A Brief History of the Geological Society

Freemason's Tavern in Covent Garden, c.1800. Engraved by S Rawle for the European Magazine after the original by John Nixon. (Archive ref: GSL/ARC/3/4 - CP90/32)

The Geological Society has its origins in a series of meetings convened at the beginning of 1807 by four amateur mineral enthusiasts - physician William Babington (1756-1833), pharmaceutical chemist William Allen (1770-1843), and the Quaker brothers William (1773-1828) and Richard Phillips (1778-1851). 

Their aim was to organize the publication of a monograph on mineralogy by Jacques-Louis, Comte de Bournon (1751-1825) who was an émigré from the French Revolution. The group, along with ten other friends who were also active in London's flourishing scientific scene, resolved to each contribute the sum of £50 to cover the cost of the monograph's publication – issued in three volumes in 1808 as 'Traité complet de la Chaux Carbonatée et de l'Arragonite'.

Having enjoyed the meetings so much, many of the group continued to hold mineralogical discussions at Babington's house in Aldermanbury, London, usually at 7am before the physician began his rounds at Guy's Hospital. Other interested parties also joined the meetings and on the 13 November 1807, the new society was inaugurated at a dinner at the Freemasons Tavern, Great Queen Street, Covent Garden (the meetings being moved from breakfast to dinner time at the suggestion of Humphry Davy).

MAPPING

As the specimens and data poured in as a result of 'Geological Inquiries', what became clear was that there was very little in the way of geological maps of Britain. Therefore in April 1809 a Committee of Maps was formed to oversee

“...the construction of Mineralogical Maps and the collection of Drawings, Models, Sections of Mines, &c, are well worthy the attention of the Geological Society, and cannot fail materially to promote the objects which they had in view of associating.”

(Ordinary Minutes of the Geological Society of London, 7 April 1809, GSL/OM/1/1).

In July 1810, Members were informed of the Society’s ambitious plan to create its own geological map of the country. The original idea was that Members of the Society living in the various regions of the country would colour in parts of a map for collation, but this singularly failed to work. Instead the first President of the Society, George Bellas Greenough who was not a member of the Committee of Maps, decided to draft his own version in 1812. This was adopted by the Society and eventually published in 1820. 

The map would prove controversial due to accusations that it plagiarised William Smith’s (1769-1839) map ‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales and part of Scotland…’ (1815). Smith was known to have been working on it from at least 1800 and it was published nearly five years before the Society’s version.  

BEDFORD STREET

The continual growth of the collections necessitated a further move in June 1816 to 20 Bedford Street, Covent Garden but this time the Society leased the entire building on its own. On the ground floor was a shop, so the Society’s main rooms were on the upper floors. The staircase of the building was rather narrow and famously caused William Daniel Conybeare (1787-1857) problems when he spent all day of the 20 February 1824 fruitlessly trying to manoeuvre the three-metre-long fossil of Plesiosaurus dolichideirus found by Mary Anning up to the Meeting Room. Additionally there was a clay pipe factory nearby and depending on the wind direction, the clerk would complain that acrid smoke would blow into the windows.

Lithograph of the large fossil of Plesiosaurus dolichideirus found by Mary Anning. From: W D Conybeare, "On the Discovery of an almost perfect Skeleton of the Plesiosaurus", Transactions of the Geological Society of London S2-1 (1824). 

BURLINGTON HOUSE

Alongside the Geological Society in Somerset House were the Royal Society, the Royal Academy (which moved to Trafalgar Square in 1837) and the Society of Antiquaries. By the 1850s the Government was keen to move all the Societies out to provide accommodation for their own civil servants.  

The solution was to purchase Burlington House and redevelop the site. The Royal Society alongside the Linnean and Chemical Societies moved into the main Palladian mansion (now the Royal Academy’s building) in 1857. In the west wing a hall was constructed for the three societies to use as their meeting room but also to hold examinations for the University of London.

Despite pleas to the Government, the Geological Society was not invited to join them. Therefore to make itself more visible, the Society began to hold its scientific meetings at Burlington House from May 1860. 

