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History

The Bath Literary and Scientific Institution (the 'Royal' part came later) was founded in 1824, but was a direct descendant of Bath societies going back to the 1770s. Our first home was a purpose-built building near Bath Abbey which made way for a 20th-Century road scheme, and we now live in Queen Square, on a site originally the home of Dr William Oliver, inventor of the Bath Oliver biscuit and a key figure in Bath's early 18th-Century development.

In this section you will find a history of the BRLSI and its forerunners in Bath, from 1777 to 2002, plus articles on some of the more influential members and residents:

Bath Agricultural Society

Bath Philosophical Societies

BRLSI - a Chronological History

Joseph Priestley: the man who discovered Oxygen

William Smith: Father of English Geology

Leonard Jenyns: the Darwin Connection

Other notable members

Did you know...

The original BRLSI site.

The original site of the Institution was Terrace Walk, by Parade Gardens. It replaced the Lower Assembly Rooms (Harrisons) which was burnt down in 1820.

Curatorial Curiosities

Mammoth Milk Molar

This milk tooth from a Wooley Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was found in Wookey Hole, Somerset. The mamoth, like its close relatives the extant elephants, had four molars. As the front pair wore down and droped out in pieces, the back pair shifted forward, with two new molars emerging in the back of the mouth. Elephants replace their teeth six times.