Archives
The Archive Collection can be consulted by bona fide researchers by appointment. Non-members will be charged a daily fee.
The Society's Archives consist of the Business Papers (the Society's own records resulting from its operation since 1807), and the Deposited Papers (gifts and purchases of archive material).
Business Papers
Deposited Manuscripts
These include letters, notebooks, diaries, essays, manuscript geological sections and views and printed topographic maps bearing manuscript notes and geological lines. Among the many single printed items are sections, views, separately-published illustrations of minerals and fossils, portraits, newscuttings, scrapbooks, theoretical diagrams, and so on.
NB: Printed maps are held, not in the archives but in the map library. Modern prints of the William Smith map are available by post from the British Geological Survey.
Deposits of particular importance include the manuscript of chapters 4 to 7 of the third volume of James Hutton's Theory of the Earth, presented by Leonard Horner in 1856. This was "discovered" in the library by Archibald Geikie in 1897 and published in full soon after.
Of equal interest and importance is the large collection of drawings and paintings of fossil fish chiefly prepared by Joseph Dinkel for Louis Agassiz. Many were published in Recherches and Monographie (Agassiz, 1833-43), but more are unpublished. In many cases the specimens they depict are either lost or else have physically deteriorated, giving the beautifully detailed paintings a unique importance. This collection has been studied in detail by Dr S M Andrews of the Royal Scottish Museum.
There are three collections of personal papers of unusual size:
George Bellas Greenough (1778-1855), first President of the Society, bequeathed all his books, maps, charts, sections and engravings relating to geology to the Society, as well as the title to and interest in the map published under his name in 1819. The most important manuscript items are the large number of printed topographic maps of all parts of the world bearing Greenough's annotations and colouring. They are complemented by quantities of geological notes in volumes and packets, annotated books and other items. There is also a small but interesting collection of letters, almost all relating to the Society in one way or other, and including items from De la Beche, Fitton, Lord Greenock, Horner and Sir James Hall. The bulk of Greenough's letter collection is at the University Library, Cambridge (Add Ms. 7918); another manuscript collection, richer in notebooks, is at University College, London.
The Moore Collection
The papers of Charles Moore (1815-182), a West Country geologist and fossil collector who was a Fellow of the Society from 1854 until his death (Winwood, 1892), were presented to the Society by Moore's friend and obituarist, H H Winwood.
The correspondence consists of 240 letters from 85 writers dating between 1849 and 1881. There are interesting letters from H B Brady (20) on foraminifera, Thomas Davidson (9) on brachiopods, John Phillips (7) on Australian fossils and Richard Owen (9) on the teeth of Microlestes, an early mammal discovered by Moore. There are also letters on fossil sponges, ammonites, belemnites, and on the controversial Eozoon.
The Murchison Collection
The largest and most important of the special collections is that containing the papers of Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871), one of the founders of Palaeozoic geology in Europe, who was twice President of the Society. Most of the papers were given by Sir Kenneth Murchison in 1944.
In sheer bulk, the collection is impressive. There are 2430 letters from 876 correspondents, including Adam Sedgwick (295), Charles Lyell (44) and Archibald Geikie (67). The earliest letter is one written by the 16-year old Roderick to his uncle, General Alexander Mackenzie, in 1808, and the latest is dated August 1871, jut two months before his death. Further collections of Murchison's letters are housed in the British Library (Add. Mss. 46125-8; these were originally part of the gift to the GeolSoc but represent those separated as being of primarily non-geological interest in the late 1940s and passed on to the BM) and in Edinburgh University Library.
Further, there are 165 field notebooks and diaries between 1814 and 1865. Twenty-five of the books contain the record of his researches in central England and Wales, 1831 to 1838, which were the basis of The Silurian System (1839), and a further twenty contain his field observations in Russia and adjoining countries that led to the Geology of Russian Europe (1845). (The collection here is not complete, for a further eleven books are held at the British Geological Survey in Keyworth, Notts.). There are also, based on the notebooks, 26 volumes of the autobiographical Journal, and sundry business papers.
Letters from Murchison to Archibald Geikie and William Buckland are also held here as separate accessions.
These include:
Paintings, engravings, busts, photographs and other images, mostly of Fellows, are held in addition to a Portrait Photograph series.
Access
Simple enquiries may be answered remotely, but extended research cannot be undertaken.
Researchers wanting to use the archives are asked to request permission to do so well in advance, preferably in writing. References and ID will be required and inspected. Fellows of the Society are entitled to use the collection without any time limit, but non-fellows are restricted to five days' study in any one year.
The Society reserves the right to refuse access to its archive collections or individual items within them.
Photographic and image work
This work is carried out for the Society by the Picture Library of the Natural History Museum. Enquiries regarding images not found in their catalogue should be addressed to the Archivist here. A selection of Fellows' photographs can be viewed elsewhere on the site (see 'From the Archives' at the bottom of this page.)
