The Hakluyt Society is a text publication society, founded in 1846 and based in London, England, which publishes scholarly editions of primary records of historic voyages, travels and other geographical material. In addition to its publishing role, the Society organises and participates in meetings, symposia and conferences relating to the history of geographical exploration and cultural encounter. It is a registered charity and a non-profitmaking institution administered by a voluntary team of council members and officers. Membership is open to all with an interest in its aims. The Society is named after Richard Hakluyt (1552–1616), a collector and editor of narratives of voyages and travels and other documents relating to English interests overseas. The Society's logo, which appears on the cover of all volumes, is a vignette of Ferdinand Magellan's ship, the Victoria.
Foundation
The Society was created at a meeting convened in the London Library, St James's Square, on 15 December 1846. Under the chairmanship of the geologist Sir Roderick Murchison, it established an eight-man steering group which included the geographer and historian William Desborough Cooley; the Army medical officer Andrew Smith; the naval officer and surveyor Sir Charles Malcolm; the antiquary Bolton Corney; the British Museum Principal Librarian Sir Henry Ellis; the physicist and mathematician William Rowan Hamilton, FRS; and John Edward Gray, Keeper of Zoology at the British Museum. Cooley had previously criticised the Royal Geographical Society for relying too heavily on contemporary materials in the solution of geographical problems, arguing that the scientific study of geography should involve a far wider analysis and appreciation of earlier sources. He took the major role during the Society's formative period, assisted by Corney and Smith, while Murchison occupied little more than a figurehead position. Cooley had proposed that the society should be known as the "Columbus Society", but at the inaugural Council Meeting on 26 January 1847 it was decided that it be named in commemoration of Richard Hakluyt. Not only did Hakluyt's name as a recorder of voyages, rather than an explorer in his own right, better reflect the society's aims, but it also proclaimed its central ambition, which was to advance Hakluyt's work into the modern age. A resolution was adopted whereby the Society would print and circulate to its members, for a subscription of one guinea per annum, rare accounts of voyages, travels and geographical records dating from any period prior to William Dampier's circumnavigation (effectively before the end of the 17th century). Meetings were initially held in a room at the London Library, but in 1849 transferred to the offices of the Society's printer in St Martin's Lane, and from 1850 in Great Queen Street. From 1872 they were held at the Royal Geographical Society's premises, originally in Savile Row and subsequently in Kensington Gore. A General Meeting on 4 March 1847 agreed a constitution and a list of works to be published. The Society was to be governed by a President (Murchison), two vice-presidents (Charles Malcolm and Revd H. H. Milman), a Secretary (Cooley) and 17 elected council members. The first year's Council included – in addition to the members of the original steering group – Charles Darwin, Charles Beke, Captain Charles Ramsay Drinkwater Bethune and the scholar Richard Henry Major. The Society attracted 220 members in its first two years. Its first publication, Bethune's Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, appeared in December 1847; followed by Major's Select Letters of Christopher Columbus (printed 1847 but published in January 1848). Richard Hakluyt's Divers Voyages touching the Discovery of America, which the Society had intended for its inaugural publication, was postponed until 1850. Meanwhile, Sir Robert Schomburgk's edition of Ralegh's voyage to Guiana had appeared (1849), together with Cooley's Sir Francis Drake his Voyage (1849), Thomas Rundall's Voyages towards the North-West, and Major's Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia. Early print-runs were relatively small – around 250 copies to satisfy the existing membership, with a few to spare – at a cost to the Society in the region of £50–60.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
