History
The origins of the Society go back to July 1851, when the Natural History Society of Glasgow (NHSG) was founded by nine "gentlemen interested in the pursuit of natural science". Today, the Society is organised by a Council elected by members.
The Society grew rapidly, and although the early membership lists include only men, women certainly contributed to the proceedings, and probably attended meetings. The first women appeared in membership lists in 1886; see GNHS Women for information on some 19th century women members.
Over the years the Society merged with other similar local societies, notably in 1931 when NHSG, The Andersonian Naturalists’ Society, and the Microscopical Society of Glasgow merged to form The Glasgow and Andersonian Natural History and Microscopical Society − an unwieldy name which was subsequently shortened in stages until 1980 when the current name emerged.
Our crest (left): prior to 1990, volumes of The Glasgow Naturalist carried the City of Glasgow coat of arms, which includes a tree, fish and thistles. From 1990 onwards, the Society used a logo designed by Dr Elspeth Lindsay who used the coat of arms, modified to reflect the Society’s diverse interests in plants, animals, fossils and photography.
GNHS Council eventually decided that there was a need for a new logo, partly because the details of the original become indistinct when reduced. A new logo with a range of variants came into use in Spring 2017 (see top left of this page for one example).