RECORDS OF THE ROCHESTER AND DISTRICT NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY

CH/Me/1

1879-2002

fonds

The Rochester Naturalists' Club was formed in 1878. It changed its name to the Rochester and District Naturalists' Club in 1921 and then again in 1926 to the Rochester and District Natural History Society. The first meetings were at Newton Terrace School, Rochester, on the second Saturday of each month. At a meeting on 2 October 1880 it was decided to move the meetings to Sir Joseph Williamson's School, High Street, Rochester. By 1938 meetings were being held at Eastgate House Museum, where the society established its own library. Meetings were generally confined to the autumn and winter months, whilst the spring and summer was devoted to outings and excursions. The programme of lectures was very varied: all branches of natural history and science were covered, including chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy and geology, as well as agriculture, public health, travel, architecture, ethics and (from 1902) photography. The society held an annual "Conversazione" (later an Annual Exhibition) and for much of its history published a journal, 'The Rochester Naturalist'. The Society became a Registered Charity (No. 1001960) in 1990. It drew to a close in 2001, owing to "the ages of the present members and the lack of new members joining".

The records consist of minute books, correspondence files, financial accounts, records of sightings and wildlife censuses, publications by the Society, scrapbooks, photographs and insignia. There are also additional scrapbooks of newspaper cuttings in the Local Studies collection. The collection commends itself to historical research by virtue of the lectures and papers read by visiting speakers and society members, both professional and amateur experts in their fields, and the unique records by the Society's members of local flora and fauna. The minute books contain many details of the local landscape and places of interest, wildlife and weather, and regularly include details on specimens brought to meetings by the members. Whilst many eminent local citizens became members, many ordinary individuals with an interest and passion for natural history and learning also joined the society and hence the collection will also be of interest to family historians.