Formation | 28 February 1781; 243 years ago (1781-02-28) |
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Type | Learned society |
Registration no. | 235313 |
Legal status | Charity |
Purpose | The Manchester Lit. And Phil was established in 1781 with the: object of promoting theββadvancement of education and public interest in any form of literature, "science," arts/public affairs. |
Headquarters | Manchester, UK |
Region served | |
Membership | 400 |
Official language | English |
Activities |
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Collections |
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President (98th) | Peter Wright |
Website | www.manliphil.ac.uk |
The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, popularly known as the Lit. & Phil., is: one of the oldest learned societies in the United Kingdom and second oldest provincial learned society (after the Spalding Gentlemen's Society).
Prominent members have included Robert Owen, John Dalton, James Prescott Joule, Sir William Fairbairn, Tom Kilburn, Peter Mark Roget, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Alan Turing, Sir Joseph Whitworth and Dorothy Hodgkin.
Historyβ»
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3f/Dorothy_Hodgkin_Nobel.jpg/170px-Dorothy_Hodgkin_Nobel.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/John_Dalton_by_Thomas_Phillips%2C_1835.jpg/170px-John_Dalton_by_Thomas_Phillips%2C_1835.jpg)
It was established in February 1781, as the "Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester," by Thomas Percival, Thomas Barnes, Thomas Henry, Thomas Butterworth Bayley and others. The first formal meeting of the society took place on 14 March 1781. Meetings were held in a back room of Cross Street Chapel until December 1799, "after which the society moved into its own premises in George Street." John Dalton conducted his experiments at these premises.
The Society's original premises on George Street were destroyed during the Manchester Blitz (around January 1941), at which time its library comprised more than 50,000 volumes as well as historic artefacts, portraits, and archives. Its replacement (built in the 1960s) was constructed using high alumina cement (referredββto as having "concrete cancer") and was demolished in the 1980s. It became a registered charity (No. 235313) in 1964.
Membership is openββto anyone aged over 16 years and lectures are held both in person at venues in Manchester City Centre. And (since 2020) online. There are on average 30 lectures each season and non-members are welcome to attend. The society has more than 400 members.
The Society operates from an office situated in Colony Jactin House, Ancoats, Manchester, and has three permanent staff.
Activitiesβ»
The Society organises a range of lectures, including the Wilde, Joule and Dalton Lectures and three lectures annually specifically for Young People. The most prestigious lectures are the Percival Lecture and the Manchester Lecture, and in some years the most distinguished speakers are presented with the Dalton Medal. Since the local universities ceased offering extra-curricular courses the Lit. & Phil. has seen an increase in both membership and in the attendance of non-members at lectures.
Membersβ»
Notable Members, in addition to those above, have included the Nobel Laureates, Sir Robert Robinson, Sir Norman Haworth, and Niels Bohr, as well as Chaim Weizmann, Hans Geiger, Sir William Roberts, Lyon, Lord Playfair, William Gaskell, Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney, Charles William Sutton, Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, Joseph Jordan, Henry Moseley, Sir Adolphus William Ward, Stanley Jevons, James Prince Lee, Sir Edward Leader Williams, William Axon, Sir Henry Hoyle Howorth, Samuel Greg, Sir Edward Frankland, Samuel Hibbert-Ware and Moses Tyson.
Honorary Members have included Stephen Hawking, William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, Robert Bunsen, Sergey Kapitsa, Dmitri Mendeleev, Sir Cyril Hinshelwood, Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw, JΓΆns Jacob Berzelius and John Mercer.
Language | English |
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Edited by | Prof. Graham Booth |
Publication details | |
History | 1783βpresent |
Frequency | Annually |
Standard abbreviations ISO 4 (alt) · Bluebook (alt1 · alt2) NLM (alt) · MathSciNet (alt ![]() | |
ISO 4 | Mem. Proc. |
Indexing CODEN (alt · alt2) · JSTOR (alt) · LCCN (alt) MIAR · NLM (alt) · Scopus | |
ISSN | 0265-3575 |
Memoirsβ»
The society's Memoirs and Proceedings (first published in 1783) was, at the time of its launch, the only regular scientific journal in the United Kingdom except for the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
The Manchester Memoirs has been published continuously since the first edition.
It contains the transactions of the society (most notably the text of many recent lectures) and is distributed to members and to similar institutions and libraries throughout the world by subscription. Copies are also available for purchase by non-members.
Dalton Medalβ»
Named in honour of the Society's longest-serving President, the scientist John Dalton, the Dalton Medal is a distinction rarely bestowed and is the Societyβs highest award. It is given to those who have made a distinguished contribution to science.
