Distinguished Patronesses: Upper-Class Women and the Royal Institution

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, a handful of high-society women turned the Royal Institution's chemistry and geology lectures into the success story of the Season. The Institution's distinguished patronesses included Viscountess Palmerston, Lady Bernard and Lady Hippisley, all of whom had previous experience at managing scientific or philanthropic projects. They managed workhouses according to a scientific method devised by Count Rumford now known as ‘scientific philanthropy’ and experimented with mineralogical specimens in laboratories on their country estates. Tasked with recruiting female subscribers, they led other women to the Royal Institution's scientific lectures in the hundreds. Indeed, according to some contemporary commentators the audience was mostly female. The scale of the distinguished patronesses’ success is evident in satirical attacks from their critics. By 1811, centuries-old animosity towards female intellectuals manifested itself in the figure of a Bluestocking who spent too much of her time in the laboratory.