Hakluyt Society
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Founded | 15 December 1846 |
---|---|
Founder | William Desborough Cooley |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Headquarters location | London |
Publication types | Books |
Nonfiction topics | Primary records of historic voyages, travels and other geographical material |
Official website | www |
The Hakluyt Society is a
The Society is named after Richard Hakluyt (1552–1616), a collector and editor of narratives of voyages and travels and other documents relating to English interests overseas.
Foundation
The Society was created at a meeting convened in the London Library, St James's Square, on 15 December 1846. Under the chairmanship of the geologist Sir Roderick Murchison, it established an eight-man steering group which included the geographer and historian William Desborough Cooley; the Army medical officer Andrew Smith; the naval officer and surveyor Sir Charles Malcolm; the antiquary Bolton Corney; the British Museum Principal Librarian Sir Henry Ellis; the physicist and mathematician William Rowan Hamilton, FRS; and John Edward Gray, Keeper of Zoology at the British Museum. Cooley had previously criticised the Royal Geographical Society for relying too heavily on contemporary materials in the solution of geographical problems, arguing that the scientific study of geography should involve a far wider analysis and appreciation of earlier sources. He took the major role during the Society's formative period, assisted by Corney and Smith, while Murchison occupied little more than a figurehead position.
Cooley had proposed that the society should be known as the "Columbus Society", but at the inaugural Council Meeting on 26 January 1847 it was decided that it be named in commemoration of
A General Meeting on 4 March 1847 agreed a constitution and a list of works to be published. The Society was to be governed by a President (Murchison), two vice-presidents (Charles Malcolm and Revd H. H. Milman), a Secretary (Cooley) and 17 elected council members. The first year's Council included – in addition to the members of the original steering group –
The Society attracted 220 members in its first two years. Its first publication, Bethune's Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, appeared in December 1847; followed by Major's Select Letters of Christopher Columbus (printed 1847 but published in January 1848). Richard Hakluyt's Divers Voyages touching the Discovery of America, which the Society had intended for its inaugural publication, was postponed until 1850. Meanwhile, Sir Robert Schomburgk's edition of Ralegh's voyage to Guiana had appeared (1849), together with Cooley's Sir Francis Drake his Voyage (1849), Thomas Rundall's Voyages towards the North-West, and Major's Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia. Early print-runs were relatively small – around 250 copies to satisfy the existing membership, with a few to spare – at a cost to the Society in the region of £50–60.
Later development
Murchison served as president until his death in 1871, although his position was largely honorary. He was succeeded by Sir
In 1908, the final year of Markham's rule, the Society broke with tradition and published its first post-1700 text, Bolton Corney's Voyage of Captain Don Felipe Gonzalez.
In 1909 Markham was succeeded as president by Sir Albert Gray, an ex-member of the Ceylon Civil Service. From this time onwards the Society began to extend its activity beyond that of publication. It supported the establishment of a memorial to Richard Hakluyt in
Publications
The main activity of the Society is the publication of scholarly editions of primary sources on the voyages and travels undertaken by individuals in many parts of the globe. These include early accounts dealing with the geography, ethnology and natural history of the regions visited. The Society has to date published over 200 editions in some 350 volumes. All editions are published in English.
Although many of the Society's past editions relate to British ventures, with documentary sources in English, the majority concern non-British enterprises and are based on texts in languages other than English. Translations from Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French or Dutch have regularly appeared, and occasional translations from Russian, Greek, Latin, Amharic, Mandarin, Persian or Arabic. The translation in which the material is presented is normally a fresh version, but has sometimes been an earlier rendering, checked and corrected as necessary.
All editions contain scholarly annotation to elucidate the complexities of the text, and to place it in its wider historical context. Volumes are produced in a standard binding, and generally contain maps and contemporary illustrations.
Editions have dealt with the following explorers:
.The Society published 100 volumes in its First Series, from 1847 to 1899. The Second Series ran from 1899 to 1998, and accounted for 190 volumes. The Third Series, in a larger format, began in 1999, and by 2021 had reached 38 volumes. These included a 3-volume journal of The
Currently, two volumes are published on average each year.
