The Plymouth Athenaeum charitable society is going back to the future, bringing an old and favourite name back as it moves forward into the future. The activities of the Society are being rebranded as it returns to using its original name, the Plymouth Institution.
For almost 150 years from its foundation in 1812 until 1961 and the opening of the current Athenaeum building, the Society was known as the Plymouth Institution.
Since 1812 the Society has been inspiring learning in the arts and sciences through events, activities, groups, lectures and talks, libraries, exhibitions and displays and research and study.
New Director of the Plymouth Institution, Owen Ryles, said: “With major £2m-plus building refurbishments currently taking place at the Athenaeum as part of the New Athenaeum Project, now is the perfect time for us to make the change.
“We feel the Plymouth Institution is who we are and who we have been for most of our history. It is a name that best fits the Society’s mission and activities.
“Making this change will allow us to regenerate and grow the Society alongside the Athenaeum building in the coming years. There is an exciting future now for both the Athenaeum and the Society.”
The Plymouth Institution’s President is Prof Sir Ghillean Prance. Sir Ghillean is a world-renowned botanist, and a former director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. A Fellow of the Royal Society, Sir Ghillean is also a direct descendant of one of the Plymouth Institution’s founding Presidents of 1812, William Prance.
Speaking about his role at the Society, Sir Ghillean said: “I am proud to be the President in an Institution in which my great, great grandfather was one of the founders. It has a very special meaning to me now that I have come to live in Plymouth where he and a later relative were so involved with the Plymouth Institution.”
Discussing the return to the Society’s former name, Sir Ghillean said: “It is good to separate the names of the building from the many activities within it. I am very much in favour of returning to the original name for its academic activities. The name Plymouth Institution clearly links what we are to the great city of Plymouth.”
HISTORY OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION
The current Society has its roots in three organisations that were founded in the first half of the 19th century. The Plymouth Institution was founded on 17 October 1812. The Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society, formed in 1838, amalgamated with the Plymouth Institution in 1851 and the organisation became the Plymouth Institution and Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society. The Plymouth Mechanics’ Institute, which was formed in 1825, was absorbed into the Society in 1899.
Architect, town planner and founding member, John Foulston, designed the building that would become the permanent home of the Institution. The original Athenaeum building opened in 1819 and was destroyed by bombing in 1941 during the Second World War.
DISTINGUISHED MEMBERS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION
Scientists Charles Darwin, Sir William Snow Harris, Dr Marie Lebour and Dr Alison Wilson are among the many distinguished figures to have been members of the Society. Darwin undertook preparatory work at the Athenaeum ahead of his voyage on HMS Beagle in 1831 and later became a member of the Society. Other notable members include Nancy Astor, the first woman to take a seat as a Member of Parliament in Britain.
