Quekett Microscopical Club

The Quekett Microscopical Club offers membership to all who are interested in the microscope and microscopy. Its members come from all over the world, and include both amateur and professional microscopists who are happy to share their knowledge with beginners and with new members. The Club is a registered charity, a learned society and a not-for-profit publisher, with the stated aims of promoting the understanding and use of all aspects of the microscope.

The Club was founded in 1865 as a result of a letter from W. Gibson published in Science Gossip in May 1865 suggesting that “some association among the amateur microscopists of London is desirable”.

The suggestion was taken up by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, Thomas Ketteringham and Witham Bywater, and they met on 14 June 1865 and agreed a provisional committee. About sixty people attended the first meeting of the Club on Friday 7 July 1865 for the purpose of establishing the Club to “give amateurs the opportunity of assisting each other, holding monthly meetings in a central locality, at an annual charge to cover incidental expenses”. The name agreed was “The Quekett Microscopical Club”, ‘club’ was chosen instead of ‘society’ to reflect the aims of the association. The first President was Edwin Lankester.

The Club is named after the famous Victorian microscopist Professor John Thomas Quekett, and is the second oldest organisation in the world dedicated to microscopy; the oldest is the Royal Microscopical Society.

Some of the traditions of the Club’s Victorian founders are continued, but the Quekett is now very much a friendly club for today’s microscopists and covers all aspects of the subject ranging from the history of the microscope and slide collecting to the latest advances in digital imaging with the microscope.

Several eminent scientists have been presidents of the Club, including Edwin Lankester (1865–66), Lionel Smith Beale (1870–71), Henry Lee (1875–77), Thomas Henry Huxley (1877–79), Thomas Spencer Cobbold (1879–80), Mordecai Cubitt Cooke (1881–83), William Benjamin Carpenter (1883–85), William Dallinger (1889–92), George Edward Massee (1899-1903), Arthur Dendy (1911–16), Alfred Barton Rendle (1916–21), Sir David Prain (1924–26), William Thomas Calman (1926–28), John Ramsbottom (1928-31) and Hamilton Hartridge (1951–54).

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Wikipedia