Society Of London Research Articles

Challenges and opportunities for open access book publishing: A perspective from a society publisher in the geosciences

AbstractThe American Geophysical Union (AGU), a scholarly society serving the Earth and space sciences, has a conventional books portfolio with their publisher, Wiley, and a new partnership with the Geological Society of London for an open access (OA) book series. The latter serves authors who need (because of funding mandates) or want to publish OA and comes with added benefits, including a production workflow to facilitate faster times to online publication. Flexibility in how the costs of individual volumes can be covered aims to encourage uptake, but challenges lie ahead in ensuring that all authors can equitably choose OA for their book project. This commentary contributes to the collection in Area about the evolving OA books landscape, addressing many of the challenges described by Gandy, and describing the start of AGU's journey towards OA books. It brings a perspective from the sciences, where books are mostly large, edited volumes with many international contributors, many of them physical geographers. Their experiences of funding, motivation and recognition for contributing to books may be quite different to human geographers more familiar with the sole‐authored monograph format.

What’s On the Horizon for Open Access Geoscience Books?

On the first anniversary of their partnership, AGU and the Geological Society of London reflect on the GeoHorizons series and why open access books are valuable for the geoscience community.

Depopulating the sky: changing patterns of stellar identification in the Philosophical Transactions

The article provides a quantitative survey of the ways in which individual stars were identified in astronomical articles published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London between 1665 and 1829. The great majority of stellar references fall into one or more of the following four categories: figural references (identifying objects as structural parts of constellation figures), proper names, Bayer letters, and catalogue numbers (primarily, Flamsteed numbers). The survey investigates how the quantities and proportions of these referential types changed over time, and what identification patterns each referential type displayed. The results are interpreted under the assumption that the dynamics of the mixture of practices were not only a matter of convenience and increasing practicality, but that they were also tied to underlying transformations in the conceptual identity of fixed stars. The gradual, spontaneous, and unreflected disappearance of figural identifications, and their replacement with references to designated catalogue entries, is tied to a transition from sidereal identity—stars being position markers in the celestial sphere—to stellar identity belonging to spatially distributed physical bodies.

Depiction and Description: Insights into Southern Alps Glaciers Conveyed by John Gully’s Paintings and Julius Haast’s Paper at the Royal Geographical Society

In June 1862, Julius Haast (1822–1887), the Canterbury Provincial Geologist, wrote to Joseph Hooker, Assistant Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, informing him that “being now naturalized I think it my duty to offer my work to the scientific societies in England.” Haast informed Hooker that as soon as his topographical map was finished, he would send the botanist “an account of the geological features of the Alps, on deposits of the glacial period, accompanied by maps, sections and sketches,” requesting him to present the account to the Geological Society of London.[i] Although this anticipated initial foray into publishing in British scientific journals did not eventuate until 1865,[ii] on 12 November 1863 Haast sent a copy of his large topographical map of the Southern Alps,[iii] accompanied by extensive notes on the physical geography of that region and a set of 12 watercolour paintings (e.g. fig. 1), to the geologist Sir Roderick Murchison,[iv] President of the Royal Geographical Society. Haast hoped that those landscape paintings would “best enable the members, to gain an insight into the wild mountain masses [of the Southern Alps], with their snowfields, glaciers and lakes [emphasis added].”[v] [i] Sascha Nolden, Esme Mildenhall and Simon Nathan, The Correspondence of Julius Haast and Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1861–1886 (Wellington: Geoscience Society of New Zealand, 2013), 22. Haast became a British citizen in February 1861. [ii] See Julius Haast, “Notes to a Sketch-Map of the Province of Canterbury, New Zealand, Showing the Glaciation During the Pleistocene and Recent Periods as Far as Explored,” Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 21, nos. 1–2 (1865): 87–96. [iii] On 11 June 1863, Haast informed Hooker that he was sending Murchison a large map with a set of watercolour drawings by the next mail (Nolden, Mildenhall and Nathan, Correspondence Haast-Hooker, 42–43). [iv] Ibid., 57. [v] Julius Haast, “Notes Accompanying a Map of the Province of Canterbury” (Royal Geographical Society Manuscript Archive, 1862), 1.

