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The Society organised annual receptions for Fellows and members of Council. Although essentially social events, they were used as an opportunity to raise funds.

The Society held a conference on apprenticeship on 9 July 1958 and as a result of that conference became aware of the difficulties of small engineering firms in finding facilities for training apprentices and of the efforts which the Engineering Industries Association was making to solve this problem by its Group Apprentice Training Scheme. The society considered launching an appeal for funds in order to extend this Scheme on a national basis.

In his lecture 'Humour in Art' given to the Society in February 1949, H M Bateman had proposed a permanent National Gallery of Humorous Art, in which to display the many original drawings of published comic art, which currently languished in back offices, or in corners of studios, and never seen by the public. \nAs a tentative beginning the Society, at the suggestion of its Chairman of Council, Sir Harry Lindsay KCIE, CBE, organised a temporary exhibition of 162 drawings of the work of more than fifty artists, ranging from Rowlandson and Gillray, to Osbert Lancaster and E H Shepard, Emett and Giles. With the help of Kenneth Bird, the editor of Punch, H M Bateman and Anna Zinkeisen, RDI, the Society was able to arrange an interesting display in the Society's Library (located at this time in what is now the Benjamin Franklin Room), which was open to the public free of charge.\nEncouraged by the steady flow of visitors, by the end of the second week 7,091 people had visited the exhibition, including HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (President, RSA 1952-2011) and The Duchess of Kent. The Council decided to postpone the closing day until Saturday 13 August, and to extend the daily opening hours to 6.30pm on weekdays, including Saturdays and the August Bank Holiday. 14,000 people had passed through the doors by the end of the exhibition, and as there was still a great public interest, the Society was able to arrange for the exhibition to travel round the country from October 1949 to April 1950, showing at Hove, Coventry, Salford, Preston, Liverpool, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Lincoln, Hull and Leicester. It has been estimated that a further 40,000 people saw it in the course of this tour. The exhibition also received press coverage worldwide in newspapers and magazines such as Picture Post, Illustrated London News, The Spectator and two pages in the BBC Arabic News. Coverage also featured in television and cinema newsreels. But in spite of all this interest Bateman's original idea for a National Gallery of Humorous Art never came to life.\n\nRecords include correspondence and papers about arrangements for the exhibition, a catalogue and printed material and photographs

Awarded to annually to speakers deemed to have given the most interesting lecture over the preceding year. The medal was re-designed in 1948 by Percy Metcalf RDI

First conference held at Fishmongers' Hall 4-5 November 1963, RSA participated in this along with The Nature Conservancy and co-organised the second and third conferences. Second conference, 10-12 November 1965 was held at the RSA for the first two days and at the Fishmongers' Hall for the third.\nThe last conference in the series was held at the Guildhall, London, 26-28 October 1970\nSource: The RSA and the environment, edited by Timothy Cantell, 1993\n\nThe RSA took responibility for all administrative matters about the Conference in 1964. The Nature Conservancy retained responsibility for arrangement and editing of the relevant papers and for drawing up the programme. In 1968 the Standing Committee for the 'Countryside in 1970' considered a paper about a permanent scheme of awards for projects on the ground which succeed in improving the countryside or extending nature reserves. It was agreed that it would be a good means of promoting active care for the countryside and involvement of the whole community. The committee thought it advisable that the first awards should be made in 1970. Recognising that the '1970' organisation was unsuited to undertake such a scheme they decided that a sub-committee should consider ways and means of organising and financing a Scheme and enter into negociations with potential sponsors. \n\nRecords include administrative correspondence, minutes of meetings, reports, files and papers, publicity and printed matter and photographs

Study group to consider the special problems facing Britain in the development of technological higher education

Organised by the RSA but involved collaboration with three other bodies: The ERAS Foundation (later re-named the Environment Foundation), the Department of the Environment and the CBI.\nEntrants could be from industry, educational or research bodies, public bodies or individuals. The project aimed 'to identify, encourage and publicise innovations to abate all types of environmental pollution'. Awards of a trophy and certificate were made annualy.\nSource: The RSA and the Environment, edited by Timothy Cantell, 1993\n\nRecords include printed materials, reports and photographs.