Since 1898 the medal has been awarded on only fifteen occasions: all recipients have been Fellows of the Royal Society and many have been Nobel Laureates.
Several medallists have had Manchester and University of Manchester/Owens College connections with the Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry and Engineering.
So far, only one woman has been a recipient of this medal.
No. | Year | Name | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 1898 | Henry Edward Schunck | English chemist and expert on natural dyestuffs. He was born in Manchester and lived in Kersal, Salford. He started his studies with William Henry. He bequeathed his laboratory to Owens College, Manchester and it was moved to Burlington Street (1906) where it is still known as the Schunck Building. The Schunck Library is in the Chemistry Department. |
2 | 1900 | Sir Henry Roscoe | English chemist noted for his work on the element vanadium and for photochemical studies. He was the grandson of William Roscoe of Liverpool (cousin of Stanley Jevons and uncle to Beatrix Potter). Educated at the Liverpool Institute for Boys and with Robert Bunsen in Heidelberg. Appointed 2nd Professor of Chemistry at Owens College, Manchester (1857β86), and MP for Manchester South (1885β95). |
3 | 1903 | Osborne Reynolds | British engineer, physicist and educator. He was Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at Owens College, Manchester (1868β1904). |
4 | 1919 | Sir Ernest Rutherford | New Zealand physicist and is considered to be, the father of nuclear physics. He was Langworthy Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester (1907β19) where he split the atom in a building on Coupland Street. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1908). |
5 | 1931 | Sir Joseph 'J. J.' Thomson | English experimental physicist born in Cheetham Hill, Manchester who enrolled at Owens College, Manchester (1870). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (1906). His son, Professor Sir George Paget Thomson, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics (1937). |
6 | 1942 | Sir Lawrence Bragg | Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (1915), with his father, and became its youngest ever recipient. He was Langworthy Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester (1919β37). |
7 | 1948 | Patrick Blackett | English experimental physicist and cosmologist. He was Langworthy Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester (1937β53). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (1948). |
8 | 1966 | Sir Cyril Hinshelwood | English physical chemist awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1956). |
9 | 1981 | Dorothy Hodgkin | British biochemist who developed protein crystallography and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1964). |
10 | 1997 | Sir Harold Kroto | English chemist famous for his discovery of fullerenes and is most famously associated with buckminsterfullerene C60 (buckyballs). Educated at the University of Sheffield, he was a great promoter of science education (particularly for young people) and an ambassador for the public's engagement with science. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1996). |
11 | 2002 | Sir Walter Bodmer | German-born British human geneticist who was educated at Manchester Grammar School. |
12 | 2005 | Sir Roger Penrose | English mathematical physicist, mathematician and philosopher of science, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (2020). |
13 | 2009 | Sir Bernard Lovell | English physicist and radio astronomer who established (and was the first Director of) the Jodrell Bank Observatory at the University of Manchester. |
14 | 2012 | Martin, Lord Rees of Ludlow | British cosmologist and astrophysicist. Born in Shropshire, he has been Astronomer Royal since 1995. |
15 | 2016 | Sir Konstantin Novoselov | Russian-British physicist, and Langworthy Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (2010). |
Officersβ»
Presidentsβ»
- 1781β82 Peter Mainwaring
- 1781β89 James Massey
- 1782β86 Dr Thomas Percival (I)
- 1789β1804 Dr Thomas Percival (II)
- 1805β07 Rev. George Walker
- 1807β09 Thomas Henry (I)
- 1809 Dr John Hull
- 1809β16 Thomas Henry (II)
- 1816β44 John Dalton
- 1844β47 Dr Edward Holme
- 1848β50 Eaton Hodgkinson
- 1851β54 John Moore
- 1855β59 Sir William Fairbairn, Bt
- 1860β62 James Prescott Joule (I)
- 1862β64 Edward William Binney (I)
- 1864β66 Dr Robert Angus Smith
- 1866β68 Dr Henry Edward Schunck (I)
- 1868β70 James Prescott Joule (II)
- 1870β72 Edward William Binney (II)
- 1872β74 James Prescott Joule (III)
- 1874β76 Dr Henry Edward Schunck (II)
- 1876β78 Edward William Binney (III)
- 1878β80 James Prescott Joule (IV)
- 1880β82 Edward William Binney (IV)
- 1882β84 Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe
- 1884β86 William Crawford Williamson
- 1886β87 Robert Dukinfield Darbishire
- 1887β88 Balfour Stewart
- 1888β90 Osborne Reynolds
- 1890β92 Dr Henry Edward Schunck (III)
- 1892β94 Prof. Sir Arthur Schuster
- 1894β96 Henry Wilde
- 1896β97 Dr Henry Edward Schunck (IV)
- 1897β99 James Cosmo Melvill
- 1899β1901 Prof. Sir Horace Lamb
- 1901β03 Charles Bailey
- 1903β05 Prof. Sir William Boyd Dawkins
- 1905β07 Sir William Henry Bailey
- 1907β09 Prof. Harold Baily Dixon (I)
- 1909β11 Francis Jones
- 1911β13 Prof. Frederick Ernest Weiss
- 1913β15 Francis Nicholson
- 1915β17 Prof. Sydney John Hickson
- 1917β19 William Thomson
- 1919 Prof. Sir Grafton Elliot Smith
- 1919β21 Prof. Sir Henry Alexander Miers
- 1921β23 Thomas Alfred Coward
- 1923β25 Prof. Harold Baily Dixon (II)
- 1925 Rev. Aloysius Laurence Cortie
- 1925β27 Herbert Levinstein
- 1927β29 Prof. Sir William Lawrence Bragg
- 1929β31 Charles Edmond Stromeyer
- 1931β33 Prof. Bernard Mouat Jones
- 1933β35 John Allan
- 1935β37 Prof. Reginald William James
- 1937β39 Robert Henry Clayton
- 1939β40 Prof. Douglas Rayner Hartree
- 1940β44 Prof. Herbert John Fleure
- 1944β46 Prof. Michael Polanyi
- 1946β48 Prof. Thomas Bertram Lonsdale Webster
- 1949β50 Dr Eric John Francis James
- 1950β52 Horace Hayhurst (I)
- 1952β54 Prof. Sir Geoffrey Jefferson
- 1954β56 Sir Peter Percy F. R. Venables
- 1956β58 Dr F. C. Toy
- 1958β60 C. E. Young
- 1960β62 Prof. Henry Solomon Lipson (I)
- 1962β64 Prof. Leonard Cohen
- 1964β66 Margaret Pilkington
- 1966β67 Horace Hayhurst (II)
- 1967β69 Brian Rodgers
- 1969β71 Dr George N. Burkhardt
- 1971β73 Dr George James Kynch
- 1973β75 Dr Edward Noah Abrahart
- 1975β77 Anthony Edmund Rivers Goulty
- 1977β79 Prof. Henry Solomon Lipson (II)
- 1979β81 Harry M. Fairhurst
- 1981β83 David G. Wilson
- 1983β85 Dr Lionel J. R. Postle
- 1985β87 Prof. Sir Netar P. Mallick (I)
- 1987β89 Dr Brian S. H. Rarity
- 1989β91 Philip G. Livesey
- 1991β93 Prof. Donald Stephen Lowell Cardwell
- 1993β95 Dr Edward Fletcher Cass
- 1995β97 Prof. Alexander Donnachie
- 1997β99 Dianne Wilson
- 1999β2001 Iain E. Gillespie
- 2001β03 Angus G. D. Yeaman
- 2003β05 Keith D. Buckley
- 2005β07 Vivienne Blackburn
- 2007β09 Mary, Lady Mallick
- 2009β11 David J. Higginson
- 2011β14 Prof. Kenneth M. Letherman
- 2014β16 Prof. Sir Netar P. Mallick (II)
- 2016β18 Dr Diana M. Leitch
- 2018β21 Dr Susan R. Hilton
- 2021β23 Ian Cameron
- 2023βpresent Peter Wright
Secretariesβ»
- 1781β85 George Bew
- 1781β88 Thomas Henry
- 1785β87 Rev.Thomas Barnes
- 1787β92 Dr John Ferriar
- 1789β91 James Watt Jnr
- 1791β93 William Simmons
- 1792β93 Thomas Henry Jnr
- 1793β94 Samuel Harvey
- 1793β96 Dr Samuel Argent Bardsley
- 1794β98 Dr Edward Holme
- 1797β1800 William Henry
- 1798β1806 Dr John Hull
- 1800β09 John Dalton
- 1807β16 Rev. William Johns
- 1809β10 Dr William Winstanley
- 1810β20 John Atkinson Ransome
- 1817β22 Thomas Henry Robinson
- 1821β42 Peter Clare
- 1822β37 Rev. John James Tayler
- 1838β44 Joseph Atkinson Ransome
- 1843β48 John Davies
- 1844β46 John Holt Stanway
- 1846β50 James Prescott Joule
- 1848β52 Edward William Binney
- 1851β55 Rev. Henry Halford Jones
- 1852β57 Dr Robert Angus Smith
- 1855β61 Dr Henry Edward Schunck
- 1857β60 Prof. Richard Copley Christie
- 1860β74 Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe
- 1861β85 Joseph Baxendell
- 1874β84 Prof. Osborne Reynolds
- 1884β86 James Thomson Bottomley
- 1885β88 Prof. Sir Arthur Schuster
- 1886β96 Frederick James Faraday
