On 20 April 2026, 13 students, mostly from the MPhil/Part III course, travelled with Dr Josh Nall to London to visit the Royal Institution and the Royal Astronomical Society as part of the Print and Material Sources Seminar.
We began the day at the Royal Institution, where Dr Katy Duncan (m. 2016), who completed her MPhil and PhD in the Department, and Charlotte New took us through an exhibition on the history of the Royal Institution's work, traced through its Directors. We saw some of their instruments from each Director's laboratories and heard about the development of the Institution's dual missions of promoting the public understanding of science and undertaking scientific research in areas set out by the Director. Michael Faraday's laboratory, from his time as Director between 1825 and 1867, his was on view, preserved in its original location, having only been moved three times since his death. Across from this was one of the Institution's working laboratories, where UCL continues to undertake nanotechnology research.
We then viewed a short display on inventions that had originated at the Royal Institution before going back upstairs to view highlights from the archival collections selected by Charlotte and Katy. These included a gate developed to reduce crop losses to animal damage during the Napoleonic Wars, photos and archival materials documenting the Institution's history, and objects once used in the Institution's Demonstrations. These sparked a discussion of the boundaries between working replicas and replicas that have themselves become objects of historical interest and thus require preservation. We also discussed many of the objects in relation to the existing research interests of students in the group, and we agreed that many would offer fruitful subjects for future MPhil work.
Photo (Francesca Anthony): Students exploring some of the Royal Institution's collection with Dr Katy Duncan and Charlotte New
Photo (Kendra Chuah): Window glass over Royal Astronomical Society staircase
After lunch, we thanked Katy and Charlotte for the tour and walked to the Royal Astronomical Society, where we were greeted by Dr Sian Prosser. Here, we began with a tour of the building, starting downstairs in the Lecture Theatre and Fellows' Room, where we saw the society's royal charter and learned from Josh and Sian about the history of the Society’s formation as an alternative to the Royal Society of London. We then went upstairs to the library, where we saw an exhibition about the work of Caroline and William Herschel.
Photo (Kendra Chuah): William and Caroline Herschel Display
Sian then showed us a variety of specially selected objects, a highlight of which was a copy of the first edition of Euclid's Elements, a Latin incunable printed by Erhard Ratdolt, which included printed diagrams through woodcuts and polychromatic printing. We also got to see a set of items associated with the history of astronomical photography, including photographic plates from different periods, and a speculum mirror.
Photo (Kendra Chuah): Library of the Royal Astronomical Society
We then made our way back to Cambridge as a group. The trip to London was a very pleasant break from dissertation-writing for the MPhil/Part III cohort and also a stimulating opportunity to link our diverse research interests to the material cultures of two very different scientific institutions in London. Each offered unique opportunities to think about who was doing science and to whom they were presenting it from the 19th century to today.
Report by Benjamin Knight, Part III Student