Over 250 years of responding

Wind power? Urban renewal? Emissions reduction? The RSA has been doing it for years. As an organisation dedicated to improving society, the RSA has been involved in a dazzling number of environmental initiatives. In the following pages, Rob Baker, Head of Archive and Library takes us through a quarter century of RSA records to show how our concerns have changed over the years.

Introduction

The RSA (the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) was founded in a coffee shop in Covent Garden in 1754 and moved to our current home in John Adam Street in 1774. Since the Society’s inception, records of its activities and administration have been preserved, and these now form our archive, which provides a wealth of information about our history and is made publicly available for research. They include minutes, correspondence, reports, drawings, prints and photographs.

As a long established and multi-disciplinary institution, the RSA has been involved in a variety of subjects, including a long-standing interest in environmental concerns. Our founder William Shipley had the idea that progress in arts, manufactures and commerce could be encouraged through competitions where winners would be rewarded by cash prizes or medals, known as premiums. The premium award scheme remained the main focus of the Society’s work for nearly one hundred years after its establishment. These awards sought to stimulate enterprise for the common good, by encouraging society to come up with inventions, discoveries, improvements and solutions to common problems. These included environmental issues. Awards were given for reducing smoke emissions, improving sanitation, draining and reclaiming land and designing wind and water mills. From 1757 until 1835, the Society also ran a tree planting campaign where medals were awarded for the most trees planted.

By the mid 19th Century it became clear that the premium award scheme was no longer the most appropriate way to stimulate society to resolve its own problems. The Society began to change the focus of its work and the way in which it disseminated knowledge and information, by establishing a lecture programme and publishing a Journal, both of which continue today. Interest in the environment continued with a committee being established in 1880 to look at domestic poisons, particularly arsenic, used in dyestuffs and wallpaper. In the 1950s the RSA saw lectures on 'Cities without Smoke' and the pollution problems of detergents. An Environment Committee was established in 1971, which sought to participate in major environmental problems and to provide a forum where these could be discussed. The tree planting initative was revived in 2004, as part of the Society's 250th anniversary celebrations, as well as in recognition of its ongoing commitment to environmental issues. This commitment continues through the RSA’s recent and current activities. This includes commissioning the sculpture of ‘The WEEE Man’, a human-like figure created by the electrical waste one UK citizen creates in a lifetime. The RSA also recently ran a three-year project, ‘Carbon Limited’, which explored personal carbon trading, and is currently involved in an Arts and Ecology project that seeks to examine and address the environmental emergencies of the 21st century through the engagement of artists.

The digital exhibition that follows provides examples of the RSA’s involvement in environmental concerns and shows the wealth of its archival material. The exhibition has been arranged under six sections: Industrial and Domestic Toxins, Tree Planting, Draining and Reclaiming Land, Water and Wind Power, Water Supply and Sanitation and Sustainable Energy and Electrical Waste. A sample of the records shown here will be exhibited at the RSA House in June, so please check this website for future updates.