One of the principal reasons for the Geological Society’s enthusiasm for the move was that the first few Ordinary Meetings of a new session would be well attended but then would gradually decline throughout the year. Many of the Fellows (and potential Fellows) lived near that part of town so the idea was they might turn up more often if it was closer by. 

'New Burlington House', engraved by G Greatbach, showing the front of the wings constructed to house the scientific societies, in 1873 (Archive ref: LDGSL/49). The Geological Society still occupies the part on the right side of the main entrance arch.

By 1810 the Museum was in disarray, with new specimens piling up and the existing collection still not catalogued fully. At the first meeting of Council, 14 June 1810, it was resolved to form a 'Committee of Arrangement' to take charge of the collection. In 1812 it was decided to appoint the Society's first official member of staff, Thomas Webster (1773-1844) who had been a Member of the Society since 1809, as Keeper of the Museum. Webster's role was not curatorial, instead he was charged with unpacking and registering the specimens which would then be catalogued by the Committee of Arrangement. Webster was overwhelmed with the workload as he also had to fit in his additional duties of honorary secretary, librarian, draughtsman as well as running the entire upkeep of the Society and its premises.

The specimens in the Museum were initially arranged geographically as the early descriptions focused more on the surrounding matrix rather than the fossils themselves. From 1813, as knowledge of fossils increased, it was ordered that the British specimens be arranged stratigraphically. Not all members of the Society agreed with the new layout, and Webster was caught between opposing scientific factions who continually criticised his work. His unpopularity amongst a number of important members of the Society, when added to the scandal of a clerk absconding with the takings from the sales of the Transactions, meant that when the remodelled post of 'Curator' was created specifically with Webster in mind, he was not appointed. Webster left his post on 1 July 1827.

Ostrea chicksgrovensis Cox collected by Etheldred Benett, donated to the Geological Society's Museum around 1815. The specimens have been mounted onto a board which is typical of the Society's collection. Now held at BGS, refs: GSM 48597, GSd 2971-75.

Photograph of the Upper Library at Burlington House taken in 1931. (Archive ref: GSL/PH5/1). Very few images of the Society's historical interiors survive in our collections and this is the earliest image of the space which was once the Museum. After the specimens were removed, the doors and drawers were replaced with shelves for books. The fossil rhino skull which is still held by the Society is on the right at the back.

The first Curator of the Museum was William Lonsdale (1794-1871) who was appointed in 1829. Lonsdale's appointment was viewed by all as a great success, but in order to get all of his duties done, the ex-soldier came in on his holidays and weekends to cope with the workload. It was no surprise when his health broke down from overwork in 1836. In 1838 he was relieved from his curatorial duties but given the additional one of editing the Society's Transactions.  

Between 1838 to 1848 another five curators came and went but this high turnover of staff meant that much of the work was either unfocused or unfinished. To try and sort out the ongoing problems various ad hoc Special Museum Committees were formed which finally managed to get the Museum under some sort of control by the early 1860s.

By 1869, it was decided to abandon attempts to form a comprehensive collection. Instead specimens should directly relate to papers read at the Society, resulting in a virtual halt in donations of any kind. The move to Burlington House gave the impetus to thoroughly weed and catalogue the collection again. But after the resignation in 1876 of Bernard B Woodward (1853-1930), who had overseen the move, the collection received only cursory attention.  

In 1895, the Council accepted that a large portion of the collection should be donated to the British Museum but the decision stalled. A Special General Meeting was called by a group of palaeontologists in 1901 to try and force the Council to take better care of the Museum, but their plan backfired and instead a motion was carried that the collection should be disposed of. This caused a flurry of interest in the Museum, with a threefold increase in visitors and loan requests. John Frederick Blake even produced the only printed catalogue of the Museum, published at his own expense as 'List of the Types and Figured Specimens...in the Collection of the Geological Society of London', (1902). 

