| Formation | 28 February 1781; 244 years ago (1781-02-28) |
|---|---|
| Type | Learned society |
| Registration no. | 235313 |
| Legal status | Charity |
| Purpose | The Manchester Lit and Phil was established in 1781 with the object of promoting the advancement of education and public interest in any form of literature, science, arts or public affairs. |
| Headquarters | Manchester, UK |
Region served | |
| Membership | 400 |
Official language | English |
Activities |
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Collections |
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President (99th) | Alan Wareham |
| Website | www.manliphil.ac.uk |
TheManchester Literary and Philosophical Society, popularly known as theLit. & Phil., is one of the oldestlearned societies in theUnited Kingdom and second oldest provinciallearned society (after theSpalding Gentlemen's Society).
Prominent members have includedRobert Owen,[1]John Dalton,James Prescott Joule,Sir William Fairbairn,Tom Kilburn,Peter Mark Roget,Sir Ernest Rutherford,Alan Turing,Sir Joseph Whitworth andDorothy Hodgkin.[2]
It was established in February 1781, as the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester,[3] byThomas Percival,Thomas Barnes,Thomas Henry,Thomas Butterworth Bayley and others.[4] The first formal meeting of the society took place on 14 March 1781. Meetings were held in a back room ofCross Street Chapel until December 1799, after which the society moved into its own premises in George Street.[5]John Dalton conducted his experiments at these premises.
The Society's original premises on George Street were destroyed during theManchester Blitz (around January 1941), at which time its library comprised more than 50,000 volumes as well as historic artefacts, portraits, and archives.[6][7] Its replacement (built in the 1960s) was constructed usinghigh alumina cement (referred to as having "concrete cancer") and was demolished in the 1980s. It became a registered charity (No. 235313) in 1964.[8]
Membership is open to 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.[8]
The Society can be contacted via their website.
The Society organises a range of lectures, including theWilde,Joule andDalton Lectures and three lectures annually specifically for Young People. The most prestigious lectures are thePercival Lecture and theManchester Lecture, and in some years the most distinguished speakers are presented with theDalton 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.[9]
Notable Members, in addition to those above, have included theNobel Laureates,Sir Robert Robinson,Sir Norman Haworth, andNiels Bohr, as well asChaim 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 andMoses Tyson.
Honorary Members have includedStephen Hawking,William Thomson, Lord Kelvin,Robert Bunsen,Sergey Kapitsa,Dmitri Mendeleev,Sir Cyril Hinshelwood,Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw,Jöns Jacob Berzelius andJohn Mercer.
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Edited by | Prof. Graham Booth |
| Publication details | |
| History | 1783–present |
| Frequency | Annually |
| Standard abbreviations ISO 4 (alt) · Bluebook (alt) NLM (alt) · MathSciNet (alt  ) | |
| ISO 4 | Mem. Proc. |
| Indexing CODEN (alt · alt2) · JSTOR (alt) · LCCN (alt) MIAR · NLM (alt) · Scopus · W&L | |
| ISSN | 0265-3575 |
The society'sMemoirs and Proceedings (first published in 1783) was, at the time of its launch, the only regularscientific journal in the United Kingdom except for thePhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.[10]
TheManchester 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.[11]
Named in honour of the Society's longest-serving President, the scientistJohn Dalton, theDalton Medal is a distinction rarely bestowed and is the Society’s 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 beenFellows of theRoyal Society and many have beenNobel Laureates.
Several medallists have had Manchester andUniversity of Manchester/Owens College connections with the Departments ofPhysics and Astronomy,Chemistry andEngineering.
So far, only one woman has been a recipient of this medal.[12]
| No. | Year | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1898 | Henry Edward Schunck | English chemist and expert on natural dyestuffs. He was born inManchester and lived inKersal,Salford. He started his studies withWilliam Henry. He bequeathed his laboratory toOwens 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 ofWilliam Roscoe ofLiverpool (cousin ofStanley Jevons and uncle toBeatrix Potter). Educated at theLiverpool Institute for Boys and withRobert Bunsen inHeidelberg. Appointed 2nd Professor of Chemistry atOwens College, Manchester (1857–86), and MP for Manchester South (1885–95). |
| 3 | 1903 | Osborne Reynolds | British engineer, physicist and educator. He was Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering atOwens College, Manchester (1868–1904). |
| 4 | 1919 | Sir Ernest Rutherford | New Zealand physicist and is considered to be the father of nuclear physics. He wasLangworthy Professor of Physics at theUniversity of Manchester (1907–19) where he split the atom in a building on Coupland Street. He was awarded theNobel Prize in Chemistry (1908). |
| 5 | 1931 | Sir Joseph 'J. J.' Thomson | English experimental physicist born inCheetham Hill,Manchester who enrolled atOwens College, Manchester (1870). He was awarded theNobel Prize in Physics (1906). His son, Professor SirGeorge Paget Thomson, was awarded theNobel Prize for Physics (1937). |
| 6 | 1942 | Sir Lawrence Bragg | Australian-born British physicist andX-ray crystallographer. He was awarded theNobel Prize in Physics (1915), with his father, and became its youngest ever recipient. He wasLangworthy Professor of Physics at theUniversity of Manchester (1919–37). |
| 7 | 1948 | Patrick Blackett | English experimental physicist andcosmologist. He wasLangworthy Professor of Physics at theUniversity of Manchester (1937–53). He was awarded theNobel Prize in Physics (1948). |
| 8 | 1966 | Sir Cyril Hinshelwood | English physical chemist awarded theNobel Prize in Chemistry (1956). |
| 9 | 1981 | Dorothy Hodgkin | British biochemist who developedprotein crystallography and was awarded theNobel Prize in Chemistry (1964). |
| 10 | 1997 | Sir Harold Kroto | English chemist famous for his discovery offullerenes and is most famously associated with buckminsterfullerene C60 (buckyballs). Educated at theUniversity 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 theNobel Prize in Chemistry (1996). |
| 11 | 2002 | Sir Walter Bodmer | German-born British human geneticist who was educated atManchester Grammar School. |
| 12 | 2005 | Sir Roger Penrose | English mathematical physicist, mathematician and philosopher of science, awarded theNobel Prize in Physics (2020). |
| 13 | 2009 | Sir Bernard Lovell | English physicist andradio astronomer who established (and was the first Director of) theJodrell Bank Observatory at theUniversity of Manchester. |
| 14 | 2012 | Martin, Lord Rees of Ludlow | British cosmologist and astrophysicist. Born in Shropshire, he has beenAstronomer Royal since 1995. |
| 15 | 2016 | Sir Konstantin Novoselov | Russian-British physicist, andLangworthy Professor in theSchool of Physics and Astronomy at theUniversity of Manchester. He was awarded theNobel Prize in Physics (2010). |
| 16 | 2023 | Sir Paul Nurse | British geneticist. He was awarded theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2001). |
Notes
Bibliography
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