July 2009 is the 175th anniversary of the creation of the Institute of British Architects, which gained its royal charter three years later. To mark the anniversary, on 28 May the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography publishes an essay on the founders of the RIBA.
The essay, written by the architectural historian M.H. Port, brings together the architects and surveyors who met to protect and promote a profession that many then regarded merely as a trade.
According to its constitution, the RIBA’s founders sought the ‘Cultivation and improvement of practical Architecture, and the general advancement of the Art and Science.’ But as Professor Port shows, the road to the RIBA saw fractious negotiations between architects and surveyors over just who should be represented by the new institute. Read the RIBA essay.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography includes the life stories of 57,000 men and women from the Romans to the 21st century—plus essays (like the RIBA founders) on historical groups, and hundreds of quick reference lists including RIBA gold medallists since 1848.
- published online, the Oxford DNB is updated three times a year. As well as the RIBA founders, the latest update includes Elain Harwood on the influential post-war London County Council architects—then the world’s largest architectural practice. Other architectural groups already published include the MARS group and the Memorialists who campaigned against registration for architects.
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The complete Oxford DNB is freely available via nearly all UK public and university libraries. Public libraries offer ‘remote access’ allowing you to log-in, free, wherever you have internet access.
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The ODNB site also offers a free daily life, biography podcast and topical features.
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