STUDENT YEARS OF ACADEMICIAN P.G. VINOGRADOFF

The article reveals the importance of the period of student studies at Moscow University for the future career of the Russian and British historian Pavel Gavrilovich Vinogradoff (1854–1925), who became a member of Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London. The research source base was made up of offi cial documents from Moscow University collection and ego-documents, i.e. correspondence, diaries and memoirs. The results are presented in the form of a “thick description”, revealing the culture of higher education in the Russian Empire in the early 1870s. Home training under the guidance of his father, as well as graduation from the 4th men’s gymnasium in Moscow with a gold medal became a reliable basis for Pavel Vinogradoff ’s mastery of the university course at the Department of History and Philology at Moscow University. The author characterizes not only the successes in the study of individual disciplines, but also the infl uence of professors, and most importantly, practices of their educational activities and relationships. He was especially influenced by those professors who were active in research — S.M. Solovyov, F.I. Buslaev, and, especially, V.I. Guerrier, whose disciple Pavel Vinogradoff became from the first year of his study. His scientifi c interests were formed under Guerrier’s infl uence. The system of lecture courses and the professor’s seminars recently introduced into the practice of teaching became a model to be perfected by the student, later himself a professor at Moscow University. N.I. Storozhenko’s home meetings were renewed by P.G. Vinogradoff in the early 1890s and created the basis for the Historical Society at Moscow University. In the author’s opinion, it was the mastery of educational practices, rather than evaluative indicators of success in certain disciplines that were crucial to the success of Vinogradoff ’s future career. Diverging from his teacher’s theoretical and methodological views on the principles of studying the past, nevertheless he, as a successor of Guerrier’s work, improved the methods of the scientific and pedagogical school of Moscow University’s “world historians”.

Notes on the Latin names of some gayfeathers and the further New World significance of Thomas Martyn’s edition (1795–1807) of Philip Miller’s Gardeners Dictionary

The nomenclatural significance of Thomas Martyn’s monumental revision (and expansion) of Philip Miller’s Gardeners dictionary, namely Martyn’s puzzlingly neglected The gardener’s and botanist’s dictionary ([1795–]1807), is assessed with particular reference to New World botany. The publication dates of its constituent parts are discussed; a key resource is internal evidence, citation of recently published works, notably Roxburgh’s Plants of the coast of Coromandel, publication dates of which are also made more precise through examination of Royal Society of London records. Besides making more secure currently accepted names in Lagerstroemia (Lythraceae), Liatris (Compositae) and Meniscium (Thelypteridaceae), a number of other additions and corrections to current databases are identified, those affecting currently accepted names being disposed of here. This results merely in a new combination in Ctenodon (Leguminosae) being proposed, though Croton cochinchinensis Martyn may well be an earlier name for C. cascarilloides Raeusch. (Euphorbiaceae), while Mimosa carthagenensis Martyn (Leguminosae) is lectotypified such that it conclusively falls into the synonymy of Piptadenia retusa (Jacq.) P.J. Ribeiro & al. (Leguminosae).

“Observations stopped on the occasion of the cession of Alaska”: St. Petersburg academy of sciences’ magnetic and meteorological observatory in sitka (Alaska)

Based on the new archival materials from the Russian State Archive of the Navy, Russian State Historical Archive, and St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Archive, the history of the organization and operations of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences’ Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory in Alaska (the city of Sitka / Sitkha) was analyzed for the first time. This Observatory operated from 1839 until the sale of Alaska in 1867. The themes from the history of the Observatory reviewed in the article are the background for its creation, the participation of the international scientific community (Royal Society of London) in its founding, and the contribution of the Russian-American Company and its leaders, primarily Arvid Adolf Etholén, to its construction and operations. The archival data relating to the observations conducted at the Observatory (mean daily temperature) are provided for the first time. The fact that the Observatory, being officially subordinate to the Mining Department of the Ministry of Finance, was scientifically managed by the Academy of Sciences, helps to better understand the specifics of interagency links and communication in the Russian Empire in the 19ʰᵗ century. The article also sheds light on the personal contribution of Director of the Central Physical Observatory, A. Ya. (Adolph-Theodor) Kupffer, to the formation of the Observatory in Sitka, briefly reviews the instruments and devices employed by the Observatory, and, for the first time, provides the names of its directors and other staff.

