Royal Australian Historical Society

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Royal Australian Historical Society
Founded1901
Founder Andrew Houison
Founding President
Type Historical society; incorporated company limited by guarantee
ABN 91 000 027 654
Registration no.ACN 000 027 654
Location
Area served
Australia
Website www.rahs.org.au
Formerly called
Australian History Society

Purpose

The goals of the society are: [6]

History

A public meeting in Sydney Town Hall on 30 October 1900 resulted in a resolution that an "Australian Historical Society" would be formed, in order to collect and preserve records, prints, photographs, books and other material relating to the history of Australia. [7] The inaugural meeting of the Australian Historical Society on 15 March 1901 was attended by about ten people. [8] The first president was Andrew Houison, and the first patron David Scott Mitchell (founder of the Mitchell Library). [9]

Membership grew, and in 1918, the Society was granted the right to use the prefix "Royal". [8]

The society's first premises, History House, opened at 8 Young Street, Sydney, in 1941, which remained its home until the move to the new (and current) History House at 133 Macquarie Street in 1971. [8]

A. G. L. Shaw served on the Council of the RAHS during the 1950s and 1960s. [10]

Activities

The society undertakes a range of activities including lectures and workshops, functions, walks, talks, and visits on a wide variety of topics in Australian history. It holds an annual conference which addresses current historical issues in local history and heritage. The society also has a research library with an extensive collection of pictorial and text resources on all aspects of the history of New South Wales. In addition it administers grant schemes on behalf of the New South Wales government for the promotion of heritage and the writing and publication of local history. [11]

Publications

The Society's journal is the oldest historical journal in Australia. [12] [13]

The Sydney Morning Herald was an active supporter of the Society, and in December 1901 urged that the Society publish a journal, so that the work of the society could reach a wider audience. However, this was not taken up until March 1906, [7] when the Journal and Proceedings, "Volume 1 1901 Part 1", was first published in March 1906 [Note 1] [14] [8] [15] with the standardised library title of "Journal and proceedings (Australian Historical Society)". [Note 2] The first issue included a paper by Alfred Lee entitled "The Landing of Governor Phillip in Port Jackson". Volume 1 consisted of 12 parts which were published quarterly. Improvements in design and the addition of illustrations were introduced in Volumes II and IV (1917), and at the same time the editors announced a shift in editorial direction. Until then the journal had been publishing papers presented at the Society in the past, but from this point it was intended to publish more about the proceedings of the Society. This eventuated in the form of reports of excursions, answers to enquiries, and discussions about past published papers. [7]

Between 1918 and 1964, after the society had adopted the "Royal" prefix, its standardised title became "Journal and proceedings / Royal Australian Historical Society". [16] A. G. L. Shaw was editor of the journal [10] from 1954 to 1964, the first professionally trained historian to edit it. [12]

From the March issue of Volume 51 in 1965, the journal changed radically, increasing its size to about 400 pages, issued in four parts. At the same time it changed its name to Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society (JRAHS). [7] The journal was published quarterly until 1992, and since then has been published biannually. [17] The peer-reviewed, biannual academic journal [18] containing original, previously unpublished scholarly articles and book reviews and images. [12] [13]

Past issues under their respective titles (1901–June 1918 and 1918–1964) are available online as scanned copies, [19] [20] and the Journal is available as an electronic resource via Informit since 2012. [21] An index of all journals between 1901 and 1985 exists on microform. [22] The JRAHS has a Green Open Access policy, meaning that authors deposit a free copy of an electronic document online in order to provide open access to it. [13] Its ISO 4 abbreviation is J. R. Aust. Hist. Soc..

The society also publishes the quarterly magazine, History, subtitled Magazine of the Royal Australian Historical Society. This grew from the society's newsletter, which began in March 1962 as a monthly supplement to the Journal and Proceedings. Its magazine format and name commenced in October 1988. [13] [23]

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, the June editions of both publications were made temporarily available to the general public online. [13]

Presidents

The following persons have been president of the society: [10]

Footnotes

  1. with a 2nd edition in 1910
  2. Note: The publication dates in the early years are a bit confusing, e.g. "Part 12, 1905–6" is dated December 1908 (see here; "Volume 2 1906 Part 1" is dated March 1909 (see here; but by 1915 the dates appear to be in sync (see here).

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References

  1. Helen Doyle, "Royal Australian Historical Society" in Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart Macintyre (eds) The Oxford Companion to Australian History (Oxford University Press, 2001) via Oxford Reference Online, Oxford University Press.
  2. (untitled news report), The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 March 1901, p 7, via National Library of Australia, Historical newspaper collection (images and database online), The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842–1954) Retrieved 5 September 2011.
  3. "Founders". Homepage. Royal Australian Historical Society. Archived from the original on 22 March 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  4. King, H (1988). "The Royal Australian Historical Society 1900–1985, part 2: Growth and Change: the Society 1955–1985". Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society. 73 (4): 267–276.
  5. "FAHS constituents". Homepage. Federation of Australian Historical Societies. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  6. "Constitution of the Royal Australian Historical Society" (PDF). Royal Australian Historical Society. 23 April 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 4 McDonald, D.I. (March 1966). "Sixty Years of Scholarship: The Journal of the Society, 1906–1966". Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society. 52 (1).
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Our history". Royal Australian Historical Society. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  9. "Previous Councillors". Royal Australian Historical Society. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  10. 1 2 3 "Royal Australian Historical Society: Previous Councillors". Royal Australian Historical Society. 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  11. "About RAHS". Homepage. Royal Australian Historical Society. Archived from the original on 4 March 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  12. 1 2 3 Fletcher, Brian H. "Australia's oldest historical journal" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society. 80 (1&2). Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 "Publications". Royal Australian Historical Society. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  14. Australian Historical Society. (1901), "4 v. ; 21 cm.", Journal and proceedings, Sydney: The Society, ISSN   1325-927X, nla.obj-283107843, retrieved 16 September 2020 via Trove
  15. Australian Historical Society (1 September 1901), "The Australian Historical Society. Journal and Proceedings. (1 September 1901)", Journal and Proceedings, The Society (Vol 1 Part 3), ISSN   1325-927X
  16. "Journal and proceedings / Royal Australian Historical Society". National Library of Australia. 3 September 2020. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  17. "Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society". National Library of Australia. 3 September 2020. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  18. APAIS 1994: Australian public affairs information service. National Library Australia. 2000. p. 21. GGKEY:H33X9S4339K. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  19. Australian Historical Society. (1901), "4 v. ; 21 cm.", Journal and proceedings, Sydney: The Society, ISSN   1325-927X, nla.obj-283107843, retrieved 16 September 2020 via Trove
  20. Australian Historical Society. (1901), "4 v. ; 21 cm.", Journal and proceedings, Sydney: The Society, ISSN   1325-927X, nla.obj-283107843, retrieved 16 September 2020 via Trove
  21. "Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society [electronic resource]". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  22. Royal Australian Historical Society (1986), Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society consolidated index, volumes 1-70, 1901-1985, Royal Australian Historical Society, retrieved 16 September 2020
  23. Royal Australian Historical Society (1988), History : magazine of the Royal Australian Historical Society and affiliated societies, The Society, ISSN   1031-9476

Further reading