INCORPORATING ILLUSTRATION: Over the course of the 19th century, Philosophical Transactions began commissioning more illustrations to accompany the manuscripts in its pages (frontispiece to the first issue above). As soon as a manuscript was accepted for publication, the editors would send off instructions to an engraver, who would detail the request onto metal plates. The plate above is taken from a famous 1863 Philosophical Transactions paper on a fossil Archaeopteryx, an archetypal specimen of Darwinian evolution that helped paleontologists connect birds to their dinosaur ancestors. The paper’s author, Royal Society Fellow Richard Owen, was a frequent contributor, publishing 50 papers on comparative anatomy in the journal throughout his life.ROYAL SOCIETY'S COLLECTIONS; HENRY OLDENBURG/WIKIMEDIA COMMONSAs a founding fellow and the first Secretary of the Royal Society in London, established in 1660, Henry Oldenburg wrote and received a lot of letters. One day, he decided he would publish some of those letters—carrying news from gentlemen all across Europe of the latest discoveries in natural history and natural philosophy—along with announcements of goings-on at the Royal Society, book reviews, and other scholarly tidbits. Perhaps he could even make a few bucks out of it, he hoped.
Philosophical Transactions published its first issue in March 1665. Although it was scarcely profitable—and wouldn’t be for nearly 300 years—it was successful, printing 1,000 copies every month in its early days. This year, with a subscription base of more than 4,000 academic institutions worldwide and around 5 million annual article downloads, the publication celebrates its 350th birthday as the oldest surviving scholarly journal.
For the first nine decades of its existence, Philosophical Transactions continued to publish in the vein of Oldenburg’s vision—as an accessible and informative scholarly journal that shared communications from across the continent. Then in 1752, the Royal Society took it over, and the periodical became dedicated to publishing research papers presented at meetings of the society. But it didn’t take on the ...
