Seminar Conveners: Dr Alex Aylward, Professor Erica Charters, Dr Hohee Cho, Professor Rob Iliffe, Dr Catherine M Jackson, Dr Sloan Mahone
Seminars in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology
Dr Katy Duncan (Royal Institution)
From Teatime to TV: 200 Years of Science Communication at the Royal Institution
In June 1825, Mrs. Greenwood, housekeeper at the Royal Institution (Ri), London's leading institution for "diffusing" science to the public, was asked to provide tea and coffee for members and their friends on Friday evenings. A few months later, at Christmas, the Ri Managers decided children needed their own, adapted scientific lecture series. From these humble beginnings, the Friday Evening Discourses and Christmas Lectures have become the Ri's flagship lectures, still delivered at 21 Albemarle Street. Yet they have met dramatically different fates: one commands global television audiences, while the other has become largely unknown beyond specialist circles.
This paper sketches the series’ origins in the nineteenth century, before focusing on the twentieth century, when they both underwent significant transformations. It will explore the Ri’s decisions surrounding new broadcasting technologies and examine how this shaped its future audiences. Similarly, how did laboratory science's growing complexity affect stageable demonstrations for adults and children alike? And what impact did the Ri’s decision to cultivate nostalgia for the nineteenth century have on both series? By exploring their trajectories in parallel, we see how each series has developed and transformed, and what it can tell us about the changing relationships between science and its publics today.
Dr Katy Duncan is the Postdoctoral Freer Fellow at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. She completed her PhD in History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge in 2024, exploring the problem of Fair Weather Electricity across the long nineteenth century. Dr Duncan is currently Plumer Visiting Fellow at St Anne's College, Oxford, and Byrne-Bussey Marconi Visiting Fellow at the Bodleian Library for Michaelmas Term.
