scholarly journals Instruments and relics

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 469-485
Author(s):  
Rebekah Higgitt
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Early History ◽  
Scientific Instruments ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Royal Society Of London

Abstract 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 recognized as possessing value beyond reuse or sale. From at least the mid-nineteenth 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 1800s, 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.

Robert FitzRoy and the Early History of the Meteorological Office

1986 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Burton
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
Early History ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Scientific Institution ◽  
Scientific Establishment ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

Historians of science have shown little interest in meteorology and, in Britain at least, have almost totally ignored the development of meteorological institutions. The Meteorological Office itself has found some mention at times such as its supposed centenary in 1955, but even then the interest has come mainly from meteorologists writing for the delectation of their fellows. This neglect is surprising because the story of the Office contains much to reward the historian. Its very formation as a governmental scientific institution in 1854 supports arguments against the popular concept of mid-nineteenth century Britain as a cauldron of unbridledlaissez-faire; the role it adopted in developing practical usages for science brought it into conflict with members of the academic scientific establishment; its later transition from an inaugural period as a department of the Board of Trade to a second phase under the control of a committee appointed by the Royal Society, with consequent changes in the methods of financing and administration, gives useful insights into the contemporary attitudes of government officials towards public expenditure on science; and its first head, Robert FitzRoy, was himself a man of such remarkable interest and complexity as to render the subject worthy of investigation on that count alone.

scholarly journals Johann Michael von Hermann (1793–1855): A predecessor of Max Schweidler?

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 239-270
Author(s):  
Susanne Wagini ◽  
Katrin Holzherr
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Early History ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Conservation History ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Close Study ◽  
Fresh Perspective ◽  
History Of ◽  
Paper Conservation

Abstract The restorer Johann Michael von Hermann (1793–1855), famous in the early nineteenth century, has long fallen into oblivion. A recent discovery of his work associated with old master prints at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München has allowed a close study of his methods and skills as well as those of his pupil Ludwig Albert von Montmorillon (1794–1854), providing a fresh perspective on the early history of paper conservation. Von Hermann’s method of facsimile inserts was praised by his contemporaries, before Max Schweidler (1885–1953) described these methods in 1938. The present article provides biographical notes on both nineteenth century restorers, gives examples of prints treated by them and adds a chapter of conservation history crediting them with a place in the history of the discipline. In summary, this offers a surprising insight on how works of art used to be almost untraceably restored by this team of Munich-based restorers more than 150 years before Schweidler.

A (Very Selective) Early History of Ballet in America

Ballet Class ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 3-24
Author(s):  
Melissa R. Klapper
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Young People ◽  
World War I ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early History ◽  
World War ◽  
Ballet Dancers ◽  
Metropolitan Opera ◽  
History Of

Ballet developed slowly in the United States and depended on European dancers and teachers at first, but by mid-nineteenth century a few American-trained ballet dancers were beginning to make their mark. The opening of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School in 1909 and the tours of Anna Pavlova contributed greatly to popularizing ballet and inspiring young people to begin taking ballet class before World War I. Expansion continued from the 1920s through the 1940s with the founding of the School of American Ballet and the performances of the various Ballet Russe companies in every corner of the country. The Littlefield sisters and Christensen brothers helped make ballet American by establishing important homegrown ballet companies with primarily American dancers. The regional ballet movement fostered further growth. All these developments in professional ballet encouraged ever-increasing numbers of Americans not only to enjoy performances but also to take ballet class themselves.

The birth and early days of the Philosophical Transactions

1965 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-27 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Early History ◽  
Scientific Society ◽  
Hundredth Anniversary ◽  
Corporate Body ◽  
Scientific Periodical ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come ◽  
Accademia Del Cimento

The Royal Society was not the first scientific society, or organized academy for the promotion of science, to be founded, since it was preceded by the original Accademia del Cimento, which took its rise in 1657, but lived only ten years. The Royal Society is, then, the oldest corporate body of its kind to have enjoyed continuous existence until today. In a like way the Philosophical Transactions was not the earliest scientific periodical to come forth, since the first number of the Journal des Sçavans appeared, on 5 January 1665, two months before the first number of the Transactions . The Journal , however, while much concerned with scientific matters, including scientific books, dealt with the world of learning in general, including literary, legal and theological matters. Its pronouncements often led to stormy controversy, it had a troubled history and finally ceased to appear in 1790. The Transactions , except for a short break when it was replaced by Hooke’s Philosophical Collections , and for an interruption of three years that followed the landing of William of Orange and the flight of James II, has been published continuously from the issue of the first number dated 6 March 1664/5, the present year thus being the three hundredth anniversary of its beginning. Conspicuously connected with the first appearance of the Philosophical Transactions was Henry Oldenburg, a character very much to the fore in the early history of the Society.

