Delving into a library of lectures
The Lit & Phil has turned 200 and as part of the bicentenary celebrations some golden oldie lecture topics are being refreshed. David Whetstone meets the man responsible
People have been lecturing at the Lit & Phil library in Newcastle for 200 years. If the walls had ears, what things they must have heard.
But never mind the walls. What of the human audiences?
The texts of most of the many lectures haven’t survived although there are rare exceptions.
When the journalist Polly Toynbee spoke at the Lit & Phil before Christmas, she was able to read a lecture given there by her great grandfather, the classical scholar Gilbert Murray, in 1917.
Lecture titles, though, have survived so we do know something of the concerns of the day.
“Some of the titles are quite bonkers,” says computer scientist Prof Martyn Amos, of Northumbria University, singling out The Extinct Gigantic Birds of New Zealand, Shells and their Inhabitants and Sleep: its Uses and Abuses.
But others less so. You can imagine Sanitary Conditions of Newcastle might have kept people awake at the back while a talk about toughened glass in 1875 perhaps struck a chord with those working in the industry.
Read more: Review - Murder on the Orient Express at Newcastle Theatre Royal
Conceived as a place of enlightenment, the Lit & Phil literally fulfilled that role when Joseph Swan flooded a room with electric light during the 1880-81 season, although that might have been more demonstration than lecture.
The appetite for lectures continues to this day and a new series launched this month begins a year of bicentenary celebrations.
As the library looks to the future with ambitious plans to update its facilities, the new Inspired by series makes a link between past and present with Northumbria University academics taking the titles of 19th Century Lit & Phil lectures and giving them a modern spin.
First up, on January 27, is Dr Sammie Buzzard, assistant professor in the department of geography and environmental sciences, with a talk called Arctic Regions.
She will be following in the footsteps (though not literally) of two adventurous Victorians, Captain Bedford Pim, a Royal Navy officer famous for his Arctic exploits, and mountaineer Edward Whymper.
The former delivered his Arctic Regions lecture in the 1856-7 Lit & Phil season.
The latter, renowned for the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865, a feat marred by the deaths of four members of his seven-strong team, spoke on the not dissimilar Glaciers of Switzerland and Greenland in 1868-9.
A 21st Century glaciologist is certain to have a different perspective on the Arctic regions than a Victorian adventurer.
Prof Amos, of Northumbria’s department of computer and information sciences, is pretty sure the lectures will be popular, having played a part in boosting the number of science-themed talks at the Lit & Phil.
He remembers his first meeting with Lit & Phil librarian Kay Easson which resulted from the unscientific phenomenon of happenstance.
Having returned to the North East in 2018 to take up his Northumbria post – he grew up in Heddon-on-the-Wall before heading off to university – he moved into a house in Low Fell.
After telling a neighbour about his love of science fiction, she offered to introduce him to the science fiction writer who lived a few doors along.
This was Simon Morden who in 2012 won the Philip K. Dick Award for his Metrozone series of sci fi novels.
“I was a fan and got him to sign my book,” recalls Prof Amos. “We became friends.”
When Simon, who has a PhD in geophysics from Newcastle University, launched a book about Mars at the Lit & Phil, there was a good turnout and Kay asked if he knew anyone who might be able to help generate more of the same.
Simon mentioned his friend, the prof, and at the ensuing meeting Kay explained to Martyn that while the Lit & Phil had the arts and humanities well covered, science and technology were somewhat lacking.
Read more: Golden Globe winner, Peter Straughan due at Tyneside Cinema
Where were the latter day Pims, Whympers and Swans?
Martyn, who in a previous academic role in Manchester had been closely involved in the city’s science festival, was keen to revive his public engagement role.
The outcome was NU Ideas, a series in which two speakers deliver TED Talk-style short lectures followed by questions. It proved popular and a third series is due to start at the end of the month.
But then came the latest idea of revisiting historic lectures for the bicentenary and Martyn wasn’t the only one to find it exciting.
“I sent out the best of the talks to colleagues and asked who could update them. People were champing at the bit to be involved. Some had been involved in NU Ideas but others hadn’t.
“Pretty soon we had a full programme of 11 talks on a range of subjects.
“A few are space themed. Northumbria is developing a £50m space training centre on campus (officially the North East Space Skills and Technology Centre, or NESST) and people generally are interested in space and the universe.
“Others are to do with the brain, climatology and natural history.”
Following Dr Buzzard in February will be Charlotte Goetz, assistant professor in the school of mathematics, physics and electrical engineering, talking on Recent Astronomical Discoveries, as someone else (almost certainly a man) did in 1858.
There will be one Inspired by lecture every month except August, with others to look forward to including Popular Scientific Errors by David Smailes (assistant professor, psychology) and Do Plants Think? by Yao Liu (assistant professor, geography and environmental sciences).
Prof Amos says he is staying in reserve with Insect Architects which might sound a strange choice for a computer scientist but he explains that his research is characterised by the study of complex systems.
He is currently writing a popular science book about crowds and says the behaviour of social insects falls well within his remit.
Whether he gets to deliver his lecture or not, he’s looking forward to this bicentenary foray into science.
“There’s definitely an appetite for it and it’ll be good fun once a month.
“Kay has said this is exactly the sort of thing the Lit & Phil was set up for, to give people access to cutting edge scientific and technological developments on their doorstep.
“I hope it will bring in a new audience and give people a fresh opportunity to discover what the Lit & Phil has to offer because it’s a real gem.”
Find out more about the Inspired by lectures and other bicentenary events at www.litandphil.org.uk
I was a member of the Lit and Phil for a few years. Then private matters occurred so I didn`t renew my membership. I have emailed them and phoned them to ask if there is a reduction for pensioners. No just for hardup students. Yet my inlaw who was a barmaid said that their public house was full of students every night. I`m teetoal always have been and I`m 70 years of age but if I did drink the poison pubs serve, I`d be lucky to afford two nights. Still waiting after 3 month for a phone call back.