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Archival description
Committee of Chemistry

One of the original subject-based committees set up by the Society from 1754 to judge awards and premiums for discoveries in chemistry.\n\nRecords include minutes of the Chemistry Committee, correspondence about awards and attendance at and structure of committee. Additional correspondence to the committee is also included within the Guard Book series at PR/GE/110

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/

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

The Society's Council was appointed Commissioners to the British Section of this exhibition which was arranged originally to commemorate Columbus's sailing to the new world. \n\nRecords include general correspondence, letter books (copies of letters sent), various ledgers and account books, minutes of the organising committees, printed material and catalogues and photographs of the Exhibition grounds and displays

Tomorrow's Company

A business-led enquiry into the role of business in a changing world. During 1992 the RSA organised eight dinners at which business leaders were challenged to think afresh about business, its purpose, its role in society and the measures of success.The result was the three year RSA inquiry Tomorrow's Company: the role of business in a changing world. By the beginning of 1993, 25 companies had committed the time and energy of their senior executives to the inquiry, led by Sir Anthony Cleaver, Chairman, IBM UK Ltd.\nRecords comprise published material including reports

Redefining Work

Redefining Work was concerned with the ways our society may function in future and the assumptions we might make about the nature and pattern of work within it. Many aspects of the way we lead our lives are rooted in traditional assumptions which for many people do not reflect today's reality. Redefining work took a comprehensive approach in exploring the issues and crossed conventional boundaries

The aim of the project was to define the role of manufacturing in a sustainable economy, which the Society considered to be one of the key issues of economic and industrial policy facing the UK. A linked series of three lectures and five seminars to clarify the significance of a healthy manufacturing sector in improving the UK's international trade and economic growth.

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.

The Science and Industry Committee originally arose out of a recommendation made by the Economics Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at the annual meeting in Belfast 1952. The committee was reconstituted in April 1954 under the joint sponsorship of the RSA, the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the Nuffield Foundation. The Committee's work was financed by grants from the Board of Trade and from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, under the Conditional Aid scheme for the use of counterpart funds derived from United States economic aid.

The functions of the group were to keep the RSA in touch with developments in manufactures and commerce; provide ideas for lectures, projects and initiatives; advise on the value of suggestions for lectures, projects and initiatives coming from the Fellowship and the extent to which the RSA name should be attached to them; evaluate the quality of the RSA manufactures and commerce programme; support the RSA in the formulation and dissemination of ideas and project results and provide advice on sponsorship for manufacturing activities.