Dear Member,

We very much hope you will be able to attend our first “in person” Annual General Meeting since 2019. This will be part of the programme of our Summer conference, The Language of Nature, to be held at the ThinkTank, the Birmingham Science Museum, on 13 June 2023. The Society’s AGM will take place after the lunch break, at 1.30 pm London time /13:30 BST; and I look forward to meeting you.

The meeting will explore the language of nature in its broadest sense. Over centuries, different formats and mediums, stylistic approaches and classification systems have been used to describe and represent the natural world. These ‘languages’ influence how we conceive of nature, how we categorise it, how we wonder at it and who we credit with its ‘discovery’. This conference aims to bring new perspectives to the history of natural history writing and other expressions of nature, exploring not only the creativity and originality involved but also the limitations and biases that shape our understanding of the natural world and how it has been perceived throughout history.

Do register for our Summer conference and share with us the opportunity to meet old friends, make new ones and learn more about the interactions of natural history and language.

Download the 2023 SHNH Programme & Abstracts for the ‘Language of Nature’

Please register to attend through this Eventbrite link

We have much to celebrate in 2023. Our Meetings Secretary, elected at last year’s AGM organised a very successful Early Career Researchers Symposium on 23 February. Held online, this enabled us to welcome presenters and participants from around the world to share their work. Arrangements for some interesting visits have been made and will continue.

We are celebrating the issue of our 50^th volume of Archives of Natural History. We are delighted that our our new Editor is now in place to manage future issues.  Our Associate Editors continue to work extremely hard to ensure that our journal maintains its high standards of scholarship. That has necessarily impacted once more on preparation of the Newsletter, but we are keeping our members informed by using electronic newsletters for time-sensitive news.

We are delighted to announce our Awards for this year: the Founders’ Medal to Professor Geoffrey Moore, the President’s Award to Victoria Dickenson and The Gwillim Project and the SHNH Natural History Book Prize (John Thackray Medal) to Henrietta McBurney for Illuminating natural history: the art and science of Mark Catesby (2021, Yale University Press). The 2022 W. T Stearn student essay prize has been awarded to Cameron Barber, St Andrews University for “Biological Jewels”: the Glass Specimens of Herman O. Mueller, and the Forgotten Tradition of the Specimen-Glassblower.

The Agenda for the AGM, and all the supporting documents including the list of nominees to Council portfolios are available on the Society’s website. Please read these, or download them if you need to print them out. We have sent out invitations to the AGM by mail to those members lacking internet access and an email address.

The official business of the AGM will be followed by the return to the meeting. The end of the Summer Conference will conclude with a free wine reception for all, with the opportunity for some short thanks from our Award winners. Do come and celebrate with our award winners.

This is also a timely moment for me to thank all who have served the Society, as Trustees, editors and reviewers or helping to judge awards. Strategic planning for the future will continue to ensure the long term sustainability of the Society.

I do hope you will be able to join us at our AGM on 13 June at 1.30 pm (13.30 BST).

We look forward to meeting with you on June 13^th.

Gina Douglas

President, Society for the History of Natural History
www.shnh.org.uk @SHNHSocNatHist

SHNH AGM 2023 DOCUMENTS

1. Agenda
2. SHNH AGM 2022 Minutes
3. SHNH Report of the Trustees and Statement of Accounts 2023
4. Trustee Nomination Form

SHNH AWARD WINNERS 2023