Past Meetings

The History of Geology Group

Past meetings of the History of Geology Group

Field excursion to Oxfordshire and Smith’s birthplace

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William Smith conference: 200 years of Smith's map

This two-day conference features Keynote Lectures from Professor Hugh Torrens and Professor Simon Knell, as well as talks by other experts on William Smith’s maps, his careers and his contemporaries in England and Europe.
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Private Exhibition at the Natural History Museum

Participants will be shown original William Smith geological maps and sections, and his collection of fossils and rocks. This will be a private viewing in small groups of 20. The 80 places will be allocated in order of application. Details regarding access and time of your visit will be forwarded with other registration details.
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November 2014: Geology and Medicine Part 2

Geology and Medicine: Exploring the Historical Links and the Development of Public Health and Forensic Medicine Celebrating the Tercentenary of Sir John Hill 2-4 November: Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London
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Past Meeting: Murchison, the Discovery of the Silurian and the Brecon Anticlinal Field Trip

Sir Roderick Impey Murchison was one of the most important figures in 19th century geology and exploration. He was Director-General of the Geological Survey, President of the Royal Geographical Society and publicly known as the ‘King of Siluria’. In July 1831, on his first field season as a solo geologist, Murchison explored the Wye Valley. Retrospectively, over his diary entry for one of the locations we shall visit, he wrote “This was the first true Silurian”.
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Past meeting: Comparing the Smith and Greenough maps – behind the scenes at the National Museum of Wales

This meeting will focus on some of the highlights of the collection such as De la Beche’s original watercolour of Duria Antiquior, and will include an opportunity to view several issues of Smith’s 1815 map side by side, and to compare them with Greenough’s map. Also on display will be the (much-faded) and recently rediscovered annotated Greenough map which hung in the Geological Society’s apartments until 1932.
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Details of meetings and events previously held by the History of Geology Group.

HOGG online talks are listed  below

Conference/Seminar abstracts are published in a booklet.

Field meetings are accompanied with a field guide.  Some of these meetings booklets are available for download.

.September 20 – 23 2026  Tercentenary of James Hutton Field meeting: Journey to the South Alpine parts of Scotland in the year 1786: locations in search of proofs for ‘Theory of the Earth’.  Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland.. Leader: Duncan Hawley.

August 29 2026  HOGG Wikipedia Workshop 2026

July 29 2026  Visit Meeting: The Lapworth Museum of Geology, University of Birmingham – collections and archives behind the scenes

25 June 2026 HOGG Online: The Geological Lecture Room, Oxford: a fresh look at a well-known group portrait with Sue Newell (Associate Researcher, Oxford University Museum of Natural History).

20 May 2026  HOGG Online:  Andrew Crombie Ramsay and his Geological Lectures to Working Men: no compromise with Anne Barrett.

18 March 2026 HOGG Online: Andrija Mohorovičić: Croatian seismologist and the Crust–Mantle boundary discovery, with Dr John Milsom.

19 February 2026  HOGG Online: The Miners’ Stratigraphy and the 18th century roots of stratigraphic geology,   with Dr. Ru Smith.

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