Lunar Society of Birmingham
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The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a British dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectu
Soho House in Handsworth, Birmingham, a regular venue for meetings of the Lunar Society
Matthew Boulton
Benjamin Franklin by Joseph Ducreux, 1777
Erasmus Darwin by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1770 (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery)
Erasmus Darwin
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Erasmus Robert Darwin was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, abolitionist, inventor, freemason, and poet.
Lunar Society of Birmingham
…in the absence of street lighting. The members cheerfully referred to themselves as "lunaticks", a contemporary spelling of lunatics. Venues included Erasmus Darwin's home in Lichfield, Matthew Boulton's home, Soho House, Bowbridge House in Derbyshire, and Great Barr Hall. The Lunar Society evolved through various…
Erasmus Darwin c. 1792–1793, oil painting by Joseph Wright of Derby, Derby Museum and Art Gallery
Darwin's House in Lichfield, now a museum dedicated to his life and work
Portrait of Erasmus Darwin, 1770, by Joseph Wright of Derby
Erasmus Darwin's coat of arms. Escutcheon: Argent, on a bend Gules cottised Vert, three escallop shells, Or. Crest: A demi-griffin segreant, Vert, holding in his claws an escallop, Or. Motto: E conchis omnia (All things out of conches/molluscs).