Estienne Louis Geoffroy was son of Estienne François Geoffroy [1672-1731], and nephew of Claude Joseph Geoffroy [1685-1752], a member of the Faculté de Médecine of Paris.
John Gregory was born, 1864; Geological Department of the Natural History Museum, 1887; expedition to Kenya, 1891; accompanied Lord Conway across Spitsbergen, 1896; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1893-1932; Professor of Geology, Melbourne, 1901; led an expedition around Lake Eyre; Chair of Geology at Glasgow University, 1904-1929; Government Commission into the working and organising of Calcutta University, 1917; undertook many travels including a trip to Chinese Tibet, 1922; President of the Geological Society of London, 1928-1930; trip to South America, 1931 on which he died, 1932.
Halliburton was a distinguished physiologist and biochemist. He was Professor of Physiology at King's College, London from 1890 to 1923, and was elected FRS in 1891. For further information see the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Hambleton was President of the Polytechnic Physical Development Society.
Sir John Jacob Hansler was the first person to be knighted by Queen Victoria after her accession to the throne in 1837: he was elected F.R.S. in 1838.
Matthew Hay was Professor of Forensic Medicine at Aberdeen University 1883-1926, and was Medical Officer of Health for Aberdeen from 1888 to 1923.
Not known at present.
In the note on the first leaf of MS.2863 Henry Holden MD is described as having been one of the Senior Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford. He obtained his MD in 1700, lived at Erdington, and was buried at Aston Church, Birmingham.
A W J Haggis was employed by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum and carried out historical research on a number of topics, including work specifically for Henry Wellcome. In 1939-1944 he was commissioned by the Wellcome Trust to write 'The Life and Work of Sir Henry Wellcome' (this remains unpublished although copies can be found in the Wellcome Archive); also, an Oxford D Phil thesis on 'An historical survey of English ecclesiastical and secular medical licensing systems between the years 1512 and 1858' was left unfinished at his death.
Edward Morell Holmes described himself as a "Consulting Botanist and Pharmacognosist" and was the author of many papers on botany and materia medica. He was lecturer in botany at the Westminster Hospital School from 1873 to 1876, lecturer in materia medica to the Pharmaceutical Society from 1887 to 1890, and Curator of the Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society from 1872 to 1922. In 1900 he was President to the British Pharmaceutical Conference. For an obituary see the Pharmaceutical Journal, 1930, 4th series, 71, pp.284-286.
The College of Medicine for Chinese was set up in Hong Kong on the initiative of James Cantlie (1851-1926) and Patrick Manson (1844-1922) during the 1880s, and developed into the medical school of the Hong Kong University. Sun Yat Sen (1860-1925), later first President of the Chinese Republic, was one of its first pupils.
Jamieson Boyd Hurry was born in 1857 and took his M.D. at Cambridge in 1885. For over 40 years he practised medicine in Reading. His main medical interest was in "vicious circles" in individual and social pathology; he also published several works on the history of Reading and of its abbey. He died in 1930 and his final work, on the woad plant, was published shortly after his death.
Surgeon-in-chief of the Napoleonic army, a key influence on the treatment of military casualties on the battlefield. Wife Charlotte Elisabeth (1770-1842); daughter [Charlotte] Isaure (1798-1855), afterwards Mme Périer; son Félix Hippolyte Larrey (1808-1895).
Donald Percy McDonald graduated MB, BCh from Oriel College, Oxford in 1912, and after practising in Oxford was commissioned in the RAMC in 1917. On the recommendation of Fieldmarshal Lord Allenby he joined the Indian Medical Service in 1920, and later became Professor of Surgery at Rangoon University. He retired in 1942 with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
Malpighi was appointed Papal physician in 1691.
Not given.
