Abbreviation | RHistS, RHS |
---|---|
Formation | 1868 |
Merger of | Camden Society (1897) with the RHS |
Registration no. | 206888 |
Legal status | Charity |
Purpose | Historical studies |
Headquarters | University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT |
Location | |
Membership | 4,500+ members (2021) |
President | Lucy Noakes |
Adam Hughes | |
Key people | Philip Carter, academic director |
Main organ | Transactions |
Staff | 4 |
Website | royalhistsoc |
Formerly called | The Historical Society |
The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history.
The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Historical Society. [1] In 1897, it merged with (or absorbed) the Camden Society, founded in 1838. [2] In its origins, and for many years afterwards, the society was effectively a gentlemen's club. However, in the middle and later twentieth century the RHS took on a more active role in representing the discipline and profession of history.
The society exists to promote historical research in the United Kingdom and worldwide, representing historians of all kinds. Its activities primarily concern advocacy and policy research, training, publishing, grants and research support, especially for early career historians, and awards and professional recognition. It provides a varied programme of lectures and one-day and two-day conferences and symposia covering diverse historical topics. It convenes in London and from time to time elsewhere throughout the United Kingdom. Since 1967 it has been based at University College London. [3]
The society is governed by a board of trustees called the council, which is chaired by the RHS President. The president and members of council are elected from the society's fellows. There are 22 councillors, each of whom serves a four-year term. Every year the fellowship elects three new members of council using a preferential voting system. Council members come from a wide variety of backgrounds and research interests. [4]
The society's membership comprises honorary vice-presidents (management), elected fellows (entitled to use FRHistS as post-nominal letters), associate fellows, and members. [5]
Fellowships are awarded to those who have made an original contribution to historical scholarship, typically through the authorship of a book, a body of scholarly work similar in scale and impact to a book, the organisation of exhibitions and conferences, the editing of journals, and other works of diffusion and dissemination grounded in historical research. Election is conducted by review and applications must be supported by someone who is already a fellow. A list of current fellows and members is maintained online by the RHS. [6]
The society's publications include its monographic series Studies in History (1975–2020) and New Historical Perspectives (2016–), [7] its annual Transactions [8] (first published as Transactions of the Historical Society, 1872), [9] and the Camden Series of editions and translations of texts; as well as digital publications, such as the Bibliography of British and Irish History.
The society runs an active open-access online blog, entitled Historical Transactions. [10] It was established in 2018 as part of the commemoration of the Royal Historical Society’s 150th Anniversary.
The regular prizes, awards and recognitions granted by the society include: [11]
Only two historians have been awarded both the Whitfield Prize and the Alexander Prize:
The presidents of the society have been: [14] [15]
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity.
Sir Adolphus William Ward was an English historian and man of letters.
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The Camden Society was a text publication society founded in London in 1838 to publish early historical and literary materials, both unpublished manuscripts and new editions of rare printed books. It was named after the 16th-century antiquary and historian William Camden. In 1897 it merged with the Royal Historical Society, which continues to publish texts in what are now known as the Camden Series.
The Royal Entomological Society is a learned society devoted to the study of insects. It aims to disseminate information about insects and to improve communication between entomologists.
Sir Alexander Grant, 10th Baronet, FRSE was a British landowner and historian who served as Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1868 to 1884. He had strong links to India, especially Bombay.
Sir William Turner was an English anatomist and was the Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1903 to 1916.
John Gough Nichols (1806–1873) was an English painter and antiquary, the third generation in a family publishing business with strong connection to learned antiquarianism.
Alexander Buchan FRS FRSE was a Scottish meteorologist, oceanographer and botanist and is credited with establishing the weather map as the basis of modern weather forecasting. He also proposed the theory of Buchan Spells.
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The Whitfield Book Prize is a prize of £1,000 awarded annually by the Royal Historical Society to the best work on a subject of British or Irish history published within the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland during the calendar year. To be eligible for the award, the book must be the first history work published by the author.
Ian Wallace Archer FRHistS is a historian of early modern London and the Robert Stonehouse Tutorial Fellow in History at Keble College, University of Oxford.
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Ryan Hanley is a British professor of history at the University of Exeter. He specialises in race and slavery in modern Britain, with a focus on the perspectives of people of African descent.