12 Decades of the British Academy

The British Academy was established by Royal Charter in 1902. To mark our 120th anniversary in 2022, the Academy looked back on a different decade in our history to explore how it has developed as the UK authority for the humanities and social sciences.

For each decade we provide a brief narrative overview and then, focus on one particular aspect of the British Academy that can be associated with that decade. This is supplemented with other interesting archival material from the period.

We look at our origins and our early years of patient evolution, and identify the key characters whose vision and energies helped shape the Academy’s identity and roles.

And, while the last couple of years have been a period of extreme upheaval, we saw that there have been major disruptions in the past that affected the Academy’s development even more acutely.

A booklet, Celebrating 12 Decades of the British Academy, which reproduces all the content, is available for download: high-res (20MB), low-res (2MB)

We hope you enjoy coming this retrospective journey.