Thomas Pettigrew was born in London in 1791, the son of William Pettigrew, a naval surgeon. He began medical studies in his teens as his father's assistant and as an apprentice, later studying at the Borough Hospitals. He became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1812 (and a fellow in 1843). In 1808 he became a member of the Medical Society of London, in 1811 one of its Secretaries, and in 1813 its Registrar. During these years he was also involved in the founding of the City Philosophical Society and the Philosophical Society of London. He was Secretary of the Royal Humane Society during the years 1813-1820, through the influence of John Coakley Lettsom M.D. (1744-1815); shortly after Lettsom's death he published Memoirs of the life and writings of John Coakley Lettsom, M.D. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817). Through his position in the Royal Humane Society he came into contact with the Duke of Kent to whom he became surgeon in ordinary (vaccinating the Duke's daughter, the future Queen Victoria). He later also became surgeon to the Duke of Sussex and became involved in the cataloguing of the Duke's library. He acted as Surgeon to a sequence of London hospitals until arriving at his forties. After this point he concentrated on private practice and increasingly upon his antiquarian interests: when the British Archaeological Society was founded in 1843 Pettigrew became its treasurer and moving spirit. On his wife's death in 1854 he retired from medicine entirely to concentrate on antiquarian matters. He died in 1865.
Thomas O'Farrell was born in 1843. He served as a surgeon in the Army, chiefly in India (taking part in the Afghan War of 1878-1880), and was promoted Surgeon-General, Royal Army Medical Corps, in 1899. He died in 1917.
Not given.
The author obtained his Doctorate at Paris in 1805, and was appointed physician to the Bicêtre and La Salpêtrière. He was one of the original Members of the Académie de Médecine, founded in 1820. He was sent to Egypt in 1828 to study the cause of plague (see MS.3767) which he oddly concluded was the fact that the many thousands of Mummies were subject to annual inundation by the Nile, and that their putrefaction under the tropical sun was the breeder of pestilence. He was the author of many important 'Éloges' read before the Académie.
Not given.
Not given.
Robert Perceval obtained his MD at Edinburgh in 1780, and was appointed first Professor of Chemistry, Dublin University, a post he held from 1785 to 1805.
Not given.
Not given.
Not known.
Not given.
Not given.
The author was MD of Besançon, and in 1759 was appointed Professor of Medicine and Botany at the university in that city.
The author collaborated with Pierre Curie on radiology in 1902, and discovered corpuscular (electronic) secondary radiation.
Thomas Hookham Silvester (1799-1877) MD, was founder of the Clapham General Dispensary. He was a pupil of Sir Astley Cooper, and after studying in Paris set up practice at Clapham in 1835, where he founded the Clapham General Dispensary. He retired in 1863.
Paul de Hookham Silvester (1827-?) Rector of St Levan Cornwall, was the older son of T.H. Silvester (1799-1877).
Henry Robert Silvester (1828-1908) MD, physician to the Royal Humane Society, was the younger son of T.H. Silvester (1799-1877). He qualified in London in 1885, and was later physician to the Clapham Hospital and the Royal Humane Society.
Tommasini was Professor of Physiology and Pathology at Parma University from 1794 to 1816 (see A. Cazzaniga, Le grande crisi della medicina italiana, 1951, Cap. 6).
Alfred Herbert Tubby was an orthopaedic surgeon who worked at the Westminster, Royal National Orthopaedic and Evelina Hospitals. His work on Deformities became a standard text-book. He became FRCS in 1887.
During the first world war he was seconded for service as consulting surgeon to the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force with the rank of temporary colonel on the Army Medical Staff, and later to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, serving much of the time at Alexandria. In 1920 he published A Consulting Surgeon in the Near East (London: Christophers, 1920), which described his service during the war.
See Plarr's Lives of the fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England ["Plarr's lives"], Vol. II, pp. 438, 439.
Unknown
Mons. Verrier appears to have been a member of the staff of the École Vétérinaire at Alfort.
Viviani was a Florentine engineer and mathematician: he was elected an Associate Member of the Académie des Sciences in 1699.
George Wallich was born in 1815, the son of the Danish (later naturalised British) botanist Nathaniel Wallich (1786-1854). He qualified M.D. in Edinburgh in 1834 and served in the Indian Medical Service. He also wrote on marine biology. In the latter field he was increasingly convinced that his claims to primacy in various research discoveries were being ignored, and engaged in feuds with various scientific figures of the day. He died in 1899.
