Following letters in the newspapers criticising Leeds for a shameful lack of culture, a public meeting, chaired by eminent Leeds surgeon William Hey, resolved to form a new society to discuss ‘all the Branches of Natural Knowledge and Literature.’ Leeds residents holding a range of religious, economic and political opinions were to be encouraged to address practical and intellectual topics without being confrontational.
Many of the more educated and forward-thinking Leeds residents subscribed – merchants, industrialists, bankers, doctors, religious leaders, artists. Eighty members bought £100 shares to provide a building for the Society’s activities. That’s around £11,000 each at 2020 values.
Did you know? When the Society was founded in the early 19th century, ‘natural philosophy’ was the term used for reasoning and explanations about nature – what we now call ‘science’.
The Society’s ‘Philosophical Hall’, designed by London-trained architect Robert Chantrell, was opened in 1821. The Secretary, Dr Charles Turner Thackrah, gave the opening address, and other distinguished speakers came to lecture here.
Among the first were:
William Smith – maker of the first geological map of Britain
Charles Waterton – naturalist, explorer, and pioneering conservationist
John Dalton FRS from Manchester – chemist, physicist, proposer of atomic theory, carried out the first research on colour blindness
The Society’s Proceedings were printed and widely circulated. Philosophical Hall, with its lecture hall, museum, library and laboratory, was one of the first such buildings in Britain.
Among many early gifts and purchases for the Society’s museum were two rare Egyptian mummies. A specially invited group of members witnessed the opening of the finest case. The mummy was carefully unwrapped and the body and its wrappings scientifically analysed. All the details were recorded and published, with an interpretation of the hieroglyphs. This was exemplary research work for its time, showing the Society leading the field in this new branch of study.
Space for the museum had to be expanded as donations flooded in from members’ travels and collections: in geology, mineralogy, ancient history, distant cultures. The first professional curator, Henry Denny (1803-1871), was particularly active in natural history, buying exotic animal bodies from menageries, collecting native species, and begging rare specimens from explorers like Charles Darwin and David Livingstone. Over the 45 years that Denny held his post, the Leeds institution became recognised as the leading provincial museum of its day.
All the early members of the Society were men, but women were not formally excluded and in 1842 a change in the rules referred to ‘ladies or gentlemen’ in the new category of annual subscribers. Women began to appear on the membership lists, one of the first being Ellen Heaton, collector of art, sister of Dr John Deakin Heaton (a leading physician and a President of the Society 1868-1872).
It wasn’t until the 1990s that a woman was elected as President of the Society. Jean Mortimer, a historian, was in the role 1993-95.
The Society held its first evening ‘conversazione’ this year. It became a popular annual event for what the press called ‘the fashionable élite’. The museum was opened up and illuminated, and members had an opportunity to dress up, bring their families, enjoy music and refreshments, watch scientific demonstrations, and share interesting items from their personal collections – a kind of Victorian ‘show and tell’.
Did you know? Each year the Society participates in the Be Curious Festival at the University of Leeds – aimed at families with young children. We showcase the breadth of our interests across the sciences and arts.
Bones found at in brick field in Armley were collected by curator Henry Denny, examined, and identified as the bones of the Great Northern Hippopotamus from pre-historic times. Elephant and cattle bones were also found. Modern research has confirmed his identification and dated them to 124,000 years ago.
The bones went into the museum collection, attracting crowds of visitors intrigued by the local find of such ancient remains.
Admission to the museum, previously only through a member, was opened to the public at a charge of one penny, attracting over 8,000 visitors this year.
Free lectures on science for young people were offered in the Christmas vacation and became a long-running popular annual feature.
Union with the Leeds Library was discussed and a plan drawn up, but never implemented. However members helped to establish several other learned societies, such as the Astronomical Society.
Did you know? Before British currency went decimal (1971), there were 240 pennies in a pound.
100 years before the change occurred, the Society hosted a lecture on the possibility of decimal coinage.
The 1821 Philosophical Hall had become too small for the Society’s expanding museum and other activities, so it was decided to invest in rebuilding. The work by architects Dobson and Chorley (whose offices were nearby in Park Row) doubled the hall’s size and added a new lecture hall, zoology gallery, library and kitchens. The frontages were remodelled in fashionable Italianate style, with a new colonnaded porch in Park Row which became a distinctive landmark. Lectures and an impressive art exhibition open to the public marked the opening.
The Yorkshire College of Science, origin of the University of Leeds, was founded this year, a project which many members of the Society had supported. The bonds between the Society and the University carried on: many lecturers and professors have been members of the Phil & Lit over the years and have contributed lectures – all open to the public.
Did you know? When the Yorkshire College of Science opened in 1874, there were just 3 professors and 24 students.
2020 figures: 39,000 students (including part-time) and over 9,000 staff.
Every year the Society attracted to Leeds a range of eminent speakers across science and the arts. In 1883 members heard lectures from four visiting Fellows of the Royal Society on subjects ranging across botany, astronomy, marine biology and zoology. There were speakers on education, poetry, art and history. Artist and social reformer William Morris spoke on Art and Labour.
