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Archival description
Great Exhibition of 1851

The Society is generally credited with the idea of an international exhibition. However the exhibition was administered by a Royal Commission and the Society had no role in the exhibition itself.\nRecords include general administrative correspondence about the setting up and financing of the exhibition, printed reports, lists of subscribers and synopses of letters from John Scott Russell to Prince Albert, among others. Also includes a series of copy photographs of some of the exhibits and copies of contemporary illustrations. Catalogues and jury reports are included within the exhibition publications section at SC/EX/

Guard Books

The original sequence of material and original folio numbers have been retained where possible and the contents are listed to item level. The letters cover the period 1754 to 1770 and are in approximate chronological order.The series has been placed in a general category as it covers a range of subjects.

Home-School links

The RSA has had an interest in Home-School links and the use of written agreements since 1988 when it worked with the National Association of Head Teachers on a project 'Home-School Contract of Partnership'. It has published regularly on the topic since then, some of these publication being part of the Education for Capability (PR/ED/107) and Parents in a Learning Society(PR/ED/104) projects

House

The Society's premises were designed and build by Robert and James Adam. The building has been extended and altered over the years. \nRecords concerned with the Society's building in John Adam Street from its design and construction by the Adam Brothers and including correspondence papers, notes, leases and other legal documents, administration, management, alteration and repair of the building

Humorous Art Exhibition

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

Industry Year 1986 took place because it was considered that in the late 1980's the decline in UK manufacturing seriously threatened our ability to maintain let alone improve the quality of life for our citizens. Industry Years' slogan 'Thanks to Industry', was intended as a challenge to a society which is insufficiently aware that almost everything we do depends on industrial activity and which shows little appreciation of such activity. The Industry Committee was formed towards the end of 1982 to carry forward an initiative begun at St. George's House, Windsor, in conjunction with the earlier, 'Comino Committee' of the RSA. The committee members included: \nSir Geoffrey Chandler, Director, Industry Year; Diana McMahon, Deputy Director, Industry Year; Lord Vinson, Chairman, Industry Year Executive Committee; Christopher Lucas, Secretary; John Robertson, Assistant Secretary\nIts main objective was the promotion, throughout the United Kingdom, of a recognition of the importance to the future of our county - and to its influence on the world economy - of a prosperous and profitable British Industry in all its branches based upon modern technology and , with that, to help to effect a positive change in the cultural attitude towards industry in Britain on the part of the public as a whole. The Industry Committee which was formed to take over from the Comino Fellowship Committee, the latter formed in 1979, was established with much wider terms of reference than the running of Industry Year 1986.\n\nIndustry Matters was the successor of Industry Year. It was a clearly targeted programme of action which continued to stress the importance of industry and its role in our lives, building on the momentum achieved during Industry Year 1986. The main aim was to encourage continuing action in three main areas: developing partnerships between industry and education; action by industry to communicate more effectively the part it plays in society; increasing awareness of industry's role and its service to the community. The work was carried on through a network of regional and local groups, with a central team provided for up to two years by the RSA.\n\nSeries of records which include minutes of various steering committees and correspondence relating to the development and administration of the project.

The Society was more closely connected with the management of this exhibition than with that of 1851. In both cases the initial organisation was due to the Society, and in both cases the early preparations were made by and at the risk of the Society. However, the 1862 Exhibition was managed by a Commission appointed by the Society, while in 1851 the Managing Commission had been entirely independent. Although 1851 was a profitable exhibition, receipts in 1862 were insufficient to cover expenses. \nThis series includes general correspondence to the Society about plans for the exhibition and about funding, as well as a series of images of the exhibition. There are no details of exhibits. These are included in the exhibition catalogues at SC/EX/1.\n\nRecords include general administrative correspondence to the Society, press cuttings and copy photographs of illustrations

James Barry

James Barry was born in 1741 and died in 1806. In 1777 Barry submitted a proposal to the Society to decorate the Great Room of its new premises. He offered to paint the whole room without fee, in return for canvas, paints and models. He began painting in April that year, and although he continued to alter the paintings until 1801, they were exhibited in 1783 and '84, with the proceeds going to Barry.\n\nBarry was his own publisher, and produced numerous works explaining the The Progress's symbolism, later editions of which contained appendices railing against his critics.\n\nIn 1782, Barry was elected to professor of painting at the Royal Academy, receiving a salary in return for six lectures a year. Barry used the position to engage with role of the artist in society, but went too far in putting forth his opinions and, together with his 1798 Letter to the Dilettanti Society's attacks on the state of arts patronage in England, angered the Academy was expelled in 1799. His was the Academy's only expulsion until Professor Brendan Neiland resigned in July 2004.\n\nThe Earl of Buchan came to Barry's aid after he lost his salary, paying expenses and moving him to a larger house so that he could finish his final painting, The Birth of Pandora. James Barry died in February 1806, and his body laid in state in the Society's Great Room, before being interred in St. Paul's Cathedral.

The Journal was established in 1852 to disseminate information about the Society's activities and included transcriptions of lectures. Unlike the annual printed Transactions which preceded it, the Journal was initially published weekly.\nRecords include files and papers on the production of the Journal and other related promotional publications and press and publicity generally. Complete runs of the Journal are available for consultation in the Research Room at the RSA. Each volume is indexed and there are cumulative 10 year indexes for the Journal up to 1952.