Extra Series
In addition to its regular series, the Society publishes a separate Extra Series, comprising books which are too expensive in their production to be freely distributed, but which are made available to members at reduced prices. Publications of this type first appeared in 1903–07 with C. R. Beazley's annotated extracts from Hakluyt, and the multi-volume MacLehose editions of Hakluyt's Principal Navigations and Purchas's Pilgrimes. These are now treated as volumes 1–33 of the Extra Series, although only a few sets of the MacLehose printings appeared in Hakluyt Society binding, and none carried the Extra Series imprint. The concept was revived and formally designated in the 1950s with the publication of the Journals of Captain James Cook (4 volumes, 1955–67, numbered as Extra Series vols 34–37), followed by other titles including the monumental Charts & Coastal Views of Captain Cook's Voyages (1988–92). The Extra Series had reached 47 volumes by the end of 2012.
Other activities
The Society's Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Annual Lecture were held at the Royal Geographical Society until 2011,[4] since when they have been held at the University of Notre Dame, London Centre.[5] In 2020 and 2021 the AGM was held online via Zoom. The Society's website hosts a discussion group, regional research guides to its published volumes and hosts the peer-reviewed Journal of the Hakluyt Society.[6]
Logo
The Society's logo, which appears on the cover of all volumes, is a vignette of Ferdinand Magellan's ship, the Victoria.
Presidents
- 1847–71: Sir Roderick Murchison
- 1871–77: Sir David Dundas
- 1877–89: Sir Henry Yule
- 1889–1909 Sir Clements Markham
- 1909–28: Sir Albert Gray
- 1928–45: Sir William Foster
- 1945–50: Edward Lynam
- 1950–54: Malcolm Letts
- 1955–59: Professor J. N. L. Baker
- 1959–64: Sir Alan Burns
- 1964–69: Sir Gilbert Laithwaite
- 1969–72: C. F. Beckingham
- 1972–78: Esmond S. de Beer
- 1978–82: Glyndwr Williams
- 1982–87: David Beers Quinn
- 1987–92: Sir Harold Smedley
- 1992–97: Professor Paul E. H. Hair
- 1997–2002: Sarah Tyacke
- 2002–08: Professor Roy Bridges
- 2008–11: Professor Will Ryan
- 2011–16: Captain Mike Barritt
- 2016–21: Professor Jim Bennett
- 2021–present: Gloria Clifton
American Friends of the Hakluyt Society
A sister organisation, the American Friends of the Hakluyt Society, was founded in 1996 at the John Carter Brown Library located on the campus of Brown University. The American Friends was founded in conjunction with the 150th anniversary celebration of the Hakluyt Society. The Rhode Island merchant John Carter Brown (1797–1874), was the first American to join the Society as a charter member in 1846.
The American Friends of the Hakluyt Society exists as a non-profit corporation with objectives similar to those of the Hakluyt Society in London, but with a focus on the history of the Americas. The group promotes and helps provide financial support from the United States for the publication of scholarly editions of records of voyages, travels and other geographical material of the past.
References
- ^ *"Hakluyt Society, registered charity no. 313168". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
- ^ Wikisource
- ^ "The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World". The Hakluyt Society. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
- ^ Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2012
- ^ Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2019
- ^ Hakluyt, Richard (25 June 2019). "Journal of the Hakluyt Society". www.hakluyt.com. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
Further reading
- Bridges, R. C.; Hair, P. E. H., eds. (1996). Compassing the Vaste Globe of the Earth: Studies in the History of the Hakluyt Society. London: Hakluyt Society. ISBN 9780904180442.
- Bridges, Roy (April 2014). "The Literature of Travel and Exploration: The Work of the Hakluyt Society" (PDF). The Journal of the Hakluyt Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 August 2019.
- Bridges, Roy (2008). "William Desborough Cooley (1795–1883)". Geographers Biobibliographical Studies. 27: 43–62.
- Crone, G. R. (1962). ""Jewells of Antiquitie": the work of the Hakluyt Society". Geographical Journal. 128 (3): 321–324. JSTOR 1794046.
- Foster, William (1946). "The Hakluyt Society: a retrospect 1846–1946". In Lynam, Edward (ed.). Richard Hakluyt and his Successors: a volume issued to commemorate the Centenary of the Hakluyt Society. Hakluyt Society 2nd ser. Vol. 93. London: Hakluyt Society. pp. 143–70.
- JSTOR 634763.
- Middleton, Dorothy (1984). "The Hakluyt Society 1846–1923". Annual Report for 1984. Hakluyt Society. pp. 12–23.
External links
- Official website
- American Friends of the Hakluyt Society
- Raymond Howgego, The History of the Hakluyt Society.
- "Publications of the Hakluyt Society". Hakluyt Society. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
- "Hakluyt Society (list of publications)" (PDF). Royal Historical Society. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
- Works by The Hakluyt Society at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about The Hakluyt Society at Internet Archive