Some other famous names from the lecture lists of the 19th century:
This is an excerpt from a guide book published in 1891. The Philosophical Hall, Park Row, was very much in the heart of the town.
Did you know? There is a Leeds Civic Trust blue plaque on the HSBC Bank in Park Row where the Society had its premises from 1821 until the 1960s. We passed our collection to Leeds City Council in 1921.
Physicist William Henry Bragg, Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University, was a member of the Society and this year gave a landmark lecture on ‘Radioactivity, the new Science’. He went on to win the Nobel prize in 1915 for his ground-breaking work in Leeds, carried out with his son Lawrence.
Did you know? Broadcaster and author Lord Melvyn Bragg, who served as University of Leeds Chancellor 1999-2017, is related to the physicists who won the Nobel Prize.
Several officers and members of the Society served in the army, including its long-term Secretary, Edwin Kitson-Clark. Members at home organised special lectures, receptions and teas for the many wounded soldiers in hospitals here. The basement of Philosophical Hall was given over to volunteers knitting garments and providing supplies for the West Yorkshire Regiment.
After long negotiations with the University and the City Council, the Society transferred Philosophical Hall and the entire museum collection to the Council, on terms which gave the Society a strong role in the museum’s governance and provided financial support for the Society for the next 25 years. The Society became a charitable limited company, dedicated to the advancement of science, literature and art in Leeds.
A history of the Society’s first 100 years was compiled by Edwin Kitson Clark (published 1924).
Did you know? Broadcaster and author Lord Melvyn Bragg, who served as University of Leeds Chancellor 1999-2017, is related to the physicists who won the Nobel Prize.
Over more than a century the Society had collected a library of around 4,500 books, mainly on scientific subjects, some rare. When the Brotherton Library was opened in 1936, vastly increasing the University Library’s capacity, the Society donated its collection to be housed there. Today the Society’s archives are also held at the University in the Special Collections, where they were re-ordered and catalogued in 2017.
Philosophical Hall was still used as the City Museum and for lectures, as an earlier Council plan to build a brand new museum had collapsed. In 1941 the building was bombed in an air raid, and severely damaged. It was patched up with a concrete façade, and popular lunchtime lectures and concerts for workers and servicemen were held there throughout WW2. In 1965/66 the museum was finally moved and the Hall was demolished. A Blue Plaque marks the spot on the bank which replaced it (HSBC).
In this year the agreement entered into in 1921 with the City Council ended and the Society had to review its future. There was thought to be a continuing demand for lectures and activities across the sciences and the arts. It was also considered worthwhile to continue publishing the Society’s Proceedings, which had been produced since its foundation, and also to bring out publications with wider appeal. The Society continues to consider how its role can adapt to make it as relevant as possible to today while drawing on its deep heritage.
In this period the Society focused on its publications, with one stream covering scientific matters and the other literary, each with its own editor. In the days before the rise of specialist journals, many of these papers were considered valuable first-line reference works – and some articles still feature as classic landmark works, notably a number of publications by E. C. Stoner, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Leeds.
From the 1980s, the Society took on a more prominent role in the city. It advertised its grants more widely and put extra effort into its programme of public lectures, outings and dinners. It also played an important part when the British Association for the Advancement of Science met in Leeds in 1997.
In 1997 the 1921 constitution was revised and updated.
Did you know? The Society has always featured and supported arts as well as sciences. Since the early 21st century, the majority of its grants have been awarded for cultural projects in performing arts – theatre and a wide range of musical performances.
From 1969 the museum was housed in the Central Library building, where space was very limited. Alongside three other local societies, the Society played a major role in preparing a successful bid for a National Lottery grant for a new museum in Millennium Square – and subsequently in discussions of plans for the displays. The new City Museum opened in 2008.
Did you know? The current museum is in a building designed for education in the 1860s: The Mechanics’ Institute. The Society published an award-winning book on the architect, Cuthbert Brodrick, who also designed Leeds Town Hall and the Corn Exchange.
New initiatives have included a popular annual Science Fair, involving local scientific and conservation societies.
Publications include:
The Society has also sponsored activities to celebrate the work of W H Bragg and the artist John Atkinson Grimshaw.
Did you know? The Society has always featured and supported arts as well as sciences. Since the early 21st century, the majority of its grants have been awarded for cultural projects in performing arts – theatre and a wide range of musical performances.
Events were held to celebrate the Society’s long and continuing role in the cultural life of the city.
The Society held its first online lectures during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the annual Priestley lecture – the story of Edward Jenner and the smallpox vaccine, given by Gareth Williams. The book can be ordered here.
Many ideas are being developed to reach a wider audience – within and beyond Leeds.
Did you know? If you have an appetite for knowledge and ideas you can attend our public events. You can join the Society and also perhaps help to shape its agenda and activities in its third century. You’d be very welcome.
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