The Institució Catalana d'Història Natural (ICHN,
Catalan Institute of Natural History).
Founded in 1899 in Barcelona by a group of students. At the beginning
members included prestigious naturalists. The Butlletí de la Institució
Catalana d'Història Natural, the Memòries and the Treballs
of the Institute provide an idea of the remarkable efforts of its members.
In a latent state and hardly noticed from 1936 until 1972, in that year it
resumed its activities with great vigour. Since 1915 it has been an
affiliate of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC, Institute of Catalan
Studies). In 1987 it had almost one thousand members.
The group of founding students were Joan Baptista
d'Aguilar-Amat i Banús (1882-1936), Joan Alzina i Melis (1879-1979),
Francesc Badia i Guia, Josep Balcells i Masó, Josep Maluquer i Nicolau
(1883-1960), Salvador Maluquer i Nicolau (1881-1955), Josep M. Mas de
Xaxars (1881-1946) and Antoni Novellas i Roig (1879-1951). Their interests
were aimed at "reuniting science with Catalan nationalism as others had
done with history, art, literature and even hiking".
From the beginning there have been
frictions within the Institute. The conflicts ended in 1904 with a
break-up, and the name was changed to the Institució Catalana de
Ciències Naturals (ICCN, Catalan Institute of Natural Sciences). That
same year a new Catalan Institute of Natural History was founded and soon
became, with the disappearance of the ICCN, the organisation which truly
continued the work of the former ICHN. With this "rebirth", however, the
ICHN lost its apolitical and non-denominational character. In 1906 the
ICHN was a prestigious organisation, with its founding students working as
legal professionals or engineers and being accomplished naturalists. Proof
of their prestige was their participation in the election of the members
of the Junta Municipal de Ciències Naturals (four of the eight
members of the first Junta were also members of the ICHN). In 1915,
in search of economic stability, an attempt was made to improve relations
with the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC). That was how the first volume
of Treballs de la Institució Catalana d'Història Natural appeared.
The headquarter of the ICHN was moved to the offices of the IEC and in
1917 the Institute's collections were incorporated into the new Museu
de Catalunya (Museum of Catalonia).
Between 1924 and 1931, the Institute
functioned almost in the shadow of the IEC. Until the outbreak of the
Civil War, the ICHN survived thanks to the patronage of the Provincial
Government and the City Council of Barcelona and of people such as Rafael
Patxot, Concepció Patxot i Rabell and Josep M. Bofill i Pichot. During the
Second Republic scientific excursions as well as good relations with the
Institute of Catalan Studies were resumed. At the same time, the number of
members doubled, and the Institute started to abandon its
denominationalism and began to enter into the world of teaching. After the
Civil War, the ICHN remained more than a decade in total obscurity. Then
there would be occasional meetings of groups of botanists, geologists,
zoologists and biologists, but the reality was that by the 1960s the
organisation was on the verge of disappearing. In 1972 a small group from
the Institute of Catalan Studies, led by two naturalists, decided to end
the "temporary suspension" of the ICHN. That same year the first public
scientific workshops were held and soon afterwards a project to produce a
white paper on the natural conditions of the Catalan speaking countries.
In 1976 the Institute formed a bridge between the scientific world and the
world of civic and political action. In 1982 the situation tended more
towards normalisation, connected with the improved situation of the IEC.
The publication of periodicals, catalogues and field guides, as well as
activities such as excursions and the retraining of members who worked as
teachers were strengthened.
·
Institució Catalana d'Història Natural.
Breu història de la Institució Catalana d'Història Natural. On
line. Internet. 2 June 2003. Accessible at http://www.iec.es/institucio/societats/ICHistoriaNatural/història.htm.
(Consulted 7-2-2003).
·
"Institució Catalana d'Història Natural".
Gran enciclopèdia catalana. Ed. 1989.
