The origins of the Royal Society are related to the
South Australian Literary and Scientific Association, founded in August 1834, before the
colonisation of South Australia, and whose book collection eventually formed the kernel of the
State Library of South Australia. The Society had its origins in a meeting at the
Stephens Place home of
J. L. Young (founder of the
Adelaide Educational Institution) on the evening of 10 January 1853. Members inducted to the new "Adelaide Philosophical Society" were Messrs.
John Brown,
John Howard Clark, Davy, Doswell,
Charles Gregory Feinaigle, Gilbert, Gosse, Hamilton, D. Hammond, W. B. Hays, Jones, Kay, Mann,
W. W. R. Whitridge, Williams, Wooldridge and John Lorenzo Young. J. Howard Clark was elected secretary. On 15 September rules were adopted and His Excellency the Governor
Sir Henry Young was elected president, with
Benjamin Herschel Babbage and
Matthew Moorhouse as vice-presidents.
T. D. Smeaton has also been credited with helping found the Society. Its aim was "the diffusion and advancement of the Arts and Sciences", and one of its earliest subjects of discussion was the formation of a museum showing the
natural history of the
Colony. and in 1859 the Society was
incorporated under the
South Australian Institute Act. The establishment of the
University of Adelaide in 1875 revitalised the Society, which had flagged for some years before. The
Field Naturalists Society of South Australia was formed as a section of the Society in 1883. In 1943
Constance Eardley became the first woman to be elected to the Council of the Society. ==Membership==