“Lost in Flowers & Foolery”: A Gendered Reading of the 9th Earl of Devon’s Flower Watercolors

William Courtenay, 3rd Viscount Courtenay and 9th Earl of Devon (1768–1835), has been most remembered for his romantic relationship with author and slave owner, William Beckford (1760–1844), which scandalized London society in 1784. However, the 9th Earl’s life after this event has received little attention despite his artistic contributions to the built environment of his ancestral home of Powderham Castle in Devon. In the 1790s, he created a series of flower watercolors on paper and cabinets under the supervision of his drawing master, William Marshall Craig (c.1765–1827). These artworks complicate ideas about gendered expectations of amateur artistic subjects, with flower painting being largely understood as a feminine accomplishment. This article explores the Earl’s watercolors in the context of the spaces at Powderham to argue they are evidence of his effeminate behavior and participation in female activities alongside his thirteen sisters. The association of these objects with a man attracted to those of his own sex contribute to studies of queerness, amateur art, and the country house in the late eighteenth century.

Queer and Gender-Fluid Artists in the Music Performance Universe of the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries

In classical music there has been an effort in recent years to bring to light those whose artistic output contributed to their genre or era but were not as well-memorialized as their caucasian heteronormative male counterparts. So, what about artist-musicians, and those adjacent to them, who lived outside the gender constructs of their contemporary hegemony? What contributions did they purposefully or inadvertently make? What is their reception history and how were these histories documented? Queer Studies in- and outside of musicology has made strides to recognize the existence of historic queer and gender nonconforming individuals. Generally speaking, the aim has been to legitimize the gender spectrum and to make the lives of these noteworthy individuals known. Still it’s impossible for us to know how these gender non-conformists would have categorized their own gender in the Early Modern and Modern Periods were they to have the same terminology as we have today. In this thesis I will cite figures from plays and broadsheet ballads of the 17th century, the developing opera genre in France in the early 18th century, the “low style” in London society and theater in the early 19th century, through to the Reconstructionist United States. By illuminating queer and gender nonconforming individuals and the performative acts that defined their personal lives, I show that these communities have always existed in some iteration and in many facets of the musical universe. What emerges is a centuries-old artistic lineage between gender non-conforming people that has yet to be fully explored.

THE SOCIETY, THE SAVANTS, AND THE SCIENTIST: A GLIMPSE AT THE SOCIÉTÉ GÉOLOGIQUE DE FRANCE THROUGH THE ACTIVITY OF THE FOUNDING MEMBER NÉRÉE BOUBÉE (1830-1860)

ABSTRACT The relevance of the Société Géologique de France (SGF) in the geoscientific landscape is undoubtedly recognized, but the academic literature dedicated to its history is scarce. The present paper aims to portray some aspects of the SGF's ordinary functioning filtered through the eyes and experience of a first-time member during the years he was active in the Society's life—approximately from 1830 to 1860. The basic assumption is that the SGF, similar to the Geological Society of London and other (geo)scientific societies, was an “arena of geological debate in the early Nineteenth century” (Rudwick 1986). Within this arena, not only scientific cultures, ideas, and practices were confronted, but also savants, experts, and amateurs clashed with each other. The constant and often very intense participation of Nérée Boubée (1806-1862) reveals much about the SGF and himself. We will follow his footsteps as a guiding thread of the narrative. Not being a savant, nor part of the élite of geology at his time, neither was Boubée a typical amateur. As was the case of many other members of the SGF, he may be considered an “accomplished” member— i.e., a geologist specialist in a more restricted subject (Rudwick 1985, p. 120). Boubée's trajectory within the SGF is a good window to see the functioning of the SGF in more detail, as it may also exemplify the paths followed by other ordinary members like him, who constituted the majority of the membership. The article concludes that the SGF was indeed an “arena” both in terms of the construction of knowledge and practices, and at the personal level of intra-community interactions.

