Royal Geographical Society

Founded in 1830 as the Geographical Society of London to promote the "advancement of geographical science," the institution was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1859 and became the Royal Geographical Society (RGS). Throughout the 19th century, the RGS played a central role in British imperial expansion, especially across Africa, South and Central Asia, and the polar regions. Its history is inseparable from that of British exploration and discovery. The Society was a key sponsor and supporter of many of the era’s most celebrated explorers and expeditions, including Charles Darwin, David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley, Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton, John Hunt, and Sir Edmund Hillary. Up to 1914, RGS-backed expeditions often captured public imagination and dominated newspaper headlines. The Society began publishing its journal in 1831. From 1855, expedition reports and research findings appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, succeeded in 1893 by The Geographical Journal. These publications disseminated maps, charts, and field data collected during expeditions, forming a unique and invaluable record. Today, they constitute the foundation of the RGS’s renowned geographical collections, still vital to the study of geography, exploration, and global history.