Our 300th Episode - Objectivity 300

0:00 Welcome to our 300th episode.

0:02 It's a big milestone and today I'm going to throw

0:05 down a bit of a challenge to the viewers

0:07 for our 300th.

0:08 But before we come to

0:09 that, I want to talk to Keith Moore,

0:11 head librarian here at the Royal

0:13 Society, about how the Royal Society

0:16 celebrated the big 30.

0:19 It's a big anniversary, isn't it?

0:21 300.

0:22 Well, we have a few archival items out

0:24 here that will tell you.

0:25 The Royal Society had an entire program of

0:28 celebrations.

0:30 Now the 300th anniversary of the Royal

0:32 Society happened in 1960 and it was bit

0:36 of a big affair.

0:37 And the first thing we

0:38 want to show you are the addresses.

0:43 Yeah.

0:42 These are like certificates, bits of

0:45 paper or vellum or things.

0:48 Yeah.

0:47 Presented like to sort of say

0:49 congratulations from our society to

0:51 yours.

0:52 Yeah.

0:52 You're great.

0:54 You're great.

0:54 We're great.

0:55 Everyone's great.

0:56 Well, here's one, for example, from the

0:58 University of Nottingham, which is a

1:00 university that I have a long-standing

1:02 relationship with.

1:03 So, look, look at

1:04 that one.

1:04 It's on this nice Is that

1:05 That's vellum.

1:06 That is vellum.

1:07 So, they've pushed the

1:08 boat out and made one on vellum.

1:10 Oh, look at this one.

1:11 This was the Council

1:13 of the Royal Micros.

1:17 Microscopical.

1:16 The Council of the Royal Microscop.

1:19 This came from the microscope people.

1:21 [laughter]

1:23 Yeah.

1:23 And look at that.

1:23 I love that.

1:24 Again, vellum.

1:25 Wa, look at this.

1:26 A blue seal.

1:27 Normally they're red.

1:29 Signed by the office holders.

1:31 Lovely piece.

1:33 Lovely.

1:34 Oh, look at this

1:35 one, Keith.

1:36 Coyota University all the

1:38 way from Japan.

1:39 Addresses came from all over the world.

1:41 Yeah,

1:41 there is a translation as well.

1:43 The president and staff of Coyote University

1:45 would like to have pleasure and honor to

1:47 present our hearty congratulation to the

1:49 Royal Society on the occasion of

1:51 commemorating the turentenery of the

1:54 society founded by King Charles II in

1:56 the year of 1660 and on and on and on it

2:00 goes.

2:00 What an event.

2:02 So besides getting all these addresses which you now store

2:05 in this magnificent big box,

2:07 we like a big box.

2:08 You do like a big box.

2:09 What's all this?

2:10 What else was going on in 1960?

2:12 Well, this is ephemerra collected by Sirill

2:15 Hinchelwood, the president of everything

2:17 that was going on around the tentinary

2:20 celebrations.

2:21 And you can see here

2:22 straight away there's a full program of

2:24 events.

2:25 Queen Elizabeth II, of course,

2:26 our patron.

2:27 So, there's a portrait

2:28 there.

2:28 Look at that.

2:29 This is at the front of

2:30 the official program.

2:31 And there's sort of times and days and who's giving

2:34 speeches and what's going on.

2:36 So, they had lectures and film shows.

2:38 They went out visiting other

2:39 organizations.

2:40 They had lunches, dinners, you name it, they pushed the

2:44 boat out.

2:45 Okay.

2:45 Well, I know they had a dinner

2:46 because we have here details of a

2:48 banquet.

2:50 Mhm.

2:49 Oh, we've got a list of names of the

2:51 people attending the banquet

2:53 and the tables, what tables they're

2:55 sitting at and things like that.

2:56 But an even better table plan here

2:58 because this is the lunch in honor of

3:01 the Royal Society in the gracious

3:02 presence of her majesty Queen Elizabeth,

3:05 the Queen Mother.

3:06 Okay.

