People and their collections

Robert Plot 1640-96 - scientist & antiquary

When the Royal Society was founded in 1660, it brought together many of the great philosophical and scientific minds of the day, such as Christopher Wren, John Wallis, Edmund Halley, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton and all those with influence in Restoration society, such as the diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. Robert Hooke, Curator of Experiments for the Society from November 1662, was an experimental scientist, mathematician, architect and astronomer.

Meetings at the Society provided the opportunity for discussion, experimentation, collection and curation (the Society set up its own museum from 1666) and dissemination in the form of its Philosophical Transactions.

On April 19 1665 John Evelyn (1620-1706) recorded in his diary: ‘hence to our [Royal] Society where were divers poisons experimented on animals’.

Plot was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in December 1677, following the favourable reception of his book The Natural History of Oxford-shire. He remained closely involved with the Society for the rest of his life.