Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society

Samuel Alexander Stewart retired as Curator.

Society’s museum collections transferred to Belfast Corporation by deed of gift for the new municipal museum. This material would remain in the building until the 1920s.

Archaeological Section established.

To mark the centenary, annual lectures increased to 15 for the session instead of the usual 5–7.

The Ulster Society for the Protection of Birds was formed on 13 Dec. at a public meeting held in the Old Museum Building.

Excavations began at Nendrum, Co. Down. Society outings to Nendrum on 29 July and 9 September.

Publication of centenary volume, edited by Arthur Deane, on the activities and members of the Society, 1821–1921.

Society’s library transferred on loan to Belfast Museum and Art Gallery.

The Monastery of St Mochoi of Nendrum, by H.C. Lawlor, and A Guide to the Ruins of Nendrum Monastery, by Major C. Blakiston-Houston, published by the Society.

Society affiliated to the National Trust.

Society funded the first excavation of a Horned Cairn (Court Tomb), which was undertaken by Estyn and Gwyneth Evans at Goward, near Hilltown, Co. Down.

Visit to Corporation Harbour Power Station, when F.H. Whysall, city electrical engineer, explained the working of the machinery.

Explosion of a land mine, placed for unknown reasons, in the garden of 8 College Square North, blew out the glass in the windows of the Old Museum Building as well as the glass in all the windows on the north side of the technical college.

Decided to dispose for war purposes the steel armour plate, which had stood in front of the building since 1889.

The iron railings in front of the building were removed for the war effort.

Robert Lloyd Praeger, a former member of the Society, admitted as an honorary member for his contributions to the study of botany.

In April, the Belfast Ballet Club performed in the Old Museum Building in tribute to their founder, the late Madame Marie Delston (Maroussia Edelstyn) from Ukraine. [LINK]

The Society continued to hold lectures and meetings in the Old Museum Building.

Other organisations, including the Royal Society of Ulster Architects, the Ulster Academy of Arts, the Workers’ Educational Association and the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club rented rooms or space.

In this year the Society exchanged its journal with some 140 learned societies and organisations worldwide, including Moscow, Berlin, Washington, Rio de Janeiro and Calcutta. Incoming publications were deposited at Queen’s University.

George Thompson lectured on the Ulster Folk Museum. W.M. Capper lectured on the preservation of the countryside.

The proceedings reported that due to political unrest all lectures were cancelled for sessions 1971–4.

Margaret Garner elected first woman President of the Society.

W.A. Maguire lectured on Lord Donegall, Fisherwick Park and the Hearts of Steel while Professor Richard Clarke lectured on early charts of waters around Ireland.

To mark the 150th anniversary of opening of the museum in 1831, a volume of selection of 24 papers delivered at Society lectures, edited by Norman McNeilly, was published.

The building was leased to an arts organisation to become OMAC, the Old Museum Arts Centre.

The Opshal Commission, an independent public enquiry into the future of Northern Ireland, held many of its sessions in the Old Museum Building.

In association with the Ulster Historical Foundation, the Society launched a book publications programme.

The Society co-published with the Royal Irish Academy C.E.B. Brett’s book, Georgian Belfast, 1750–1850: Maps, Buildings and Trade.

Joint publication with the Ulster Historical Foundation of Raymond Gillespie’s Early Belfast: The Origins and Growth of an Ulster Town.

The Arts Centre moved to new premises in the cathedral quarter. The Society resumed lectures in the Old Museum Building. Replay Theatre Company took space in the building. Kids in Control, a theatre company for young people, took rooms in part of the building.

The iron railings were restored at the front of the building.

The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society took up occupancy in the building and formed a partnership with the Society in a project to restore the Old Museum Building and give it new purpose.

Society outing to the grave of the first president of the Society, Dr James Drummond, at Ahoghill (on 5 June, the exact date of the bicentenary). It was agreed to fund the restoration of the grave.

At the September meeting, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell delivered a special bicentenary lecture: ‘We are Made of Star Stuff’.

Society outing to Nendrum on 29 June, 100 years to the day after the first outing to the excavation was organised.

Society publishes its bicentennial history.