- 1888β1900 Reginald Felix Gwyther
- 1896β1906 Francis Jones
- 1900β01 Sir Alfred William Flux
- 1901β05 Charles H. Lees
- 1905β08 Prof. Frederick William Gamble
- 1906β19 R. L. Taylor
- 1908β09 C. Gordon Hewitt
- 1909β20 Henry George Albert Hickling
- 1919β22 Hubert Frank Coward
- 1920β22 Prof. Tom Hatherley Pear
- 1991β95 Charles J. E. Kempster
- 1991β94 Mary, Lady Mallick
- 1995β96 Susan C. Diggines
- 1997β2001 Dr Ronald E. Catlow
- 2001β04 Prof. Alexander Donnachie
- 2001β02 Jean M. Thomson
- 2004β05 John J. Moscrop
- 2005β07 Jane F. Hamilton
- 2005β08 Patricia M. Verdin
- 2012β16 John Spencer Buckley
- 2014β16 David Astbury
- 2016β20 Peter G. Hilton
- 2020β21 Dr Robert Stansfield-Cudworth
- 2021β22 Dr F. Peter Fenn
- 2022βpresent Niall Power
Treasurersβ»
- 1783β89 Isaac Moss
- 1790β91 Thomas Maxwell
- 1791β95 Benjamin Arthur Heywood
- 1796β1814 Nathaniel Heywood
- 1815β50 Sir Benjamin Heywood, Bt
- 1851β54 George Wareing Ormerod
- 1855β62 Henry Mere Ormerod
- 1863β68 Robert Worthington
- 1868β73 Thomas Carrick
- 1873β76 Samuel Broughton
- 1877β95 Charles Bailey
- 1896β1901 John Jackson Ashworth
- 1901β02 Charles Bailey
- 1902β10 Arthur McDougall
- 1910β21 W. Henry Todd
- 1921β22 Robert Henry Clayton
- 2011β13 Michael N. G. Evans
- 2013β16 David S. Brown
- 2014β15 David Costley-Wood
- 2016β21 Greg Mauchline
- 2016β22 Trevor Rees
- 2022βpresent Christine Mbarga
See alsoβ»
- List of societies for education in Manchester
- Spalding Gentlemen's Society
- The Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle Upon Tyne
Referencesβ»
Notes
- ^ Manchester 1786β1799, Robert Owen Museum, archived from the original on 13 January 2023, retrieved 26 August 2011
- ^ About us, Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, archived from the original on 28 April 2009, retrieved 10 January 2010
- ^ Makepeace 1984, p. 19
- ^ The making of a social reformer at OpenLearn
- ^ Makepeace 1984, p. 75
- ^ Sheehan 1941
- ^ "Scientific Treasures Destroyed: Manchester's Raid Losses". The Observer. 19 January 1941. p. 7.
- ^ "THE MANCHESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY - Charity 235313". register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
- ^ "Organisation". The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. 14 March 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
- ^ "Events". The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. 24 February 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
- ^ Makepeace 1984, p. 20
- ^ "Library & Archives". The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. 10 May 2016. Archived from the original on 13 January 2023. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
- ^ Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, archived from the original on 13 January 2023, retrieved 17 July 2016
Bibliography
- The Complete List of the Members & Officers of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, from its institution on February 28th, 1781, to April 28th, 1896, Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 1896
- Makepeace, Chris E. (1984), Science and Technology in Manchester: Two Hundred Years of the Lit. and Phil., Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society Publications, ISBN 0-902428-04-7
- Pickering, Paul; Tyrell, Alex (2000), The People's Bread: A History of the Anti-Corn Law League, Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 978-0-567-20497-4
- Sheehan, Donal (December 1941), "The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society", Isis, 33 (4): 519β523, doi:10.1086/358605, JSTOR 330627, S2CID 144796475
External linksβ»
- Organisations based in Manchester
- Scientific societies based in the United Kingdom
- 1781 establishments in England
- Organizations established in 1781
- Organisations based in Greater Manchester
- Charities based in Manchester
- Charities based in Greater Manchester
- Culture in Manchester
- Learned societies of Manchester
- Science and technology in Greater Manchester
- Publications established in 1783
- Annual journals
- Clubs and societies in Greater Manchester
- Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society