Paul Peter Piech was born in Brooklyn in 1920. He studied at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York and the Chelsea School of Art in London. After working in advertising, Piech returned to Chelsea to teach graphic design, also teaching at the London College of Printing and Middlesex Polytechnic. In 1959 Piech set up The Taurus Press at his home in Bushey Heath. This private press produced books which defied usual printing conventions of setting, spacing and layout, often reflecting Piech's deeply held pacifist views, and were illustrated with his trademark linocuts and woodcuts. Piech died in 1996. Further information on the Taurus Press may be found in Kenneth Hardacre, 'The private press of Paul Piech', The Penrose annual 1976: the international review of the graphic arts (ed) Stanley greenwood and Clive Goodacre (Northwood Publications, London, 1976).
The Howard de Walden Estate dates from 1715 when Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, began the development of Cavendish Square and the streets around it. This land had previously formed part of the Marylebone Estate of the Dukes of Newcastle. It had passed from Margaret Holles, nee Cavendish, daughter of the 2nd Duke of Newcastle, to her daughter Henrietta Cavendish Harley. At the death of Henrietta's husband, Edward Harley, in 1741, this new Harley Estate passed to his only daughter, Margaret Cavendish Harley, who in 1734 had married William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland. It was subsequently known as the Portland Estate, and was handed down to successive Dukes of Portland. In 1879, the 5th Duke of Portland died without issue and his estates were divided between his sisters, (according to the terms of the 4th Duke's will), and his cousin, who succeeded him as the sixth Duke. The Portland Estate eventually passed to the last surviving sister, Lucy Joan Ellis, who was the widow of the 6th Lord Howard de Walden, and has remained in this family since then.
The Estate's first business trust, General Real Estates Investment and Trust Limited (GREIT), was formed in 1918, changing its name to Howard de Walden Estates Limited (HDWEL) in 1953.
The company was incorporated in its present form in 1963, but the estate is still owned by the family.
During the twentieth century two major portions of the Estate were sold: in 1914 Portland Town, an area east of St John's Wood High Street around 60 acres in extent, and in 1925 another 40 acres, much of it along Oxford Street, south of Cavendish Square and east of Great Portland Street.
The collection currently consists of materials dating from the three decades that followed the 1959 revolution. Many of the items are official publications originating from either the Communist Party of Cuba or from various government ministries, though in practice the distinction between party and state became increasing blurred. There are also a large number of pamphlets featuring speeches by Fidel Castro. Given Cuba's situation during this period as it faced the antagonism of the United States, sought to maintain a degree of independence within the Soviet orbit and championed the non-aligned movement it is unsurpising that many of these speeches are concerned with foreign policy and foreign affairs (including the wars in Vietnam and Angola and the problems of debt that increasingly faced the whole of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s). Other materials deal with the transistion of Cuba to a state-controlled planned economy and the problems of reconciling this with civil and human rights, though it must be noted that the majority of the items held here (whether produced internally or externally) are broadly in sympathy with the Castro regime.
Costa Rica's political stability during the period covered here stands in marked contrast to the situation in other countries in the region. Since 1949 it has been a relatively successful presidential democracy. The materials here tend not to originate from the major political parties but instead mainly come from organisations concerned with social and economic conditions in Costa Rica, particularly the problems of land reform and the countryside. Internal and external, academic and practical and Christian and secular bodies are all represented.
The majority of the materials in the collection at present date from the 1970s and 1980s, during which time Panama, despite a democratic façade, was effectively ruled by the military. During the 1970s increasing Panamanian discontent with the 1903 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Canal Treaty led eventually to its renegotiation with the United States in 1977, and it is the canal, these treaties and their consequences for the economy, society and independence of Panama which dominate the content of these items. Bodies from which the items originate include the military junta, the US government, NGOs and homegrown oppositional movements. The increasing repressiveness of the Panamanian regime under Noriega coupled with the post-1982 economic problems of the country are also alluded to in the materials held here, with the plight of the indigenous population in particular being highlighted.
