Minutes of meetings of the Council, including the following selected entries: the donation by
Sir William Russell Flint of a “magnificent” Georgian silver flagon, with a note that a brief discussion then took place concerning the custom of Academicians presenting silver on their election and the diminishing number of such voluntary gifts, 20 January 1959; discussion of whether the three women members and certain other ex-officio women guests should be invited to the annual dinner: the President,
Sir Charles Wheeler, pointed out that the move entailed altering a tradition which went back to the Royal Academy’s foundation, and despite some support for the change, a vote to issue invitations to the three women members was lost by six votes to four, 3 February 1959; the appointment of a committee of enquiry to consider television and the visual arts, 4 August 1959; and the decision not to intervene in support of a protest by the Victorian Society against the demolition of parts of Melbury Road, Kensington, London, on the advice of the architects present at the meeting, 8 December 1959.