The UK's national academy of science, the Royal Society, is celebrating its 350th anniversary. Christopher Wren delivered its first lecture in November 1660. It received its Royal Charter from King Charles II two years later.
Wren was a founding member of the Society, which commissioned this fine portrait of the scientist and architect beside his best-known building, St Paul's Cathedral.
King Charles is celebrated, together with the scientist Francis Bacon, in the frontispiece of Thomas Spratt's history of the Society, published in 1667.
Sir Isaac Newton's telescope, the first to reflect light, is just one of the Society's treasures. Newton was elected president of the Society in 1703, a post he held until his death in 1727.
The Society also holds the handwritten title page of Newton's Principia, which defined the laws of motion and universal gravitation.
Newton's death mask is another of the many fascinating articles in the Society's archives.
Among the more intriguing of Newton's artefacts are two splinters from the tree that inspired his theory of gravity. The larger piece has recently been flown in space with the UK-born astronaut Piers Sellers.
Another founder member was Robert Boyle, who was painted by Johann Kerseboom (c.1689). Boyle is widely regarded as the first modern chemist, as well as being a noted writer on theology.
Among the many inventions created by the Society's members is Humphry Davy's safety lamp. The lamp allowed miners to detect the build-up of gas underground and saved many hundreds of lives.
Detail from the Challenger map. The society supported HMS Challenger's 1872 voyage, the world's first oceanographic expedition.
The Society's 250th anniversary dinner was held in the grand surroundings of London's Guildhall.
The Society first awarded the Copley Medal in 1731 for outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science. It alternates between the physical and biological sciences.
Though a quintessentially British institution, the Royal Society's members, including Albert Einstein, have come from around the world.
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