Provincial Scientific Societies and Publishing: Centre and Peripheries of Publishing Science in late Victorian Britain
Résumé
Publishing, albeit in many cases irregular, became one of the main activities of provincial scientific societies from the 1860s. In this way, the natural history societies and field clubs contributed to the inflation of scientific publications were thought to disrupt the progress of science. As a remedy, the creation of regional and regular periodicals instead of the publishing by individual societies was suggested. The appearance of the regional federations of natural history societies in the 1870s shows that the need to publish became even greater. The Midland Union of Natural History Societies (1877-1895) was founded with the aim of “imagining” a Midland community of naturalists through its monthly Midland Naturalist (1878-1893). Hardly had this regional begun to gain some readership than the British Association for the Advancement of Science launched its Corresponding Societies scheme in 1883 to organise the work of the provincial scientific societies. The impact of this national plan on the emerging regional science periodicals like Midland Naturalist was destructive as it encouraged publishing of individual associations. By looking at the publishing practices of the scientific associations in the English Midlands, this paper seeks to revise the historiography of provincial science publishing.