Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow

Last updated

Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow
Formation1802
Type Learned society
Purpose"[T]o aid the study, diffusion and advancement of the arts and sciences, with their applications, and the better understanding of public affairs."
Headquarters[]
Location
President
Prof Pat Monaghan
Main organ
Council
Website www.royalphil.org

The Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow is a learned society established in 1802 "for the improvement of the Arts and Sciences" in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It runs a programme of lectures, starting its 222nd Series in October 2023. The Society formerly owned a building on Bath Street.

Contents

Cyanotype reproduction of seaweed (Ptilota Plumosa) and Title Page of Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow, Vol. XXI, 1889-90 Cyanotype reproduction of seaweed (Ptilota Plumosa) and Title Page of Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow, Vol. XXI, 1889-90.jpg
Cyanotype reproduction of seaweed (Ptilota Plumosa) and Title Page of Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow, Vol. XXI, 1889-90

History

The Society was founded in 1802 as the Glasgow Philosophical Society by a meeting of sixty people in the former Assembly Rooms, and work began establishing a library collection. [1] [2] The Society was housed in various short-term accommodation until 1831, when a room was made available in the Andersonian University (now the University of Strathclyde). The Society subsequently moved to the Corporation Galleries on Sauchiehall Street in 1868, and in 1880, in conjunction with the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, built new premises on Bath Street. [1]

The Society was made a Royal Society in 1901, [3] shortly before its centenary during the reign of Edward VII and while Archibald Campbell, 1st Baron Blythswood was President. In 1961, the Society's building was sold and the library, which by that time contained over five thousand volumes, dispersed. The Society has since provided its Lectures in both the University of Strathclyde. [1] and the University of Glasgow. The archives of the Society are now maintained by the Archives of the University of Glasgow.

Activities

The Society runs a programme of lectures through the year, including the Kelvin and Graham Lectures, commemorating physicist Lord Kelvin and chemist Thomas Graham respectively, and for which medals are awarded. [1] [4] Lord Kelvin was president of the Society and Thomas Graham Vice-President.

The Arts Medal was replaced in 2011 by the Minerva Medal. “Arts” was thought to be restrictive and it was decided that, as Minerva was goddess not only of wisdom but also of music, poetry, medicine, commerce, weaving, crafts and magic, her broad portfolio covers both Arts and Humanities. For example, a recent recipient (2021) is Alison Phipps OBE FRSE, refugee researcher and first UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts. [5] The image of Minerva appearing on the medal is taken from the image carved on the President’s chair which is on permanent loan to the University of Strathclyde.

Recordings of lectures in recent years are archived at the University of Strathclyde. [6]

Notable former presidents

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lord Kelvin</span> British physicist, engineer and mathematician (1824–1907)

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. He was the Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, where he undertook significant research and mathematical analysis of electricity, the formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and contributed significantly to unifying physics, which was then in its infancy of development as an emerging academic discipline. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883, and served as its president from 1890 to 1895. In 1892, he became the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Graham (chemist)</span> British chemist

Thomas Graham was a Scottish chemist known for his pioneering work in dialysis and the diffusion of gases. He is regarded as one of the founders of colloid chemistry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Strathclyde</span> University in Glasgow, Scotland

The University of Strathclyde is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first technological university in the United Kingdom. Taking its name from the historic Kingdom of Strathclyde, it is Scotland's third-largest university by number of students, with students and staff from over 100 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander R. Todd</span> British biochemist

Alexander Robertus Todd, Baron Todd was a British biochemist whose research on the structure and synthesis of nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleotide coenzymes gained him the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1957.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Society of Edinburgh</span> Scottish academy of sciences

The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established in 1783. As of 2021, there are around 1,800 Fellows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Smith, Baron Smith of Kelvin</span> British businessman (born 1944)

Robert Haldane Smith, Baron Smith of Kelvin, is a British businessman and former Governor of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Smith was knighted in 1999, appointed to the House of Lords as an independent crossbench peer in 2008, and appointed Knight of the Thistle in the 2014 New Year Honours. He was also appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2016.

Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell, 1st Baron Blythswood, was a Scottish soldier, Tory politician, scientist and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High School of Glasgow</span> Private school in Glasgow, Scotland

The High School of Glasgow is a private, co-educational day school in Glasgow, Scotland. The original High School of Glasgow was founded as the choir school of Glasgow Cathedral in around 1124, and is the oldest school in Scotland, and the twelfth oldest in the United Kingdom. On its closure as a selective grammar school by Glasgow City Corporation in 1976, it immediately continued as a co-educational independent school as a result of fundraising activity by its Former Pupil Club and via a merge by the Club with Drewsteignton School. The school maintains a relationship with the Cathedral, where it holds an annual service of commemoration and thanksgiving in September. It counts two British Prime Ministers, two Lords President and the founder of the University of Aberdeen among its alumni.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron Blythswood</span> Title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Baron Blythswood, of Blythswood in the County of Renfrew, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 24 August 1892 for Sir Archibald Campbell, 1st Baronet, the former Member of Parliament for Renfrew, with remainder failing heirs male of his own to five of his younger brothers and the heirs male of their bodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allan Glen's School</span> Secondary school in Scotland

Allan Glen's School was, for most of its existence, a local authority, selective secondary school for boys in Glasgow, Scotland, charging nominal fees for tuition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Glasgow Memorial Gates</span>

The Memorial Gates at the University of Glasgow were erected in 1952 as a celebration of the university's quincentenary, or five hundredth anniversary. They form a portal through the University Avenue side of the perimeter fence around the university's current site on Gilmorehill. They stand before the Hunter memorial and Hunterian Museum, on the other side of the John McIntyre Building from the Main Gate. The large gates in the centre are generally locked, although the small pedestrian gates to the left and right are opened during the day. The gates bear the names of thirty distinguished figures associated with the university. The gates are protected as a category B listed building.

John Samuel Forrest FRS was a Scottish-born physicist, writer and Professor Emeritus, University of Strathclyde.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blythswood Square</span>

Blythswood Square is the Georgian square on Blythswood Hill in the heart of the City of Glasgow, Scotland. The square is part of the 'Magnificent New Town of Blythswood' built in the 1800s on the rising empty ground west of a very new Buchanan Street. These open grounds were part of the vast Lands of Blythswood stretching to the River Kelvin acquired by the Douglas-Campbell family in the 17th century. The Blythswood district became a Conservation Area in 1970, because of its important architectural and historic buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Crum</span> Scottish chemist and businessman

Walter Crum FRS (1796–1867) was a Scottish chemist and businessman. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1844.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archibald Campbell (Glasgow MP)</span> Scottish landowner and politician

Archibald Campbell of Blythswood was a Scottish landowner and politician.

William Meikleham LLD (1771–1846) was Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow from 1799 to 1803. He resigned the Chair of Astronomy to become Professor of Natural Philosophy (Physics) in 1803, a position he held until his death in 1846.

Events from the year 1802 in Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geological Society of Glasgow</span> Scottish scientific organization

The Geological Society of Glasgow is a scientific society devoted to the study of geology in Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnus Maclean</span>

Prof Magnus Maclean FRSE MIEE MICE LLD (1857-1937) was an electrical engineer who assisted Lord Kelvin in his electrical experiments and later became Professor of Electrical Engineering in Glasgow. The Magnus Maclean Memorial Prize given to students of electrical engineering is named in his honour. A native speaker of Scottish Gaelic, he also lectured in Celtic Studies at the University of Glasgow, delivering the MacCallum lectures, in English between 1901 and 1093. These lectures constituted the first official lectures in Celtic studies at the University.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "About the Royal Philosophical Society". Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  2. "The Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow". Nature. 67 (1725): 70. 20 November 1902. doi: 10.1038/067070a0 .
  3. "Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow". Glasgow University Library . Retrieved 29 November 2010.
  4. "Recent sessions".
  5. "Interview: Alison Phipps academic, linguist, artist". www.churchtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  6. "Collection RPSG - Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow lectures". University of Strathclyde Archives and Special Collections, United Kingdom. Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow. Retrieved 10 March 2021.