Royal Society of Canada - History

History

In the late 1870s, the Governor General of Canada, the Marquis of Lorne, determined that Canada required a cultural institution to promote national scientific research and development. Since that time, succeeding Governors General have remained closely involved with the affairs of the Society. In 1882 the Royal Society of Canada was founded under the personal patronage of the Marquis of Lorne. A year later, in 1883, the Society was incorporated by a statute of the Parliament of Canada. In 2010, His Excellency the Right Honourable David Lloyd Johnston, Governor General of Canada, was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Society.

From its founding in 1883 into the early 1900s, the structure of the RSC followed the model of the Royal Society of London but with the important addition of literature and other elements found in the Institut de France. Like their counterparts, membership to the RSC was limited and by election. Initially, the RSC was divided into four sections, each of 20 Fellows. These sections were: (1) Littérature française, Histoire, Archéologie; (2) English Literature, History, Archaeology; (3) Mathematical, Physical and Chemical Sciences; and (4) Geological and Biological Sciences. The founding Fellows of the RSC included Sir Sandford Fleming, the originator of the world system of Standard Time, and Sir William Osler, one of the greatest physicians of his day. The Fellows of the RSC were nominated by a committee headed by the Principal of McGill University, Sir John William Dawson, and by the former Premier of Québec, Pierre Chauveau. These two men served as the first and second Presidents of the Society.

As Canadian scholarship and research blossomed, the RSC also grew. Within three decades the fellowship of the RSC doubled in number. After several phases of restructuring, the RSC evolved into the contemporary organization that it is today.