YPS Annual Reports from 1823-1959 Online

Historical YPS Annual Reports – on paper and on-line

Copies of the YPS Annual Reports, dating from the first report in 1823 to the present day, are available to read in a number of places, including the Lodge, the York Explore Library, (which used to be the Central Library), and the Borthwick Institute at the University of York.

We are delighted to say that all the earliest reports, from 1823 to 1959, are also available, free, on-line, through the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). They were scanned by the Natural History Museum. We hope later reports, from 1960, will be added once copyright of articles has been researched.

The link below will allow you to read the reports on line, or download them in a variety of formats. They are then searchable (e.g.> CTRL+F)

YPS Annual Reports on the Biodiversity Library

The early reports make fascinating reading, and help us to understand the importance of the Society in the days when there were few universities, and societies like ours were real seats of learning, providing laboratory facilities, academic libraries and a means of communication, which helped in the development of many fields of inquiry. There is also the opportunity to see how the day to day concerns of running the organisation were as much of a problem then as they are now…