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Royal Society [ Institutions / Clubs & Societies ]

… Abstract Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is the world’s oldest scientific institution. In the long eighteenth century, fellows dedicated themselves to … them together were also profoundly social and dictated by social convention. Like other London academies, the Royal Society conformed to eighteenth-century notions of sociability. In the spaces of Gresham College, and later Crane Court, … a flow of public visitors to Boyle’s laboratory, including many foreign visitors to London, it being ‘constantly opened to the curious’ (Shapin 70). Similarly, Hooke lodged permanently in Gresham College where the Royal Society met. …

Spa sociability in Bath and Pyrmont [ Health / Nature ]

… century. Bath set up an innovative model of spa sociability that supposedly exemplified the main principles of an ‘open society,’ while Pyrmont also defined a new approach to spa life but along different lines. This comparative entry seeks to outline the contours of a transnational spa sociability in four major aspects of ‘openness’ i.e., the interplay of sociability and health, the paradox of regulation and freedom, the transformation of the …

John Thelwall [ Art and Literature / Politics / Association ]

… being the subject of a Treason Trial in 1794, and for his involvement in radical groups such as the London Corresponding Society in which he helped to forge a new model of political sociability. His interest in finding the best means to … his lectures were causing. In October 1795, in the run up to the passing of the Gagging Acts, ThelwalI had lectured at Copenhagen House at a mass open air meeting attended by up to 200,000 people, protesting against the government on a variety of issues. James …

Scientific experiments [ Politics & Society / Science ]

… consumption and shared experiences within the new associational forms of the public sphere. Practices > Politics & Society People > Science Keywords experiments science chemistry electricity mechanics public lecture association Meeting … of the city. It adopted a series of regulations to keep the talk flowing freely, stipulating that discussions should be open to all present, and the chairmanship should rotate among the members. Jargon and ‘disquisitions’ by specialist … electricity, a force that seemed to be organic in origin and closely connected with vitality itself. These innovations opened up a new world of natural wonders and restructured the social relations surrounding public experimentation. It …

Private theatre performances [ Politics & Society ]

… Abstract Society theatre was a highly prized activity during the eighteenth century, especially in France. In salons and estates, both grand and modest, people of the same society and social stratum engaged in amateur theatre. Private theatre performances were a practice in which worldliness … 8   Clearly, the practice of society theatre was part of the tacit codes of sociability: just as it was impossible to openly criticise certain forms of unseemly conduct in society, it was unthinkable to explicitly express a negative …

Debating societies [ Clubs & Societies / Associational culture ]

… admitted a few visitors and did not advertise their activities). There was overlap in some cases, though: the Select Society of Edinburgh (1754), with its membership of landowners and lawyers, was exclusive and gentlemanly yet rather … accepted women while clubs did not; finally, debating societies did not have members but customers and they were open to the general public. Their success is probably due to the public’s taste for public speaking and oratory; and to … societies drew crowds (from 400 to 1200 spectators per night at the Robin Hood Society) and venues catering for women opened such as La Belle Assemblée and the Female Parliament, where only women were allowed to speak. 8  In 1781, a …