Instruments and relics: The history and use of the Royal Society's object collections c. 1850-1950

Despite the age and prestige of the Royal Society of London, the history of its collections of scientific instruments and apparatus has largely been one of accidental accumulation and neglect. This article tracks their movements and the processes by which objects came to be recognised as possessing value beyond reuse or sale. From at least mid-century, the few surviving objects with links to the Society’s early history and its most illustrious Fellows came to be termed ‘relics’, were treated with suitable reverence, put on display and made part of the Society’s public self-presentation. If the more quotidian objects survived into the later 19th century, when their potential as objects for collection, research, display, reproduction and loan began to be appreciated, they are likely to have survived to the present day

Framing the transit: expeditionary culture and identities in Lieutenant E.J.W. Noble’s caricatures of the 1874 transit of Venus expedition to Honolulu

Making use of a source previously unknown to historians, this article sheds new light on the British expedition to the Sandwich Islands to observe the 1874 transit of Venus. This source, a series of caricature drawings that follow the expedition from departure to return, gives insight into expeditionary culture and the experience of a previously unremarked member of this astronomical expedition, Evelyn J.W. Noble, a career officer of the Royal Marine Artillery. They also reveal overlapping military, scientific and masculine identities, developed in dialogue with, and often deliberately subverting, more public accounts. The article explores this unique source as a product of naval, imperial and expeditionary cultures; as a contribution to the wide textual and visual culture that surrounded the transit expeditions; and as a series of drawings that united the expedition members through the use of humour and irony, by differentiating the group from others they encountered, and by reflecting or rejecting ideas about the nature of scientific work and personae. The artist represented himself not as a serving officer but as part of a (mostly) united group, dedicated to but humorously self-deprecating about their contribution to the scientific effor

Challenging Tropes: Genius, Heroic Invention, and the Longitude Problem in the Museum

This essay explores how concerns relevant to academic historians of science do and do not translate to the museum setting. It takes as a case study a 2014 exhibition on the story of longitude, with which the author was involved. This theme presented opportunities and challenges for sharing nuanced accounts of science, technology, and innovation. Audience expectation, available objects, the requirements of display, and economic constraints were all factors that could impede effective communication of the preferred version of the story, developed in part through an associated research project. Careful choices regarding objects and design, together with the use of theatrical and multimedia spaces and digital displays, helped to shift visitor interest from the well-known version of the story and toward a longer and more peopled account. However, the persistence of heroic and genius narratives meant that this could not always be achieved and that effective engagement must include direct conversation

'Greenwich near London': The Royal Observatory and its London networks in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

Built in Greenwich in 1675–1676, the Royal Observatory was situated outside the capital but was deeply enmeshed within its knowledge networks and communities of practice. Scholars have tended to focus on the links cultivated by the Astronomers Royal within scholarly communities in England and Europe but the observatory was also deeply reliant on and engaged with London's institutions and practical mathematical community. It was a royal foundation, situated within one government board, taking a leading role on another, and overseen by Visitors selected by the Royal Society of London. These links helped develop institutional continuity, while instrument-makers, assistants and other collaborators, who were often active in the city as mathematical authors and teachers, formed an extended community with interest in the observatory's continued existence. After outlining the often highly contingent institutional and personal connections that shaped and supported the observatory, this article considers the role of two early assistants, James Hodgson and Thomas Weston. By championing John Flamsteed's legacy and sharing observatory knowledge and practice beyond its walls, they ensured awareness of and potential users for its outputs. They and their successors helped to develop a particular, and ultimately influential, approach to astronomical and mathematical practice and teaching

"In the Society’s Strong Box": A Visual and Material History of the Royal Society’s Copley Medal, c.1736-1760

It has become a commonplace that exceptional achievement, including within science, should be rewarded with prizes and that these will often take the form of a medal. The ubiquity of such awards today means that the circumstances behind their arrival tend to be overlooked, but they were novelties when first suggested at the Royal Society in the 1730s. This article traces the creation of the Copley Medal and explores the meaning of medals to the recipients, the Society and the proposer of the scheme, Martin Folkes. Paying attention to the medal’s iconography and material nature can shed light on how experimental philosophy and the role of the Royal Society were conceived by key Fellows, demonstrating their links to antiquarianism and Freemasonry. Rather than arriving as a fully formed reward system, the medal concept required investment of time, money, thought and skill, and the development of ritual, meaning and value

Landscape change and the sustainable development strategy of different types of ethnic villages driven by the grain for Green Program

The Grain for Green Program (GGP) is an important ecological project in China that was implemented to tackle serious soil erosion and forest loss for sustainable development. Investigating landscape change is an efficient way to monitor and assess the implementation of GGP. In this paper, 180 ethnic villages, including 36 Miao and Dong (MD) villages with combined populations of Miao people and Dong people, 65 Dong villages, and 79 Miao villages in Qiandongnan Prefecture were selected to investigate the influence of GGP on ethnic villages by evaluating the landscape changes before and after the implementation of the GGP within 1-km and 2-km distance buffers around ethnic villages. The results show that the GGP has more significant positive impacts on reforestation around Miao villages than Dong villages and MD villages because Miao villages are mostly located in higher and steeper areas, which are the focus of the GGP. Based on the analysis, a continuation of the GGP in Qiandongnan Prefecture is recommended, as it can incentivize the recovery of forest cover in steeper slopes. More attention should now be paid to the Dong villages and MD villages, which were not previously a focus of the GGP