The majority of the materials held in the collection here date from the period of military rule over Brazil between 1964 and 1985. Following the overthrow (with the alleged support of the United States) of the Goulart administration a series of generals presided during a period characterised by unprecedented economic growth and social repression. The former phenomenon, driven by huge state-backed industrialising projects such as the construction of the Itaipu hydroelectric dam and later by external borrowing culminating in the 1980s debt crisis, failed to bridge the inequalities of Brazilian society, as testified to here in the materials produced by development groups such as the Federação de Orgaos para Assistência Social e Educacional (FASE) as well as those of Christian organisations both indigenous and foreign. The latter is evinced here in the items produced by human rights and Latin American solidarity groups, whilst the restictions on organised labour which appeared to tie together authoritarianism and economic progress were increasingly challenged by the late 1970s by strikes particularly in the São Paulo industrial region, strengthening both the union confederations that are represented here and their political offshoot, the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT). The grievances of rural and urban organisations working for land and labour reform continued to be expressed as Brazil transferred to civilian government after 1985, with the holdings here from this period being dominated by the Central Unica dos Trabalhadores (CUT) rather than the burgeoning number of political parties emerging in the post-military scene.
The period of Venezuelan history covered by the majority of the pamphlets currently held in this collection is one dominated politically by the consequences of the 1958 Pact of Punto Fijo. This was an agreement between the main civilian parties of the day, Accion Democrática (AD), the Partido Social Cristiano de Venezuela (COPEI) and the Unión Republicana Democrática (URD) on a common programme and an informal sharing power sharing arrangement, which basically saw AD and COPEI alternate in government until 1989. Though this system provided electoral stability, it gradually eroded trust in the democratic process and in the accountability of Venezuela's leaders to the needs of its people, culminating in the 1989 riots precipitated by AD President Carlos Andrés Peréz's economic reforms. As well as materials produced by the mainstream parties there are also items originating from left-wing groups and guerrilla organisations ostracised from the political process, trade unions and pressure groups concerned with issues such as the rights of women and indigenous peoples. Venezuela's economy is largely sustained by its state-owned oil industry, and there are several government-produced pamphlets here appertaining to that.
A comic book is a magazine or book containing sequential art. Although the term implies otherwise, the subject matter in comic books is often serious and action-oriented and can cover a range of genres from religion to super heroes. Comic books are so called because some of the earliest comic books were simply collections of comic strips printed in newspapers. The commercial success of these collections led to work being created specifically for the comic book form, which fostered specific conventions such as splash pages.
Long-form comic books, generally with hardcover or trade-paper binding came to be known as graphic novels, but the term's definition is vague.
American comic books have become closely associated with the superhero tradition. In the United Kingdom, the term comic book is used to refer to American comic books by their readers and collectors. The term used in the Britain is a comic, short for comic paper or comic magazine.
Since the introduction of the modern comic book format in the 1934 with Famous Funnies, the United States has been the leading producer, with only the British comic and Japanese manga as close competitors in terms of quantity of titles. The majority of all comic books in the US are marketed to young adult readers, though they also produce titles for young children as well as adult audiences. This readership is reflected in the colours and themes used.
The history of the comic book in the United States is divided into several ages or historical eras: The Platinum Age, The Golden Age, The Silver Age, The Bronze Age, and The Modern Age.
The Golden Age is generally thought as lasting from the introduction of the character Superman in 1938 until the early 1950's. During this time, comic books enjoyed considerable popularity; the archetype of the superhero was invented and defined, and many of the most popular superheroes were created. The Platinum Age refers to any material produced prior to this, these were simply reprints of newspaper strips.
The Silver Age of Comic Books is generally considered to date from the first successful revival of the dormant superhero form in 1956 through to the early 1970's, during which time Marvel Comics revolutionised the medium with naturalistic superheroes as the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. There is less agreement on the beginnings of the Bronze and Modern ages. Some suggest that the Bronze Age is still taking place but it is generally accepted that it started 1970-1971. The start of the Modern Age (occasionally referred to as the Iron Age) has even more potential starting points, but is generally agreed to be the publication of Alan Moore's Watchmen by DC Comics in 1986.
comics published after World War II in 1945 are sometimes referred to as being from the Atomic Age (referring to the dropping of the atomic bomb), while titles published after November 1961 are sometimes referred to as being from the Marvel Age (referring to the advent of Marvel Comics).
American comic books are generally noted to be mainstream: meaning they have mass appeal and focus on socially acceptable issues and genres, such as good verses evil.
Originally the same size as a usual comic book in the United States, although lacking the glossy cover, the British comic has adopted a magazine size, with The Beano and The Dandy the last to adopt this size in the 1980s. Although generally referred to as a comic, it can also be referred to as a comic magazine, and has also been known historically as a comic paper. Some comics, such as Judge Dredd and other 2000 AD titles, have been published in a tabloid form. It is also not uncommon for gifts to accompany comic magazines such as, badges or cigarette card holders.