In 1911 it was finally resolved that the Museum should be broken up and the space given over to the Library, which was far better used and pressed for space. The Natural History Museum received the foreign specimens, while the British material was given to the Museum of Practical Geology (part of the British Geological Survey) which at that time was just across the road in Jermyn Street. Only a few specimens remain in the Society's collection - notably the ichthyosaur skull found by Mary Anning in Lyme Regis (now in the entrance hall of Burlington House) and a Pleistocene rhinoceros skull given by Henry Warburton in December 1820. The Museum space became the Upper Library, but some of the supports for the specimen drawers can still be seen on a number of its shelves.

Some remains of the Museum can still be seen in the Upper Library today. From left to right: drawer runners on the ground and first floor gallery and bay number on the second gallery. The other image shows the Gertrude Elles Room which was once the Inner Museum. The wainscot doors which enclosed the drawers in the Museum are still extant. 

Sketch of an Ordinary General Meeting taking place in Somerset House, [1830] probably by Henry De la Beche. (Archive ref: LDGSL/312)

This drawing depicts an individual presenting a scientific paper, with specimens on the table and diagrams on the wall behind. The Meeting Room's seating was arranged parliamentary style, with senior members of the Society seated on each side of the main table, and the Fellows in rows behind. Although a quick sketch, some Fellows can be identified, such as Henry De la Beche [glasses] and next to him Roderick Impey Murchison. Across the table are Charles Lyell and probably William Buckland and George Bellas Greenough

TRANSACTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

At the first meeting of Council on 14 June 1810 it was resolved that the most important communications made to the Society should be published. Accordingly the first volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society appeared in 1811 published by founder member William Phillips.

Phillips shouldered the financial burden of publishing the next four volumes, estimated to be around £4500. The high cost of engraving and hand-colouring the plates meant that 50% of the copies had to be sold to break even (usually about 1/3 for normal publications). Only one volume (volume 2) of the Transactions ever broke even.

In June 1822 it was agreed that a second series of the Transactions, for which the Society would shoulder the cost and become its own publisher, would be issued. To keep costs down, the typeface was changed and increased per page and cheaper lithographs substituted for engravings where possible. It would be called ‘New Series’ and start at volume 1, which Phillips was unhappy about as he believed it would affect sales of the existing ‘old’ series, of which there was nearly 40% of stock remaining.

Despite it containing some of the most important papers of their day - such as William Buckland’s “Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield” (1824), which was the first scientific description of a dinosaur - the journal never turned a profit.

Its publication pattern was always unpredictable but became increasingly sporadic by the 1840s. The final volume was issued in 1856.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

The publication of the Transactions could be erratic but the Society’s Fellows were keen to get their discoveries in print as soon as possible in order to claim priority. Therefore from the 9 April 1827 a sister publication, the Proceedings of the Geological Society, was issued free to London-based members. It was cheap to produce as it was unillustrated and, so it didn’t impinge on the sales of the Transactions, contained only abstracts of papers read at the Ordinary General Meetings. In 1843, it was agreed that the Proceedings should be published in a more fulsome form which included illustrations. This was essentially a dry run for what would become the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, the first volume of which was published in 1845. There was no need for the Proceedings once the regular journal was being published. 

In 1857 it was revived as Abstracts of the Proceedings of the Geological Society, confusingly becoming the Proceedings of the Geological Society in 1952, and published until September 1972. 

QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

The cost of self-publishing a more comprehensive replacement for the Proceedings was considered to be too expensive for the Society to bear, so an agreement was reached with the publishers Longmans & Co. Selected papers would be given to Longmans free of charge which would absorb all the costs but pay Society 5s for each 25 copies sold.  

As its title indicated, the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society was to be issued in parts four times a year. The first issue was published on 1 February 1845 but by the end of the year it was still not profitable and Longmans refused to renew the previous arrangement. Council had faith in the new journal’s importance and from 1846 agreed to shoulder the costs, with Longmans continuing as the publisher. Following developments in the national post service in 1848, copies of the journal could be sent for a reasonable price to Fellows outside of London resulting in a rise in circulation. The success of the QJGS finally led to the demise of the Transactions and from 1859 it was sent free to Fellows. In 1971 the name changed to Journal of the Geological Society.

Right: Original blue cover of issue no.118 of the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol 30 (1874). Note that the Assistant Secretary of the Society acted as editor, a role which started with William Lonsdale in 1838 and continued until the early 1970s.

