King's College London Engineering Society

The collection comprises minute books, accounts, records of books on loan from the Common Room, sporting fixtures and editors' reports relating to The King's engineer, 1847-1983; including minute books of the Engineering Society/King's College Scientific Society, recording finance and social business, and with very brief summaries of many of the papers delivered to Society meetings, 1847-1983; attendance register of Society meetings with notices of papers read, 1849-1960; address books of members, [1847-1941]; Vice-Presidents' annual reports on finance, including balances, 1890-1900; account books for the Society Common Room, 1876-1938; register of books loaned out from the Society library, with a summary of rules of the Society and a list of members of the Committee of Management, 1847-1891; signature books of visitors to Society meetings, 1922-1954; cricket score book for the Society team, 1901-1903, 1950; file of correspondence relating to The King's engineer including accounts, lists of officers and committee of management, editors' reports on the journal, 1933-1936, 1944; printed pamphlet entitled, In grateful memory of Fougasse containing cartoons sketched by Fougasse (Cyril Kenneth Bird) for programmes of Society annual dinners, [1905-1965].

Broadly chronological.

<p>King's College London archives holds copies of The King's engineer (Ref: K/SER).</p>

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archive Services.

The records were deposited in the College Archives by the King's College London Engineering Society.

The Department of Civil Engineering and Mining, one of the earliest of its kind in the world, was established at King's College London in 1838. The Engineering Society, whose members included interested staff and students, was founded in 1847, and quickly began the tradition of reading scientific papers at meetings that averaged 12-20 a year on subjects as diverse as early photography, the foundations of buildings and manufacturing methods, and in particular on bridges, tunnels, railways and other civil engineering projects; changes name to King's College Scientific Society in 1854; Society dissolved, 1855, and re-established as the Engineering Society by Professor Thomas Minchin Goodeve, 1857; the increasing popularity and importance of the Society from around 1870 was reflected in its membership that during this period included, among others, Llewellyn Atkinson and Charles Henry Wordingham, each subsequently President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers; regular instructional works visits to factories and other engineering sites commenced, 1886; occasional exhibitions begin, 1894; first annual dinner held, 1895; lunch time debates initiated from [1906]; Old Students Section of the Engineering Society formed, 1919; first edition of The King's engineer published, 1921-1922; relocation of Society with College to Bristol, during World War Two, 1939-1943; centenary celebrations, 1947. The Society was still active in 2001.