The Origin, Formation and Early History of the Chikunda of South Central Africa

1972 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen Isaacman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Linguistic ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Military History ◽  
Early History ◽  
South Central ◽  
History Of

Although historians have examined the process of pre-colonial political integration, little attention has been paid to the complementary patterns of ethnic and cultural assimilation. The Chikunda, who were initially slaves on the Zambezi prazos, provide an excellent example of this phenomenon. Over the course of several generations, captives from more than twenty ethnic groups submerged their historical, linguistic, and cultural differences to develop a new set of institutions and a common identity. The decline of the prazo system during the first half of the nineteenth century generated large scale migrations of Chikunda outside of the lower Zambezi valley. They settled in Zumbo, the Luangwa valley and scattered regions of Malawi where they played an important role in the nineteenth-century political and military history of south central Africa.

scholarly journals Savings banks as an institutional import: the case of nineteenth-century Ireland

2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
CORMAC Ó GRÁDA
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Aggregate Data ◽  
Early History ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Savings Banks ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Savings Bank ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Performance

The article examines the early history of provident institutions or trustee savings banks in Ireland. Combining aggregate data and an archive-based study of one savings bank, it describes the growth and performance of this ‘institutional import’. By and large, Irish savings banks catered for the lower-middle and middle classes, not the poor as intended by the founders of the movement. The article also explains how the collapse of three savings banks in 1848 dealt savings banks in Ireland as a whole a blow from which they never really recovered.

Buildings on the Fringes of Society – 19th Century Protestant Asylums for ‘Idiots’ as Places of Hyper-Inclusion

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 350-368
Author(s):  
Ramona Jelinek-Menke
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Early History ◽  
The Social ◽  
Analytical Perspective ◽  
History Of ◽  
Welfare Institution

This article analyses one Christian welfare institution and discusses the effects of its spatial location on the social position of its clients. By examining the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, it focuses on the early history of the Asylum of Alsterdorf for imbecile and feeble-minded children (Asyl für schwach- und blödsinnige Kinder zu Alsterdorf) in nineteenth-century Hamburg. The analytical perspective follows the concept of inclusion–exclusion as presented in Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. It is argued here that a religious welfare institution may enclose its clients in a hyper-inclusive system for theological reasons and that, consequently, institutions of this kind contribute to the social exclusion of their clients.

An index of proper names in Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society (London, 1756-1757)

1974 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-329 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Early History ◽  
British Isles ◽  
History Of

Almost any position in academe has odd moments the sum of which can furnish a genuine contribution if they are productively used. My assistant Mrs Gail Ewald Scala used hers for a year to compile this index which had been suggested by Professor Howard B. Adelmann. It is our hope that it will prove of real assistance to scholars investigating the early history of the Royal Society, the activities of its members, and its and their relations with learned men both within and beyond the British Isles.

The Early History of the Sultanate of Angoche

1972 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. D. Newitt
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Early History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Set Up

The sultanate of Angoche on the Moçambique coast was founded probably towards the end of the fifteenth century by refugees from Kilwa. It became a base for Muslim traders who wanted to use the Zambezi route to the central African trading fairs and it enabled them to by-pass the Portuguese trade monopoly at Sofala. The Portuguese were not able to check this trade until they themselves set up bases on the Zambezi in the 1530s and 1540s, and from that time the sultanate began to decline. Internal dissensions among the ruling families led to the Portuguese obtaining control of the sultanate in the late sixteenth century, but this control was abandoned in the following century when the trade of the Angoche coast dwindled to insignificance. During the eighteenth century movements among the Macua peoples of the mainland and the development of the slave trade in the Indian Ocean laid the foundations for the revival of the sultanate in the nineteenth century.

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