils by David Ward...
. In the following years he amassed a collection of hundreds of marine specimens from the site, many displaying remarkable soft tissue preservation. In 2010 the BRLSI received a grant of £62,250 from the Esmee Fairbairn FoundationEsmee Fairbairn Charitable TrustThe Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is a registered charity founded in England in 1961. It is one of the largest independent grantmaking foundations in England, making grants to organisations which aim to improve the quality of life for people and communities in the UK, both now and in the future.The...
for a research and conservation project devoted to Moore's Strawberry Bank fossil collection.
Collections
The Institution's antiquarian library contains over 7000 volumes, including the Jenyns and the BroomeChristopher Edmund Broome
Christopher Edmund Broome was a British mycologist.-Background and education:C.E. Broome was born in Berkhamsted, the son of a solicitor. He was privately schooled in Kensington and in 1832 was sent to read for Holy Orders with the curate of Swaffham Prior in Cambridgeshire...
natural history libraries. Its archives contain bound volumes of letters from eminent scientists and naturalists such as Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
, Professor John Stevens Henslow
John Stevens Henslow
John Stevens Henslow was an English clergyman, botanist and geologist. He is best remembered as friend and mentor to his pupil Charles Darwin.- Early life :...
and Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
. Smaller collections cover theology, government, travel and local history.
Four paintings by Andrea Casali
Andrea Casali
Andrea Casali was an Italian painter of the Rococo period.He was born at Civitavecchia, and is said to have been a pupil of Sebastiano Conca. He traveled to England in 1741, and stayed there for more than two decades, and where he was a teacher to James Durno. Some sources claim a birthdate of...
and a photography collection by the Reverend Francis Lockey (1796–1869) are also featured.
Building
In 1932 the Institution moved to 16-18, the Georgian Queen SquareQueen Square (Bath)
Queen Square is a square of Georgian houses in the city of Bath, England.Queen Square was the first speculative development by the architect John Wood, the Elder. Wood lived in a house on the square. Numbers 21-27 make up the north side...
, a Grade I listed Greek Revival building designed by John Pinch the younger
John Pinch the younger
John Pinch the younger was an architect, working mainly in the city of Bath, England, and surveyor to the Pulteney and Darlington estate...
in 1830 as a road improvement scheme entailed the demolition of the Terrace Walk.