Sketches of the Royal Society and Royal Society Club

Published in 1849, these biographies of its presidents reveal the importance of the Royal Society in British intellectual life.

John Barrow (Author)

9781108028165, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 February 2011

228 pages, 1 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.3 cm, 0.3 kg

Sir John Barrow (1764–1848) was a distinguished British government diplomat whose career took him to China and Africa, and who in forty years as Secretary to the Admiralty was responsible for promoting Arctic and Antarctic exploration. A close friend of Sir Joseph Banks, he served on the Council of the Royal Society and as President of the Royal Geographical Society. Sketches of the Royal Society and Royal Society Club was published posthumously in 1849, as a supplement to Barrow's autobiography (also published in this series). It consists of a brief history of the societies, followed by a series of memoirs of presidents of the Royal Society of Barrow's time, and of other leading members of the Society and the Royal Society Club, the elite dining club associated with it. The biographies provide abundant evidence of the central importance of the Royal Society to scientific life in nineteenth-century Britain.

Preface
1. The Royal Society, its presidents, and the Royal Society Club
2. Sir Joseph Banks
3. Dr. Wollaston
4. Sir Humphry Davy
5. Mr. Davies Gilbert
6. The Duke of Sussex
7. The Marquis of Northampton
8. Mr. Alexander Dalrymple, F.R.S. (Hydrographer to the Admirality)
9. Mr. Cavendish
10. Mr. Smithson Tennant
11. Dr. Young
12. Sir Francis Chantrey
13. Mr. Hatchett.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX]