Anne Coote: A Foot in the Door - Women, Science and the Royal Society of NSW

Vere Gordon Childe Lecture

The Royal Society of NSW is a learned society with a long history in the intellectual life of NSW. It had a stronger public profile in the nineteenth-century, when it played a key role in building a local scientific community. Although many women engaged in scientific pursuits at this time, membership of the Royal Society was restricted to men and it continued to be so until 1935. Female relatives of members attended the society’s occasional conversaziones, but only a handful of young women succeeded in having their research discussed at the society’s meetings and published in its journal. Their stories are worth telling.

Anne Coote is a professional historian whose institutional connections have included honorary associations with the University of New England and more recently, with Macquarie University’s Centre for Applied History. One of her research interests is the cultural history of science in colonial Australia and she has published academically on popular science journalism; the trade in natural history specimens at a local and global level; and the intersection of commercial natural history specimen collection with ideas about class. Her book, Knowledge for a Nation: Origins of the Royal Society of New South Wales, was published in 2024.

Vere Gordon Childe Memorial Lecture
Each year the forum has invited a distinguished historian to deliver our Vere Gordon Childe Memorial Lecture. Childe (1892-1957) was one of Australia’s most acclaimed scholars, universally recognised as the founder, between the two world wars, of the discipline of pre-history. He believed both in history’s power to throw light on the present and in the importance of historians engaging with the general public on the relevance and meaning of our work for the wider community. His pioneering books Man Makes Himself and What Happened in History are enduring testimonies to his vision. Childe had a close association with the Blue Mountains and he died in Blackheath.

Book through Humanitix or pay at the door. Eftpos and cash are accepted.

Hall Entry: $10 Waged; $5.00 Unwaged,
Afternoon tea from 3.30pm ($3 coffee/tea, $3 cake)