Without the Royal Society of Tasmania, a major museum, art gallery and botanic gardens would look a lot different.
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The building housing Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens in Hobart both started out under the careful eye of the society.
Society council member Dr Anita Hansen will present The Advancement of Knowledge – 175 years of the Royal Society of Tasmania to examine the impact of the society on October 22.
“It’s very significant in history that a little place like Tasmania has the oldest Royal Society outside of Britain,” Dr Hansen said.
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“Culturally, it’s quite a major institution back in its heyday.”
The Royal Society was formed in 1843 before it donated the building and natural history objects for the Tasmanian public in 1885.
“Nowadays we tend to work mainly in scientific fields with a series of lectures.”
The society still maintained a major library at the University of Tasmania and had loaned a substantial series of artworks to the museum, she said.
By hosting lectures and publishing a peer-reviewed journal, the society enabled scientists and researchers to promote their work, Dr Hansen said.
Lecture topics were diverse, ranging from facial tumours of the Tasmanian Devil to citizen science.
And the society still had an important role to play in Tasmania.
“How do you form opinions on global warming or mass extinctions of species … if you don’t get informed scientific information and data?”
Information could be found online, but listening to a researcher who specialised in a topic made a significant different to people’s understanding, Dr Hansen said.
“We’re not involved in research ourselves, but we promote and enable researchers to promote their work,” she said.
“It’s bringing the latest information to people in Tasmania.”
The winter series of lectures were live-streamed and could be access around the world, she said.
Dr Hansen works as an artist, co-edited The Royal Society of Tasmania’s book The Library at the End of the World: Natural Science and Its Illustrators and has published several journal articles.
As for what she wanted people to know about the society before her upcoming lecture.
“We’re still here, we’re still an ongoing, thriving society that’s helping science, history and art in Tasmania,” Dr Hansen said.
- Dr Anita Hansen will present The Advancement of Knowledge – 175 years of the Royal Society of Tasmania as part of the society’s lecture series at the meeting room in QVMAG at Inveresk. Starting at 1.30pm on Sunday, October 22, admission costs $6 for the general public and $4 for students, friends of the museum and Launceston Historical Society members.
Tess Brunton
I recently returned from across the ditch where I worked at New Zealand Fairfax paper The Timaru Herald and developed a love of mountains. Originally I'm a mainlander from an area known for cheese, the Bega Valley, who also dabbled in radio at ABC RCAFF before finding a place in newspapers. I can often be found hiking, caving or climbing when I'm not cursing at my work computer or technology in general.
I recently returned from across the ditch where I worked at New Zealand Fairfax paper The Timaru Herald and developed a love of mountains. Originally I'm a mainlander from an area known for cheese, the Bega Valley, who also dabbled in radio at ABC RCAFF before finding a place in newspapers. I can often be found hiking, caving or climbing when I'm not cursing at my work computer or technology in general.
