ABSTRACT
The image created by the term 'national treasure house' implies heaped up riches – material or metaphysical – and indeed the Royal Institution comes into that particular category of institutions which are termed historic sites. Perhaps through their examination we may then indeed see what a unique kind of 'national treasure' is the Royal Institution. Minute books tend to reflect the smooth surface patina of institutional organisation, but closer reading can reveal both incidents which were important and the degree to which influence and power shifted within groups associated with the Institution. Lawrence Bragg's affectionate description used in the title is helpful in directing our attention to some of the inherent problems of institutional history. In retrospect it might be argued that this was no more than a variation on the traditional historiography of the significance of the Royal Institution in scientific research and progress.