Publication and Reproduction
Express permission to publish or reproduce any material, graphic or textual, originating from the Society's archives must always be sought. Provision of photocopies is limited.
Digitisation
Some collections, particularly the Murchison correspondence and journals, are only available on CD, for conservation and security reasons.
The principal lists and indexes are still manual, although their digitisation is an ongoing project. A partial list of correspondents and authors (including those in the Murchison papers) is searchable online via the A2A Project. ).
The following historical reference information is accessible on this site:
Acquisitions
The Society welcomes offers of material relevant to the history of the Society or its Fellows, although very limited storage space unfortunately makes it impossible to accept everything offered. The Archivist will be happy to advise on possible alternative places of deposit for items/collections which the Society is unable to take.
From the Archive
A sample of Fellows' portrait photographs - available here soon.
The Society's Archives consist of the Business Papers (the Society's own records resulting from its operation since 1807), and the Deposited Papers (gifts and purchases of archive material).
Business Papers
- Council Minutes: from 1810 to the present.
- Printed Matter: rules and regulations of the Society, from 1810 onwards; the printed reports submitted to the AGM 1810-1820; papers relating to the Charter of Incorporation, 1825.
- Committees: committee minutes, 1820s to the present (incomplete).
- Meetings: minutes of the ordinary meetings, complete from the very first on 13 November 1807 to the present day (the volumes up to 1826 are particularly important, as there is no printed record of these meetings); also minutes of annual and special general meetings.
- Tracts: ie, letters, notes etc on various geological matters sent to the Society. These were read at meetings and their titles are included in the minutes. About 60 of these pieces were bound into three volumes at an early date.
- Drawings: submitted by members for display at meetings.
- Attendance: there are no attendance records for early meetings. The minute books list the visitors and their sponsors, but do not list fellows present, and signing in books are only preserved for the years 1899 to 1922.
- Early Publications
- Serials: The Secretary published three serials during the nineteenth century: Transactions in twelve volumes divided into two series, 1811-1856; Proceedings in four volumes, 1826-1846; and the Quarterly Journal, more recently just the Journal, in 140+ volumes, 1845-present.
- Manuscripts of Published Papers: few survive.
- Drawings and paintings submitted for publication: many survive, ranging in date from 1811 to about 1880, with most between 1850 to 1865.
- Referees' Reports: only for the years 1821-23 and 1830-41.
- Minor Publications: eg, membership lists, 1808 onwards, and ephemera.
- Fellowship
- Proposal Forms: these begin in 1825 and give the candidate's full name and address, the signatures of sponsors and date of election (18000+)
- Fellows' Photographs: Between c 1870 and 1900, fellows were invited to submit a portrait photograph for the Society's records: 1000+. See bottom of this page for links to From the Archives
- Officers' Correspondence: limited. Mostly 19 volumes of the secretaries' in-letters 1834-1880, and 34 volumes of flimsies of secretaries' out-letters 1895-1955. Mostly routine business matters (NB: many of these volumes are in bad physical condition, and will not be produced for that reason)
- The Museum
- Founded 1808, and in 1911 divided between the British Museum (Natural History) and the Geological Survey and Museum.
- The registers and numerous catalogues of individual collections are held in the Palaeontology Library of the British Museum (Natural History). The principal relevant items in the Archives are two volumes of letters and lists relating to British and Irish specimens, 1808-1845, and papers connected with Leonard Horner's work on the museum during his presidency, 1858-1860.
Deposited Manuscripts
These include letters, notebooks, diaries, essays, manuscript geological sections and views and printed topographic maps bearing manuscript notes and geological lines. Among the many single printed items are sections, views, separately-published illustrations of minerals and fossils, portraits, newscuttings, scrapbooks, theoretical diagrams, and so on.
NB: Printed maps are held, not in the archives but in the map library. Modern prints of the William Smith map are available by post from the British Geological Survey.
Deposits of particular importance include the manuscript of chapters 4 to 7 of the third volume of James Hutton's Theory of the Earth, presented by Leonard Horner in 1856. This was "discovered" in the library by Archibald Geikie in 1897 and published in full soon after.
Of equal interest and importance is the large collection of drawings and paintings of fossil fish chiefly prepared by Joseph Dinkel for Louis Agassiz. Many were published in Recherches and Monographie (Agassiz, 1833-43), but more are unpublished. In many cases the specimens they depict are either lost or else have physically deteriorated, giving the beautifully detailed paintings a unique importance. This collection has been studied in detail by Dr S M Andrews of the Royal Scottish Museum.