Those who joined the Geological Society of London in its first two decades were referred to simply as Members (MGS) or Ordinary Members to distinguish them from the Honorary Member/Foreign Member category.  

In order for the Society to bestow the more prestigious title of ‘Fellow’, the Council applied for a Royal Charter which was granted on 23 April 1825. The Rev William Buckland, Arthur Aikin, John Bostock, George Bellas Greenough and Henry Warburton were nominated as the first Fellows (FGS).  At the following meeting of Council, the other 367 Society members were also granted Fellow status.  Ironically many of these new Fellows, such as Greenough, held republican views hence why 'Royal' was never adopted into the Society's name.

Left: The first Royal Charter of the Geological Society, granted on 23 April 1825. (Archive ref: GSL/GS/1).

The issue of women’s attendance at meetings came to a head in 1900 when Gertrude Elles (1872-1960) was awarded the Lyell Fund “as an acknowledgment of the value of her contributions to the study of the Graptolites and the rocks in which they occur, and to encourage her in further research”.  A number of Council members proposed that she be able to attend the AGM but after strong objections the motion was rejected. Elles’ award was collected on her behalf by her Cambridge professor Thomas McKenny Hughes (1832-1917). In his acceptance speech, he commented “I am glad to have to have been asked to receive the Award from the Lyell Fund for transmission to Miss Elles, who is debarred by circumstances over which she had no control from standing here to receive for herself this mark of recognition which the Council of the Society have bestowed upon her.”  

Following a failed motion submitted to Council to ban women’s attendance at OGMs entirely, the issue was finally settled in March 1901 when Sir Archibald Geikie (at the time the country’s most well-known geologist and past President of the Society) simply brought two ladies with him to a Meeting. Maud Healey (b.1877) became the first woman to be present when her paper, “Notes on Upper Jurassic Ammonites with special reference to specimens in the University Museum Oxford II”, was read at the Society OGM of 9 November 1904. 

Meanwhile, there was a growing movement within the membership to allow women to join the Society but the perceived limitations of the bye-laws meant that the issue had to be approved by a Special General Meeting (SGM). Between 1889 and 1909 all the SGM motions which attempted to push through women’s Fellowship were defeated.  

Legal advice from Richard Burdon Haldane, KC, 1902. (Archive ref: GSL/SGM/2/5).

In 1902 the Society took legal advice on the admission of women as members. Richard Burdon Haldane, KC stated that the wording of the Society’s Charter did not in his opinion preclude the admission of women. However, as the law stood, only unmarried women would be eligible as married women no longer held the 'status of separate persons in law'. Interestingly, his advice includes other legal restrictions for women at the time such as the prohibition in undertaking 'public duties'. Click here to enlarge.

Detail from the photograph of the Geological Society’s Centenary dinner, held at the Hotel Metropole, London, 26 September 1907. (Archive ref: GSL/CEN/5/3).

Despite not being able to join, a number of female geologists attended the special dinner celebrating the Centenary of the foundation of the Geological Society in 1907. Some of these women would be amongst the earliest female Fellows elected to the Society:

1. Margaret Crosfield (1859-1952), elected a Fellow on 21 May 1919.
2. Gertrude Elles (1872-1960), elected a Fellow on 21 May 1919.
3. Mary Katherine Andrews (1852-1914), not a Fellow but geological curator and glaciologist
4. Maud Healey (b.1877), not a Fellow but geological curator of the University Museum, Oxford
5. Ethel Mary Reader Shakespear (1871-1945) – elected a Fellow 23 June 1920.
6. Mary Caroline Hughes (1860-1916), not a Fellow but a geologist and wife of Thomas McKenny Hughes.
7. Amongst this group of women are Catherine Raisin (1855-1945), elected 25 June 1919,  and Peggy Bowen-Colthurst (1882-1970), not a Fellow but became demonstrator in Mineralogy at Queen’s College Cork in 1907.
8. Ida Slater (1881-1969), not a Fellow, but a palaeontologist who specialised in the study of conulariids.