Category Archives: timeline

In 1877  Sir Thomas Moncreiffe, 7th Baronet, a first class cricketer and President of PSNS, proposed building a museum and meeting rooms.  Four years later, the Moncreiffe Memorial Natural History Museum, named after the late PSNS President, was opened.

The museum was educational, and crowds flocked to the opening event. There were upwards of 7,000 visitors in its first nine months.

With the object of exploring the Perthshire hills, and climbing to a summit every year, the group were active until the beginning of the First World War, and appear to have fallen into abeyance thereafter. Amongst the office bearers of the club were the Cairn Master, the Quaich Bearer and the Geometer. The Club was open to members who had ascended to 3000ft, so it was a custom that new members were initiated into the club on a summit where the quaich would be used for the toasts and libations.  The quaich carries the name, ‘Perthshire Mountain Club” and the motto, “Salix Herbacea Floreat” (“Let the Least Willow Flourish”) around the rim. The Geometer is inscribed “PSNS (Mountain Club) PERTH.” Would it be used to measure the mountain, or, possibly, to record the pressure to relate to the weather, and also for recording the altitude for specimens found?

44 volumes of the Challenger Reports are in the PSNS library.  In 1896/97 they were presented, upon the recommendation of the ‘father of oceanography’ Sir John Murray, to PSNS by the government, an indication the high status the Society had in the world of science during Victorian times.