Royal Society

Royal Society, the oldest national scientific society in the world and the leading national organization for the promotion of scientific research in Britain.

The Royal Society originated on November 28, 1660, when 12 men met after a lecture at Gresham College, London, by Christopher Wren (then professor of astronomy at the college) and resolved to set up “a Colledge for the promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning.” Those present included the scientists Robert Boyle and Bishop John Wilkins and the courtiers Sir Robert Moray and William, 2nd Viscount Brouncker. (Brouncker was to become the Royal Society’s first president.) The initiative had various more or less close precursors, including a group that met in London in 1645, the Oxford “Experimental Philosophy Club” in the 1650s, and correspondence networks such as that of the reformer and philanthropist Samuel Hartlib; but the body set up in 1660 was consciously new, with ambitions to become a truly national society devoted to the promotion of science. These ambitions were put into effect over the next few years, particularly through a charter of incorporation granted by Charles II in 1662 and revised in 1663. The royal charter provided an institutional structure for the society, with president, treasurer, secretaries, and council. Though it had royal patronage almost from the start, the society has always remained a voluntary organization, independent of the British state.

From the outset the society aspired to combine the role of research institute with that of clearinghouse for knowledge and forum for arbitration, though the latter function became dominant after the society’s earliest years. A key development was the establishment in 1665 of a periodical that acted as the society’s mouthpiece (though it was actually published by the secretary, initially Henry Oldenburg, and was only officially adopted by the society in 1753): this was the Philosophical Transactions, which still flourishes today as the oldest scientific journal in continuous publication.

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In the subsequent history of the society, various episodes are of particular significance. The presidency of Sir Isaac Newton from 1703 to 1727 saw this great mathematician and physicist asserting the society’s dominant role in science in Britain and farther afield. (Earlier, Newton’s Principia had been published with the society’s imprimatur.) Endowments from the 18th century onward made possible prizes for various aspects of science that are still awarded today—most notably the Copley Medal, which, stemming from a bequest by Sir Godfrey Copley in 1709, became the most prestigious scientific award in Britain. In the late 18th century the society played an active role in encouraging scientific exploration, particularly under its longest-serving president, Sir Joseph Banks, who earlier had accompanied James Cook on his great voyage of discovery of 1768–71. However, in general the 18th and early 19th centuries saw the society tending to rest on its laurels and become slightly amateurish. This was rectified in the 1830s by a reform program that reinvigorated the society and restored it to a prominence that it has retained ever since. In 1919 the society sent expeditions to photograph the solar eclipse of May 29 from Príncipe Island in the Gulf of Guinea and from Sobral in Brazil, verifying Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity and helping to make Einstein famous.

Election to the Royal Society’s Fellowship is a coveted accolade for scientists; since 1945 women as well as men have been eligible for this honour. Today there are approximately 1,300 fellows and 130 foreign members. Since 1967 the society has occupied premises in Carlton House Terrace, London, where meetings are held and the society’s extensive archival and other resources are housed. The society’s role now includes the provision of independent advice on issues of current concern, and it also administers large sums of public money through grants aimed to support innovative research, foster international scientific cooperation, and encourage better communication between scientists and the public.