Popular titles within the UK have included The Eagle and 2000 AD. Underground comics and titles have also been published within the United Kingdom, these often have a genre specific angle or message such as, women's rights or sexual education.
Marvel Comics established a UK office in 1972. DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics also opened offices in the 1990s. These repackage American titles for a UK audience, they are often less glossy and colourful than their US counterparts.
At Christmas time, publishers repackage and commission material for comic annuals, printed and bound as hardcover A4-size books. A famous example of the British comic annual is Dr Who.
France and Belgium are two countries that have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are called Bande Dessine (BD for short) in French and strips in Dutch. Belgian comic books originally written in Dutch are influenced by the Francophone comics, but have their own distinct style.
La bande dessine is derived from the original description of the art form as drawn strips (the phrase is literally translated as the drawn strip).
In France, most comics are published at the behest of the author, who works within a self-appointed time frame, and it is common for readers to wait six months or as long as two years between installments. Most books are first published as a hard cover book, typically with 48, 56 or 64 pages. In Italy, comics are known as fumetti and began as humouristic strips and then evolved into adventure stories inspired by those coming from the US in the 1940's.
Mainstream comics are usually published on a monthly basis, in a black and white digest size format, with approximately 100 to 132 pages. Collections of classic material for the most famous characters, usually with more than 200 pages, are also common. Author comics are published in the French BD format.
In the late 1960's and early 1970's, a surge of underground comics occurred and has continued. These comics were published and distributed independently of the established comics industry, and most titles reflected the youth counterculture and drug culture of the time. Many were notable for their uninhibited, often irreverent style; the frankness of their depictions of nudity, sexual content, and politics had not been seen in comics before. Underground comics were almost never sold at newsstands, but rather in such youth-oriented outlets such as record stores and by mail order.
The term graphic novel was first used in 1964. Graphic novels tend to be bound and longer in length than comics. They often represent known prose stories such as, Treasure Island or plays such as Othello in a comic strip format. Thus, they make these stories accessible to new and often younger audiences.
Stanley Kubrick was born in New York City in 1928. At the age of 16 Kubrick took a photograph of a newsvendor the day after President Roosevelt died. Look magazine printed the photo and hired him as a freelance photographer, he worked on over 300 jobs. After creating a boxing photo essay for Look, he used his savings to make his first short film 'Day of the Fight' in 1950, a 16-minute documentary. Two other shorts and thirteen feature films followed. Compared to many directors Kubrick did not produce many films. However, he successfully spanned a plethora of genres from science fiction to costume drama.
Kubrick's influence on film is manifested in numerous ways, from lighting to special effects to film content to music. For example, his pioneering use of long takes, first used in Lolita using a high Average Shot Length, have inspired cinematographers since, as seen in the opening shot of 1997's Boogie Nights. Kubrick had a high level of artistic control and kept many items and papers relating to his film making. At the completion of a project Kubrick would box up items relating to it and store them.
Kubrick's influence goes beyond that of the film world to popular culture. The content of his films have been responsible for sparking public debate and discourse for example, Clockwork Orange (1971) is a dystopia featuring violence and sexual content that provoked debate on the nature of society and the portrayal of violence on screen.
Kubrick had an unprecedented level of control over his films and was interested in every aspect of the film making process. Therefore, his collection can inspire not only film makers but costume designers, advertisers, graphic artists and photographers to name but a few.
Kubrick and his family moved to England in 1969, where he lived until his death in 1999.
Stanley Kubrick: Filmography:
1953 'Fear and Desire' (not on general release)
1955 'Killer's Kiss'
1956 'The Killing'
1957 'Paths of Glory'
1960 'Spartacus'
1962 'Lolita'
1964 'Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'
1968 '2001: A Space Odyssey'
1971 'A Clockwork Orange'
1975 'Barry Lyndon'
1980 'The Shining'
1987 'Full Metal Jacket'
1999 'Eyes Wide Shut'
Kubrick planned to make two further films, 'Napoleon' and 'The Aryan Papers' (a holocaust film), but these were not made. He also played an important role in the conception of 'AI: Artificial Intelligence', which was made after his death by Steven Spielberg.