One of the original subject-based committees set up by the Society from 1754 to judge awards and premiums offered by the Society in the 'Polite. (ie Fine) Arts'\n\nSeries includes minutes of the committee, correspondence about awards and attendance at and structure of committee. Also includes examples of prints, drawings, engravings and other works of art submitted for award between 1758 and 1845. Additional correspondence to the committee is also included within the Guard Book series at PR/GE/110

This is a series of images were collected or purchased to support research work into the archive. They include copies of some prize-winning prints and drawings ( see also PR.AR/103)

Many bequests have been made to the Society and Trusts instituted to promote the Society's work in specific areas. The Society became a registered charity in 1962 and its fundraising activities were formalised with the establishment of a development department in the 1990s.\nRecords include administrative correspondence and files, printed matter and publicity material and images

The Society's commitment to the Commonwealth dates back to colonial development premiums from 1754. The Indian Section was formed in 1869 and merged with the Foreign and Colonial Section to deliver lectures on topics of interest in this area. This had become the Commonwealth Section by 1951. The Commonwealth Section Committee continued to contribute to the lecture programme until 1987 when the Committee was disbanded in favour of two of the members joining the Lecture Programme Committee to enable them to give direct advice to the Lecture Programme Committee as full members of that committee.\nRecords comprise administrative correspondence and papers and photographs. Minutes of the committee have been filed with miscellaneous 20th century committees

The Society's examinations were instituted in 1856 and work burgeoned over the ensuring decades. The RSA Examinations Board was responsible for the Society's role as a major examining body principally in commercial/office skills and languages (particularly English as a foreign language) ranging from elementary to post-graduate. The academic work of the Board was conducted mainly from the London offices whilst the operational work, including printing and data processing, was carried out at premises near Orpington. The Examinations Board became a separate Company in 1987 and was sold in 1997 at which point it merged with the Oxford and Cambridge Examinations Boards to form OCR. Records include administrative files and papers and printed material including some examples of examination papers at various dates. Examination papers for some years have also been bound into volumes of the Journal.\n\nRecords include general administrative correspondence, printed matter including examination question papers, syllabuses, reports and photographs. The collection does not include lists of individual candidates.

The Thomas Cubitt Trust worked with the Society for a short period to develop a series of annual lectures on architecture and building. These lectures were published in the Journal. Thomas Cubitt had been a member of the Society. He, along with Henry Cole, Francis Fuller and Scott Russell attended the historic meeting with Prince Albert at Buckingham Palace on 30 June 1848 at which the Great Exhibition was born. The RSA-Cubitt Trust Panel was a sub-committee of the Committee for the Environment. It met three or four times a year and convened one conference or seminar annually as well as the Cubitt Lecture.

\nRoutine administrative correspondence was retained by the Society for many years and remained untouched from the time it had been filed. No attempt had been made to arrange the bulk of this correspondence other than in approximate alphabetical order. The correspondence was appraised as part of the Archive Project of 1998-2002\n\nPhysical description and arrangement\nFirst series: c.1854 - c.1889\nThis series comprise bundles of general correspondence to the Society dating from 1854 to about 1889. There are some gaps: nothing dated 1856, 1859, 1860 and 1863 to 1867. They were arranged in alphabetical sequence by year (for example Letter 'A' 1856). Originally there were some 80,000 items of correspondence.\n\nSecond sequence: c.1895 to c.1915\nThis series of documents were filed in their original wood/board boxes during the period 1895 to 1915. The series originally consisted of about 60,000 items. These contained general correspondence to the Society arranged in alphabetical order by name of sender. \nContents include a very small number of pamphlets, printed texts, and circular letters sent to the Society on a range of topics covering all areas of the Society's work. The correspondence is routine administrative material.\nThe records are essentially background material to the Society's work, the most significant aspects of which will have been recorded in the Journal or individual printed reports, as well as in Council and committee minutes from the period.\nThe correspondence is arranged into two series. The first sequence (PR.GE.119/1-23) covers the period c.1850 to 1889, the second (PR.GE.119/24 -38) covers the years c. 1890 to c.1915. Subjects covered include:\nLectures; Examinations; Membership;Council/committee chairmen; Journal; Staff and general correspondence \n\n

This proposal was developed form earlier discussions initiated by the Education Committee and the Women's Working Group.

From their beginning in 1986, the RSA's Better Environment Awards for Industry (BEAFI) maintained close links with the European Better Environment Awards for Industry (EBEAFI) run by the EU which was held every two years. The RSA put forward some of the entrants to the BEAFI as candidates for the European scheme. \n\nIn 1992 the Government announced that there would be a new environmental award, The Queen's Award for Environmental Achievement. The RSA responded with new plans for its 'Better Environment Awards for Industry (BEAFI) which had been running since 1986. There were to be two categories of Award: the first recognising Management initiatives bringing environmental benefits in Britain, the second for the export of appropriate technologies which bring environmental benefit to developing countries. The awards continued as a scheme for British companies. The RSA continued to put forward candidates for the European Better Environment Awards for Industry and in addition winners of the Queen's Awards were invited to apply for selection as candidates for the European competition.\n\nDeveloped from the PATAS (Pollution Abatement Technology Awards) these awards came about largely at the instigation of the European Commission who were setting up an EEC-wide scheme. \n\nSee 'The RSA and the Environment,' edited by Timothy Cantell, 1993\n\nRecords include minutes of committees and general meetings, correspondence and working papers and photographs