‘The Royal Society Summer Exhibition: Highlights from the Soirees’ was one of two digital exhibitions on Google Arts and Culture as part of the 2021 Summer Science Showcase, a week long festival held by the Royal Society celebrating cutting edge UK science.

Co-curated by Sandra Kemp (The Ruskin) and Keith Moore (Royal Society), ‘The Royal Society Summer Exhibition: Highlights from the Soirees’ looks back to the origins of the Summer Science festival in the interplay of the arts and sciences at these spectacular displays, from the 1840s to-date. The Admiralty official Sir John Barrow (1764-1848) recalled that: ‘the literati of all nations were to be met; curiosities of every description were brought by visitors and exhibited.’ This digital exhibit tells the story of how these embryonic displays were transformed into today’s Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. Significant 19th-century scientists explained their research at Presidential soirées, to equally resplendent audiences. At the Duke of Sussex’s Kensington Palace in March 1833, Michael Faraday FRS (1791-1864) demonstrated an electric motor to the French Ambassador, Prince Talleyrand (1754-1838), Napoleon’s former chief diplomat. Although exhibition themes changed over time, the desire to use novelty, action, and stunning visual effects to create a conversation around scientific principles, were constants.

The ‘Soirées digital exhibit was accompanied by another Google Arts and Culture exhibit ‘Painting with Sunlight: Ruskin and Science’ and a blog: https://royalsociety.org/blog/2021/07/cloud-perspectives/