The CTA Archive is the work of the Association’s Hon Librarian, Mr A G Brown. Mr Brown’s order and classification system have been retained throughout. Each accession is divided into three sections:
Section A Books and Published reports, arranged alphabetically by author
Section B Pamphlets, Government Publications, and lectures (arranged alphabetically by author) including letters to the press arranged chronologically.
Section C Articles in press and magazines arranged chronologically
127 boxes arrived from Churchill Archives Centre; there are now 172 boxes.
An additional section of the collection is the CTUN Archive which consists of eighty two boxes.
The collection covers the history of tunnels under the Channel: Brief chronology of the history of the Channel Tunnel:
1802: Albert Mathieu, a French engineer, proposed a tunnel to link France with England, through the chalk under the Channel and using an artificial island on the Varne Bank. The scheme was impractical for Mathieu had little knowledge of the geology of the sea bed nor did he suggest any method of construction. Napoleon Bonaparte expressed some interest and during the fragile Peace of Amiens the plan was a symbol of friendship between the two countries.
1803: An Englishman called Mottray suggested that a submerged steel tube could be built across the sea bed, as opposed to a tunnel through the chalk. Both plans were short lived because hostilities were resumed later in the year.
1830: interest in a fixed link across the Channel was revived by Thome de Gamond, a French civil engineer, who during the following 25 years came up with several plans for tunnel and bridge schemes.
1868: Anglo-French Channel Tunnel Committee founded.
1872: Channel Tunnel Company incorporated and registered in London. The Company remained dormant for several years due to lack of funds.
1878-9: Tunnelling commenced on both sides of the Channel, at Sangatte on the French side, and at Shakespeare Cliff near Dover, where two shafts were sunk and a 2,000 yard tunnel bored out under the sea. Work was halted in 1882 mainly for reasons of defence. Leading military strategists of the day imagined a French army marching unimpeded through the tunnel.
1883: A scheme was finally killed off by the report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee chaired by Lord Lansdowne.
1900-1914: A number of plans in the early years of the century had to be shelved due to the outbreak of the First World War.
1918-1930: Interest in the project was revived after the war. Most military experts were agreed that a tunnel would have been disastrous to Germany and a boon to the Allies. Marshal Foch considered that a Channel Tunnel would have shortened the war by two years. The Parliamentary Channel Tunnel Committee was revived under the Chairmanship of Sir William Bull. In 1930 a Royal Commission came out in favour of the tunnel by a majority vote, but the House of Commons turned down the project by seven votes. However, even if the Commons had been in favour, the committee of Imperial Defence would have prevented the tunnel being built on the grounds that it would have caused some South Coast ports to become redundant.
1947: Formation of the Parliamentary Channel Tunnel Study Group.
1953: Harold Macmillan as Minister of Defence said that there were no longer any strategic objections to the tunnel, thus ending the military veto that had loomed over the tunnel since the 1880’s.
1964: Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport, announced that the British and French Governments had agreed that the construction of a rail Channel Tunnel was technically possible and would represent a sound investment. The two Governments decided to proceed with the project subject to further legal and financial discussions.
1970s: Work started again at Sangatte and at Shakespeare Cliff, but was abandoned in 1975 due to unacceptably high costs.
1984: The British and French Government announced their intention to seek private promoters for the construction and operation of a fixed link without public funding. The Eurotunnel bid was selected.
July 1987: Margaret Thatcher and François Mitterrand ratified the Fixed Link Treaty.
1994: The Channel Tunnel was opened.
The National Gallery houses the national collection of Western European painting from the 13th to the 19th centuries. The Gallery's aim is to care for the collection, to enhance it for future generations, primarily by acquisition, and to study it, while encouraging access to the pictures for the education and enjoyment of the widest possible public now and in the future.