There are three collections of personal papers of unusual size:
The Greenough Collection
George Bellas Greenough (1778-1855), first President of the Society, bequeathed all his books, maps, charts, sections and engravings relating to geology to the Society, as well as the title to and interest in the map published under his name in 1819. The most important manuscript items are the large number of printed topographic maps of all parts of the world bearing Greenough's annotations and colouring. They are complemented by quantities of geological notes in volumes and packets, annotated books and other items. There is also a small but interesting collection of letters, almost all relating to the Society in one way or other, and including items from De la Beche, Fitton, Lord Greenock, Horner and Sir James Hall. The bulk of Greenough's letter collection is at the University Library, Cambridge (Add Ms. 7918); another manuscript collection, richer in notebooks, is at University College, London.
The Moore Collection
The papers of Charles Moore (1815-182), a West Country geologist and fossil collector who was a Fellow of the Society from 1854 until his death (Winwood, 1892), were presented to the Society by Moore's friend and obituarist, H H Winwood.
The correspondence consists of 240 letters from 85 writers dating between 1849 and 1881. There are interesting letters from H B Brady (20) on foraminifera, Thomas Davidson (9) on brachiopods, John Phillips (7) on Australian fossils and Richard Owen (9) on the teeth of Microlestes, an early mammal discovered by Moore. There are also letters on fossil sponges, ammonites, belemnites, and on the controversial Eozoon.
The Murchison Collection
The largest and most important of the special collections is that containing the papers of Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871), one of the founders of Palaeozoic geology in Europe, who was twice President of the Society. Most of the papers were given by Sir Kenneth Murchison in 1944.
In sheer bulk, the collection is impressive. There are 2430 letters from 876 correspondents, including Adam Sedgwick (295), Charles Lyell (44) and Archibald Geikie (67). The earliest letter is one written by the 16-year old Roderick to his uncle, General Alexander Mackenzie, in 1808, and the latest is dated August 1871, jut two months before his death. Further collections of Murchison's letters are housed in the British Library (Add. Mss. 46125-8; these were originally part of the gift to the GeolSoc but represent those separated as being of primarily non-geological interest in the late 1940s and passed on to the BM) and in Edinburgh University Library.
Further, there are 165 field notebooks and diaries between 1814 and 1865. Twenty-five of the books contain the record of his researches in central England and Wales, 1831 to 1838, which were the basis of The Silurian System (1839), and a further twenty contain his field observations in Russia and adjoining countries that led to the Geology of Russian Europe (1845). (The collection here is not complete, for a further eleven books are held at the British Geological Survey in Keyworth, Notts.). There are also, based on the notebooks, 26 volumes of the autobiographical Journal, and sundry business papers.
Letters from Murchison to Archibald Geikie and William Buckland are also held here as separate accessions.
Other collections of especial note
These include:
- The correspondence of T G Bonney (68 pieces, 1858-1919); the notebooks of Joseph Prestwich (50 vols, 1832-90)
- Diaries and notebooks of Lewis Leigh Fermor (1898-1950)
- Correspondence of Leonard Hawkes (160 pieces, 1914-64)
- Papers of Janet Watson (1923-85, 6 boxes) Listed by NCUACS, the catalogue is available in the Library and online.
- The field notebooks of Prof Robert Shackleton (120, c1920-1970s). Listed by NCUACS, their catalogue is available in the Library.
Portraits
Paintings, engravings, busts, photographs and other images, mostly of Fellows, are held in addition to a Portrait Photograph series.
Further information
Access
Simple enquiries may be answered remotely, but extended research cannot be undertaken.
Researchers wanting to use the archives are asked to request permission to do so well in advance, preferably in writing. References and ID will be required and inspected. Fellows of the Society are entitled to use the collection without any time limit, but non-fellows are restricted to five days' study in any one year.
The Society reserves the right to refuse access to its archive collections or individual items within them.
Photographic and image work
This work is carried out for the Society by the Picture Library of the Natural History Museum. Enquiries regarding images not found in their catalogue should be addressed to the Archivist here. A selection of Fellows' photographs can be viewed elsewhere on the site (see 'From the Archives' at the bottom of this page.)
Publication and Reproduction
Express permission to publish or reproduce any material, graphic or textual, originating from the Society's archives must always be sought. Provision of photocopies is limited.
Digitisation
Some collections, particularly the Murchison correspondence and journals, are only available on CD, for conservation and security reasons.
Finding -aids, online and off
The principal lists and indexes are still manual, although their digitisation is an ongoing project. A partial list of correspondents and authors (including those in the Murchison papers) is searchable online via the A2A Project. ).
The following historical reference information is accessible on this site:
Acquisitions
The Society welcomes offers of material relevant to the history of the Society or its Fellows, although very limited storage space unfortunately makes it impossible to accept everything offered. The Archivist will be happy to advise on possible alternative places of deposit for items/collections which the Society is unable to take.
From the Archive
A sample of Fellows' portrait photographs - available here soon.