Mineral Reporting Standards: PERC’s Role in CRIRSCO and Its Relevance to the European Mining Sector

Modern society is heavily reliant on minerals to support current lifestyles and requires continued investment in the exploration, evaluation, development, and production of mineral raw materials. Potential investors and their advisors require reliable information to support decisions on investments in minerals projects. To address these needs, international guidelines and reporting standards have been developed. The Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards (CRIRSCO) is an international association of fifteen regional organisations from around the world, which promotes best standards in international minerals reporting. The Pan-European Reserves and Resources Reporting Committee (PERC), the European member of CRIRSCO, is an association of six Europe-based professional organisations, including the Geological Society of London (GSL). CRIRSCO-aligned reporting standards, such as the PERC Reporting Standard, are based on common principles, rules and guidance, and include sixteen common definitions of key terms. A description of the CRIRSCO International Reporting Template, which provides the basis for the development and periodic updating of individual standards such as the PERC Reporting Standard, is provided. The different elements of the 2019 version of the CRIRSCO Template are described, together with a discussion of changes and additions made in the PERC Reporting Standard 2021 which is based on it. The need for continual development and enhancement of the CRIRSCO-aligned standards to address investor concerns such as the need for information on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects of mineral projects, as well as greater rigour in defining competency requirements, is discussed. Reference is also made to the United Nations Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC) and its relationship with the CRIRSCO-aligned standards, including the proposed use of the UNFC in the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) and how the two systems could be used in a complementary manner to support the needs of both governments and investors in mineral companies.

“For the benefit of the whole civilized world”: 350 years of journal publishing at the Royal Society of London

“For the benefit of the whole civilized world”: 350 years of journal publishing at the Royal Society of London

The scale of two cities: the geographies of Paris and London in the 1720s

This essay considers an early eighteenth-century quarrel about the geographical dimensions of Paris and London. The dispute involved representatives of the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris and the Royal Society in London. The three participants—Guillaume Delisle (1675–1726), Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan (1678–1771) and Peter Davall (?–1763)—were French, the first two resident in Paris, the third an exiled Huguenot based in London. From an initial, relatively trivial, confusion about trigonometrical calculations, this inconclusive debate ultimately embraced several wider questions about the nature of cities in classical antiquity and early eighteenth-century Europe, the changing meaning of urban life on the eve of the industrial age, the relationship between population size and urban space, and the relative economic, political and cultural vitality of Catholic absolutist France and Protestant Hanoverian England. Informed by rival claims promoted by Cartesians and Newtonians in London and Paris, the dispute also reflected a pre-existing tension within the Paris Academy about the remit of established and emerging scientific disciplines, specifically astronomy and geography. Subsequent cartographic representations of these two cities, including the Plan Turgot of Paris in the 1730s and the Rocque map of London in the 1740s, can be re-considered with reference to this now forgotten controversy.