The Gallery was established in 1824 when the Government purchased the picture collection of the late banker, John Julius Angerstein. The collection of 38 paintings was placed on public display at Angerstein’s house in Pall Mall. The Gallery was managed by the Keeper, William Seguier, who reported to a 'Committee of six gentlemen'. Both the Keeper and the Committee (which later evolved into the Board of Trustees) were appointed by the Treasury but their exact responsibilities were left undefined. Dissatisfaction with this situation and public criticism of the Gallery’s management led to the appointment of a Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1853. Its report resulted in the reform of the Gallery’s administration as defined in a Treasury Minute of 27 March 1855. The minute created a new post of Director with wide powers to acquire paintings for the collection. The Director was assisted by a Keeper who managed the day-to-day affairs of the Gallery. The Board of Trustees was retained ‘to keep up a connexion between cultivated lovers of art and the institution, and to form an indirect channel of communication [with] the Government.’ The reforms improved the administration of the Gallery and, from this time on, annual reports were presented to the Treasury detailing the management of the Gallery and Collection, including pictures purchased and cleaned or repaired. This system of governance continued until 1894 when the balance of power shifted in favour of the Board of Trustees following the so-called Rosebery Minute that altered the Gallery’s constitution. This did not affect the two acts of parliament passed during the 19th century that specifically related to the Gallery and concerned de-accessioning and loans: the National Gallery Act 1856 and the National Gallery (Loan) Act 1883.
In 1897 the National Gallery assumed responsibility for the newly opened Tate Gallery. In the years that followed the division of the national collection between the two galleries was vigorously debated and led to a committee of inquiry headed by Lord Curzon. The ensuing Curzon Report of 1915 recommended that the Tate should house the collection of British and modern foreign art while the National Gallery should retain the collection of Old Master paintings. The Tate became partially independent from the National Gallery in 1917 when it acquired its own Board of Trustees; however, it was not until 1955 and the implementation of the National Gallery and Tate Gallery Act 1954 that the Tate became fully independent. The post-war period also saw an increase in the range of activities carried out by the Gallery and a growing professionalisation of those activities. In the late 1980s responsibility for managing the buildings was transferred to the Gallery and it acquired the freehold of the site in 1992. In the second half of the 20th century the Gallery developed a range of specialised departments: Conservation, Scientific, Curatorial, Framing, Education, Photographic, Library and Archive, Art Handling, Audio-Visual, Development, Finance, Human Resources, Buildings, Design, Digital Media, Marketing, Exhibitions, Information, Information Systems, Press, Registrars, Visitor Services and Security. The governance of the Gallery was further changed by the Museums and Galleries Act 1992 which incorporated the Board of Trustees and provides the current constitution of the National Gallery.
The Society has its origins in a series of meetings convened at the beginning of 1807 by four amateur mineral enthusiasts - physician William Babington, pharmaceutical chemist William Allen and the Quaker brothers William and Richard Phillips - to organise the publication of Jacques-Louis, Comte de Bournon's monograph on mineralogy. Meeting in Babington's house the group, along with ten other friends who were also active in London's flourishing scientific scene, resolved to each contribute the sum of 50 pounds to cover the cost of the monograph's publication. (Published in the three volumes as 'Traite complet de la Chaux Carbonatee et de l'Arragonite', in 1808.)
Having enjoyed the meetings so much, many of the group continued to hold mineralogical discussions at Babington's house in Aldermanbury, London, usually at 7am before the physician began his rounds at Guy's Hospital. Other interested parties also joined the meetings and on the 13 November 1807, the new society was inaugurated at a dinner at the Freemasons Tavern, Great Queen Street, Covent Garden (the meetings being moved from breakfast to dinner time at the suggestion of Humphry Davy).
The minutes of the meeting record that there were thirteen founder members: Arthur Aikin (1773-1854), William Allen (1770-1843), William Babington (1756-1833), Humphry Davy (1778-1829), Comte Jacques-Louis de Bournon (1751-1825), James Franck (1768-1843), George Bellas Greenough (1778-1855), Richard Knight (1768-1844), James Laird (1779-1841), James Parkinson (1755-1824), William Hasledine Pepys (1775-1856), Richard Phillips (1778-1851) and William Phillips (1773-1828). The meeting resolved 'That there be forthwith instituted a Geological Society for the purpose of making geologists acquainted with each other, of stimulating their zeal, of inducing them to adopt one nomenclature, of facilitating the communications of new facts and of ascertaining what is known in their science and what remains to be discovered.' These aims were incorporated in the first constitution of the Society, formally adopted at a meeting on 1 January 1808.
