[2] The first President of the Society was the former Prime Minister Viscount Goderich and the first Secretary Alexander Maconochie (who became the first professor of Geography at the University College London), with another notable council member being Sir Francis Beaufort.

[3] Like many learned societies, it had started as a dining club in London, where select members held informal dinner debates on current scientific issues and ideas.

The premises in Savile Row (once described by Curzon as "cramped and rather squalid")[5] were sold and the present site, Lowther Lodge in Kensington Gore, was purchased for £100,000[6] and opened for use in April 1913.

The history of the society was closely allied for many of its earlier years with 'colonial' exploration in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the polar regions, and central Asia especially.

[8] It has been a key associate and supporter of many notable explorers and expeditions, including those of Darwin, Livingstone, Stanley, Scott, Shackleton, Hunt and Hillary.

[15] IBG activities included organising conferences, field trips, seminars, and specialist research groups and publishing a journal, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.

For example, in 2012 the RGS held an exhibition, in the glass Pavilion, of photographs taken by Herbert Ponting on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's expedition to the South Pole in 1912.

They must either be proposed by an existing fellow or an individual may submit evidence of his or her own work and academic publications in the field of geography and closely related subjects such as international development, climate change and expedition medicine.

Applicants must be of at least 21 years of age and provide evidence of a body of relevant work; alternatively, a previous five-year commitment at the regular member level (less, at the council's discretion) is also considered for eligibility.

The awards originated as an annual gift of fifty guineas from King William IV, first made in 1831, "to constitute a premium for the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery".

In 1902 they awarded khan Bahadur Sher Jang a Sword of Honour (the Black Memorial) in recognition of his valuable services to geography.

Some of the other awards given by the RGS include:[29] The society's collections consist of over two million documents, maps, photographs, paintings, periodicals, artefacts and books, and span 500 years of geography, travel and exploration.

[31] The society preserves the collections for the benefit of future generations, while providing public access and promoting collections-related educational programmes for schools and lifelong learners.

The Foyle Reading Room acts as a consultation space for using the society's collections,[32] and hosts showcases and workshops as well as the Be Inspired series of talks.

[33] The artefacts collection includes over a thousand items brought to the Society, consisting mainly of cultural objects from around the world, ranging from Inuit boots (from Canadian Arctic) to ceremonial leopard's claws (from the then Belgian Congo), paraphernalia of exploration, for example oxygen sets used in the various attempts on Everest, and personal items belonging to explorers, such as Shackleton's Burberry helmet.

The RGS-IBG also holds manuscript materials from the mid sixteenth century onwards, aerial photography from 1919 and contemporary satellite images.

[40] The society's picture library holds over half a million photographs, artworks, negatives, lantern slides and albums dating from around 1830.

Historic images range from the Antarctic adventures of Scott and Shackleton to the pioneering journeys of Livingstone, Baker, Speke and Burton.

[47] Discovering Britain[48] is a website featuring a series of self-led geographical walks that help explain the stories behind the UK's built and natural landscapes.

[51] The Hidden Journeys website combines images, stories and maps (many from the Society's geographical collections) into a series of interactive guides of popular flight paths, enabling people to explore the incredible places they fly over and might see from the air.

Since launching, online guides have been published for more than 25 flight paths, including London to Johannesburg, New York City to Los Angeles, Sydney to Singapore, Madrid to Rio de Janeiro.

[52] The Hidden Journeys project is also integrating its content with the moving maps aboard airliners, as a new form of in-flight entertainment (IFE) that has been termed geo-entertainment or geotainment.

Information is delivered in real time, with content changing as the flight progresses, so for example, while a passenger is passing over the United Kingdom, they'll be met with a pop-up that explains the origins and importance of the English Channel.

[55] The RGS-IBG education department offers courses, resources, accreditation, grants, awards, competitions and school membership, all for the benefit of teachers, students and parents.

The Geography Ambassadors scheme[58] recruits, trains and supports volunteer undergraduate, postgraduate and graduate geographers from universities and business.

The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)'s scholarly publications provide an outlet and support for the dissemination of research across the breadth of the discipline.

The magazine contains illustrated articles on people, places, adventure, travel, and environmental issues, as well as summarising the latest academic research and discoveries in geography.