Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution
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The Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution is an institution based in Bath, England, that was founded in 1824 and it provides a museum, an independent library, lecture hall and a botannical garden.
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[edit] Formation
Early attempts to create a Bath Agricultural Society were made in 1777 without success. Further attempts were made in subsequent years but, for various reasons (members' deaths, building fire, etc), the society failed to flourish.
It was in 1822 that George Allen Underwood, an architect and surveyor, decided to draw up plans to construct a new building to substitute the Lower Assembly Rooms on Terrace Walk, Bath, that had been destroyed by fire.
It was in this new grand building that the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution was finally established in 1824 with the Museum being opened with the Duke of York as Patron and the Marquis of Lansdowne as President (he himself was a geologist and a curator).
[edit] Collections
The Institution antiquarian library contains over 7000 volumes, including the Jenyns and the Broome natural history libraries. Its archives contain bound volumes of letters from eminent scientists and naturalists such as Charles Darwin, Professor John Stevens Henslow and Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker. Smaller collections cover theology, government, travel and local history. Four paintings by Andrea Casali and a photography collection by the Reverend Francis Lockey (1796-1869) are also featured.
[edit] Building
In 1932 the Institution moved to 16-18, Queen Square, a Grade I listed Greek Revival building designed by John Pinch the Younger in 1830 in what is considered the finest Georgian square in the city, as a road improvement scheme entailed the demolition of the Terrace Walk.
