Charles Blagden's diary: Information management and British science in the eighteenth century

Abstract

This paper examines the diary of Charles Blagden, physician and secretary of the Royal Society between 1784 and 1797. It argues that the form and content of Blagden's diary developed in response to manuscript genres from a variety of contexts, including the medical training that Blagden undertook at the start of his career, the genre of the commonplace book, and contemporary travel narratives. Blagden was interested in the workings of memory and in the association of ideas. This paper reveals the diary's nature as an aid to memory and an information management tool. It argues that the diary assisted Blagden's attempts to secure the patronage of key figures in the eighteenth-century scientific world, including Joseph Banks, the Royal Society and a London-based network of aristocratic women. In exploring the development of the diary, the paper uncovers the role of a material object in aiding the management of patronage relationships central to the career of a significant but little-studied secretary of the Royal Society.

Introduction: Rethinking Joseph Banks

“…After Banks, Blagden enjoyed what Wills calls a kind of 'distributed patronage' from a large number of aristocratic women whom he would visit each day to bring them news of the latest scientific and botanical discoveries. 13 An interesting aspect of Wills's work concerns the geography of cultures of advancement, or the ways in which regimes of patronage and social status differed from place to place, with consequences for the circulation of knowledge. Wills's contribution shows how important place was in Banks's career.…”