Whitby Literary & Philosophical Society

'Talks take place at 2.15 pm on the fourth Wednesday in every month, except for August and December, in the Normanby Room. Whilst originally intended for members of the Lit. and Phil., non-members are now most welcome on payment of £1.00. Talks usually last just over 1 hour and are often accompanied by slides or other illustrative matter ...Whitby Museum is owned and operated by Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society, a charitable body established in January 1823, a period when such societies operated in many British towns ... The chief object of the Society was to setup and maintain a museum, specialising in fossils, since “Whitby is a chief town of a district abounding with petrifications and containing not a few Antiquities".'