Conzinc Riotinto of Australia — Foreign Ownership and Control

Conzinc Riotinto of Australia Limited (CRA) was the largest mining group in Australia after BHP. It had a major influence upon the post‐Second World War mining sector and Australian economy. It was responsible for some of the country's largest resource developments, establishing an integrated aluminium industry, playing the principal role in the development of Australia's iron ore export industry, and developing a major copper deposit on the Island of Bougainville. CRA was established in 1962 as the Australian arm of the British mining group, Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation Limited (RTZ), formed through the merger of The Rio Tinto Company Limited with The Consolidated Zinc Limited. Consolidated Zinc was also London‐listed, although with a deep Australian heritage based on its involvement in lead and zinc mining at Broken Hill. CRA's status as a foreign‐owned and controlled company had a major influence upon its corporate priorities for the two decades following its formation. The company's foreign majority ownership restricted its business opportunities, particularly during the 1970s. However, as early as the mid‐1960s, anti‐CRA sentiment was evident from politicians, public servants, Australian mining competitors and, to some extent, the public. CRA's standing as “un‐Australian” was viewed by company management as an impediment to attracting and retaining quality employees. These factors led CRA to engage with successive Commonwealth Governments to attempt to secure arrangements more accommodating to its business interests. This involved considerations as diverse as the takeover of the London parent company — to facilitate greater Australian shareholding in the Australian entity — through to the restructuring of CRA's interests in a new majority‐owned Australian company. Ultimately, CRA was instrumental in changing foreign investment legislation, providing a pathway for it as a foreign‐owned company to move to an Australianised or majority Australian‐owned status. With this, CRA had an ability to participate in resource investments on terms similar to those for Australian companies. CRA gained naturalising status in 1979 and, in 1986, that of a naturalised or Australianised company. Differences in perspectives relating to strategic direction and financial management between the parent company in London and CRA in Melbourne, brought to the fore issues of control. The situation became so serious that it resulted in the departure of the chairman and chief executive on the eve of CRA achieving Australian majority‐owned status. The events had a later influence on the formation of a dual‐listed company structure in 1996. Through this structure, RTZ regained majority share ownership of the assets previously held in the Australian company. CRA lost its naturalised status and its identity as Australia's then second largest Australian mining company.

Himalayan Mountaineering, Imperial Masculinity and Altitude Records Before Everest

ABSTRACT Across the nineteenth century, European surveyors, explorers and mountaineers often sought to constitute the Himalaya as spaces of imperial duty, escape from civilisation, and manly experiences against and in nature. Rather than focusing on the homosociality of the better known climbing ventures of the twentieth century, this article instead considers the period before Mount Everest became the main prize. In particular, it examines an eclectic mix of Himalayan expeditions that made claims to the world ‘altitude record’: that is, the highest height ever climbed above sea level. The different ways that climbers discussed and doubted these record-seeking climbs in their accounts, and especially in talks at the Royal Geographical Society in London, provide a series of snapshots into manly self-fashioning around suffering and self-reliance at the edge of the British Empire. Here the masculinities of non-European guides and porters (especially Gurkhas) also always provided both a foil and a challenge. Ultimately, attempts on the altitude record reveal the way that casting the Himalaya as a space for the narration of masculine ideals and imperial expansion could be both mutually reinforcing and in conflict. Expressions of homosociality nevertheless also shifted across the nineteenth century, with the filling in of the last ‘blank spaces’ on the map seemingly narrowing the canvas for manly outdoor experiences. This was compounded by the way the Himalaya were constituted and maintained as spaces for manly experiences in part by the exclusion of women, even as women like Fanny Bullock Workman were themselves climbing towards record heights.

Rawson Rawson and Early Victorian Poverty Knowledge

This article scrutinizes Rawson W. Rawson over seven years, from 1837 to 1844, during which he served as founding editor of the Journal of the Statistical Society of London and then as civil secretary to successive Canadian governors-general. Rawson studied poverty in London, amplified criticisms of Malthusian Poor Law disciplines in Scotland, and applied that logic to Indigenous poverty on the colonial frontier. The statisticians sought generic definitions of property and agency that sometimes challenged a more binary logic of civilization. But in Canada, Rawson's very critique of dispossession became an instrument of that dispossession.