3:07 So, the Queen Mother is sitting there, Lord Lieutenant

3:10 next to her, Chairman of the Council,

3:12 His Majesty, the King of Sweden, the

3:14 President of the Royal Society's over

3:16 there.

3:16 There's Dame Kathleen Lonsdale.

3:18 Look.

3:18 Yep.

3:19 Some good names.

3:20 Okay, there we go.

3:21 What else we got

3:22 here?

3:23 Well, this is the formal opening of the

3:25 celebrations by the Queen.

3:26 So, you've got the full program there.

3:28 The audience will rise in red.

3:30 Her majesty the queen will enter the hall

3:32 accompanied by his royal highness the

3:34 prince philip juke of Edinburgh.

3:36 Their majesties the king and queen of Sweden

3:39 and the president of the royal society.

3:41 The national anthem will be played.

3:43 The audience will resume their seats.

3:47 I am delighted to be here as your patron

3:50 on this great occasion to join in

3:54 celebrating the tessentinery of the

3:57 Royal Society of London for improving

4:00 natural knowledge.

4:02 And of course the press got into the

4:03 action because there were lots and lots

4:05 of special issues of newspapers,

4:08 magazines, uh you name it.

4:10 And we have a

4:11 few of them here.

4:11 And the really impressive one is the Times newspaper.

4:14 This is a special number on the Royal

4:16 Society's centinery.

4:18 Have a look at that front page of the

4:20 Times.

4:21 There's a picture of what I

4:22 presume is the Royal Society's council.

4:24 Yep.

4:24 So that's all the council members.

4:26 Kathleen Lonzo again there.

4:27 And uh this is the old premises of the Royal Society

4:31 where we started at Gresham College and

4:33 some of the famous figures in the Royal

4:35 Society's history.

4:37 Impressive.

4:37 We've got the listener and

4:39 BBC television review again.

4:41 Front cover goes to Tentenery of the Royal Society.

4:44 Sirill Hinchwood's presidential address

4:47 in full.

4:49 Wow, that's a special edition.

4:51 Look at there's this great big article.

4:52 The Royal Society after 300 years by

4:55 Sirill Hinchelwood, OM FRS.

4:59 And there's everything he's got to say.

5:01 He wasn't short of a word, was he?

5:02 No, it's a it's a nice long address

5:04 there.

5:04 Lots of pictures.

5:05 There's the mace.

5:07 Not that we want to draw any attention

5:09 to ourselves, but look at this massive

5:10 mace we've got.

5:13 Yeah.

5:20 Lovely.

5:19 And there it stands.

5:21 And we have lots more of his ephemera

5:24 here.

5:24 Now, I'm sure for the objectivity

5:26 300, you'll have one of these made up

5:28 for yourself.

5:29 Of course, this is Sir

5:30 Hinchwood's program of activities.

5:32 So this is everything he was expected to

5:35 attend as part of the 300.

5:37 Oh, look.

5:37 So they're almost like little

5:38 tickets.

5:38 It's like

5:39 That's right.

5:39 Each thing he's got each

5:40 page is like Thursday the 21st of July,

5:43 University of Oxford, whole day visit.

5:46 Friday the 22nd of July, 11:00 a.m.

5:48 University of London honorary degree

5:50 ceremony.

5:51 Oh, where have I got to be the

5:52 next day?

5:53 It's a Saturday.

5:53 Does he get No, still Friday.

5:56 300 p.m.

5:57 program of films.

5:59 And we have the program of films, I

6:00 think, don't we?

6:01 There we are.

6:01 Premier films.

6:02 Look at that.

6:04 So much stuff.

6:06 Okay.

6:07 The revealing eye, a light in nature, followed by a

6:10 reception at tea.

6:12 Lots more invitations here.

6:14 Presentations of various kinds.

6:16 Okay.

6:16 So, all the invites, all the

6:17 places.

6:18 All this stuff gets kept.

6:19 Look at all these invites.

6:21 All the places to be.

6:24 But what are these over here?

6:26 Well, we didn't just get addresses.

6:28 We didn't just get invitations.

6:30 We got things as well.

6:31 gifts.

