In response to a resolve for a world-wide Association of Scientific and Literary Academies (Wiesbaden, 1899), the British Academy was established in 1901. It soon received a royal charter, but many years passed before it affected the humanities' world as the Royal Society did science. By the mid-1940s it was moribund, but under Sir Charles Webster (president, 1950-4) and Mortimer Wheeler (secretary), efficiency and scope slowly broadened: by 1970 it had active research committees, funds to support younger scholars, an improved government grant, new premises in Burlington House, and foreign exchanges.