Soon after its foundation the Society began to accumulate a library and a collection of minerals, rocks and fossils. In 1809 the Society moved into rented premises at 4 Garden Court, Temple, and in 1810 to 3 Lincoln's Inn Fields, where it shared larger premises with the Medical and Chirurgical Society, another society which Babington co-founded.
On 1 June 1810 the Society's first Trustees were appointed and later in the same month, 14 June, the first meeting of the Council took place. The Council resolved that the most important communications made to the Society should be published. Accordingly the first volume of the 'Transactions of the Geological Society' was issued in 1811.
With the increase in membership and activities of the Society it was found necessary to appoint the first permanent officer, Thomas Webster, in 1812. Although only part time, his duties included care of the Society's Library and Museum collections as well as those of draughtsman and secretary to the Council and Committees. The continual growth in the membership and of the collections of maps, sections and mineral specimens necessitated a further move in 1816 to 20 Bedford Street, Covent Garden.
In 1824 the Council decided to apply for a Royal Charter in order to allow it to bestow fellowships of the Society. The charter was granted on 23 April 1825 and the Rev William Buckland, Arthur Aikin, John Bostock MD, George Bellas Greenough and Henry Warburton were nominated as the first Fellows. At the following meeting of Council, the other 367 Society members were also granted Fellow status. Ironically many of these new Fellows, such as Greenough, held republican views hence why 'Royal' was never adopted into the Society's name.
The Society continued to meet at 20 Bedford Street until 1828 when it moved to apartments in Somerset House, Strand, which had recently been rebuilt by the Government for use as public offices and to house the Royal Academy and the Royal Society. The Society's apartments, including the two rooms of the museum, were fitted out to designs of Decimus Burton, architect of the Temperate House at Kew Gardens and Fellow of the Geological Society. The first meeting at Somerset House was held on 7 November 1828, and the Society remained there until removal to the present apartments at Burlington House in 1874.
The care of the Society's large mineral and fossil collections was always problematic. The Museum's first Keeper, Thomas Webster, was unhappy with the work load and also unpopular with the other Fellows. He was replaced in 1827 by the first official Curator, William Lonsdale, whose health broke down from overwork in 1836. During the following nine years there were another five curators who all resigned. In 1869, it was decided to abandon attempts to form a comprehensive collection, instead specimens should directly relate to papers read at the Society. Although the move to Burlington House meant that the collection was thoroughly weeded and catalogued again, after 1876 (after another resignation) the collection received only cursory attention. A Special General Meeting was called by a group of palaeontologists in 1901 to try and force the Council to take better care of the Museum. However their plan backfired and instead a motion was carried that the Museum should be disposed of. The contents were divided in 1911 between what we now know as the Natural History Museum and the Museum of Practical Geology (part of the Geological Survey) in Jermyn Street. The British Museum (now Natural History Museum) received the foreign specimens, while the domestic collection was given to the other institution.
The Society officially started its existence as a dining club but with the steady increase in the number of members (341 in 1815 to 400 in 1818), this aspect of its activities soon fell into abeyance. It was revived in 1824 with the foundation of the Geological Society Club which continues to hold dinners to the present day.
Today, the Geological Society of London is the UK national professional body for geoscientists. It provides a wide range of professional and scientific support to its c 9500 Fellows, about 2000 of whom live overseas. As well as boasting one of the most important geological libraries in the world, the Geological Society is a global leader in Earth science publishing, and is renowned for its cutting edge science meetings. It is a vital forum in which Earth scientists from a broad spectrum of disciplines and environments can exchange ideas, and is an important communicator of geoscience to government, media, those in education and the broader public.
Until 1979, the archives of the Geological Society were spread throughout the offices of Burlington House. Aided with an initial grant subsidy from the British Library which ran between 1979-1982, the Society was able to appoint an archivist and a conservator to at last look after the collections professionally. An archives store was constructed in 1981/1982 funded by the work of the Appeals Committee.
A further grant subsidy from the British Library was awarded at the end of 1983 for what became known as the Burlington House Conservation Project, which involved the conservation studio taking on work from local learned societies and the Royal Academy. However the external funding ended in 1986 and with the Society unable to finance the costly facility itself, the studio closed. Most of the equipment was later exchanged in lieu of conservation services.