6:32 So this is the

6:33 bell that we still use at council

6:35 meetings when we process the mason and

6:37 this was given by Queen Elizabeth the

6:39 second for the tentinary.

6:46 [bell]

6:54 So this was a present from the queen.

6:56 May I?

6:57 Of course.

7:02 Look at that.

7:03 The Queen's Bell.

7:04 A gift for 300.

7:05 That's a proper bell, Keith.

7:07 It's sturdy.

7:08 Look at that.

7:09 The little ding-dong or whatever they're called.

7:10 Nice silver.

7:11 Yeah.

7:12 Yeah.

7:13 Beautiful.

7:14 And it says on here,

7:15 presented by Her Majesty, Queen

7:17 Elizabeth II to the Royal Society.

7:20 And it says there 1660 1960.

7:26 And a big glass bowl.

7:27 And a big glass bowl.

7:28 Well, we like to

7:28 have the set of everything.

7:29 And you can see in this one, they've engraved uh the

7:32 Royal Society's arms, but this is a gift

7:35 from the Royal Society of Arts.

7:37 So, we have their arms as well.

7:39 It says to commemorate the tentinery of the Royal

7:42 Society 1660 to 1960.

7:45 And uh we have a

7:46 couple of signatures on here just

7:48 engraved in Phillip.

7:50 Phillip, that's Prince Philip, Queen

7:52 Elizabeth II's husband.

7:54 Right.

7:54 from the Royal Society of Arts where Philip was

7:56 patron at the time.

7:58 Okay.

7:58 We can't match the Royal Society

8:01 for a 300 celebration, but I want to lay

8:03 down a challenge to anyone who's out

8:05 there who's watching who enjoys

8:07 objectivity.

8:08 Why don't you send us

8:10 something to celebrate 300?

8:12 I would most like you to create and send an address

8:16 like one of these.

8:18 James will show a few

8:19 more on the screen for you so you can

8:21 get some inspiration.

8:22 And I'll put an

8:23 address in the video description.

8:24 And if you want to send us one to celebrate

8:27 300, I will peruse them.

8:29 I will share them.

8:30 And the best ones I will present

8:33 to Keith for his official

8:35 approval, uh, his checking, looking at,

8:40 I don't know, something like that.

8:41 Cataloging as important manuscripts.

8:44 Uh, and of course it has to have the Brady

8:46 coat of arms on there, surely.

8:48 No, no, no.

8:48 This is this is objectivity

8:50 because objectivity is a team effort.

8:52 And before we go, can I say thank you,

8:55 which I don't say enough, to Keith at

8:57 the Royal Society and all the team in

8:59 the library and the archive.

9:01 Great people who have made so many of these

9:04 videos possible.

9:04 So, a huge thank you to

9:06 them.

9:06 A huge thank you to James Hennessy

9:08 behind the camera who films and edits

9:10 all these videos as well and does a

9:11 marvelous job.

9:12 And thank you to you,

9:13 everyone who's watching.

9:14 Check down in the video description for an address if

9:17 you want to create a posh document or

9:19 send us a bell.

9:20 We'd love a bell or a

9:22 glass bowl or anything.

9:23 I'm sure you could.

9:24 You could tinkle yourself into dinner, couldn't you?

9:26 I would enjoy tinkling myself into

9:28 dinner very much.

9:30 Thank you for watching.

9:31 I'm going to spend more time looking at all this

9:33 amazing stuff.

9:38 I'm going to put a bunch of pictures of

9:39 those addresses on our Patreon page so

9:42 you can have a closer look.

9:43 But you don't have to be a patron to see them.

9:45 It's going to be open access for

9:46 everyone.

9:46 So go to the link down in the

9:48 video description if you want to check

9:49 them out and you know, maybe send us

9:51 something.

9:52 I'll include all the details

9:53 you could need down below.

9:54 And speaking of our Patreon page, our thank you to

9:57 those people who have become Patreon

9:58 supporters.

9:59 You can see some of their

10:00 names on the [music] screen at the

10:02 moment.

10:02 They make all of this possible.