The political alignment of presidents of the early Royal Society of London

PurposeThis study aims to identify the political alignment and political activity of the 11 Presidents of Britain’s most important scientific organisation, the Royal Society of London, in its early years 1662–1703, to determine whether or not the institution was politically aligned.Design/methodology/approachThere is almost no information addressing the political alignment of the Royal Society or its Presidents available in the institution’s archives, or in the writings of historians specialising in its administration. Even reliable biographical sources, such as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography provide very limited information. However, as 10 Presidents were elected Member of Parliament (MP), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social and Local History provides a wealth of accurate, in-depth data, revealing the alignment of both.FindingsAll Presidents held senior government offices, the first was a Royalist aristocrat; of the remaining 10, 8 were Royalist or Tory MPs, 2 of whom were falsely imprisoned by the House of Commons, 2 were Whig MPs, while 4 were elevated to the Lords. The institution was Royalist aligned 1662–1680, Tory aligned 1680–1695 and Whig aligned 1695–1703, which reflects changes in Parliament and State.Originality/valueThis study establishes that the early Royal Society was not an apolitical institution and that the political alignment of Presidents and institution continued in later eras. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the election or appointment of an organisation’s most senior officer can be used to signal its political alignment with government and other organisations to serve various ends.

Field-based assessments of the seasonality of Culexpipiens sensu lato in England: an important enzootic vector of Usutu and West Nile viruses

BackgroundUsutu virus (USUV), which is closely related to West Nile virus (WNV), sharing a similar ecology and transmission cycle, was first reported in the UK in the southeast of England in 2020. Both USUV and WNV are emerging zoonotic viruses hosted by wild birds. The 2020 finding of USUV in England raised awareness of this virus and highlighted the importance of understanding the seasonality of Culexpipiens sensu lato (Cx. pipiens s.l.), the main enzootic vector of these viruses. Zoos are prime locations for trapping mosquitoes because of their infrastructure, security, and range of vertebrate hosts and aquatic habitats.MethodsThree independent zoo-based case studies at four locations that cover the seasonality of Cx.pipiens s.l. in England were undertaken: (i) London Zoo (Zoological Society London [ZSL]) and surrounding areas, London; (ii) Chester Zoo (Cheshire); (ii) Twycross Zoo (Leicestershire); and (iv) Flamingo Land (zoo; North Yorkshire). Various adult mosquito traps were used to catch adult Cx.pipiens s.l. across seasons.ResultsHigh yields of Cx.pipiens s.l./Culex torrentium were observed in Biogents-Mosquitaire and Center for Disease Control and Prevention Gravid traps in all studies where these traps were used. Mosquito counts varied between sites and between years. Observations of adult Cx.pipiens s.l./Cx. torrentium abundance and modelling studies demonstrated peak adult abundance between late July and early August, with active adult female Cx.pipiens s.l./Cx. torrentium populations between May and September.ConclusionsThe information collated in this study illustrates the value of multiple mosquito monitoring approaches in zoos to describe the seasonality of this UK vector across multiple sites in England and provides a framework that can be used for ongoing and future surveillance programmes and disease risk management strategies.Graphical

Reflecting on 50 years of long-term potentiation: Insights from the Royal Society's LTP50 conference.

On November 20-21 2023, the Royal Society in London hosted a landmark scientific meeting led by Professor Wickliffe C Abraham, Professor Timothy VP Bliss, Professor Graham L Collingridge, and Professor Richard GM Morris. The conference, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Long-Term Potentiation, focused on discussing the latest research and developments in the field of synaptic plasticity. We have invited former presidents of the British Neuroscience Association, Professor Graham Collingridge CBE FRS and Professor Richard Morris CBE FRS, for interviews.

In Northcliffe Jail: Iris Barry, film journalist

ABSTRACT A reinvestigation of Iris Barry’s work for the Daily Mail in the period 1925–30. Barry is celebrated as a critic and curator. As a founder of the Film Society in London in the 1920s and first curator of film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in the 1930s she is a heroine of minority film culture. This article argues that her role in mass film culture has been overlooked. While it has been acknowledged that Barry wrote for the Daily Mail, one of Britain’s most popular newspapers, this article demonstrates that the number of articles she wrote for the paper has been underestimated by a factor of ten. Beyond the case of Barry, this article argues that elite institutions like the Film Society have been given undue credit for the phenomenon of ‘taking film seriously.’