On 3 September 1839, a meeting of 17 gentlemen including physicist Joseph Jackson Lister, photography pioneer Joseph Bancroft Reade, the botanists Edwin John Quekett and Richard Kippist,[8][9] and artist and inventor Cornelius Varley,[10][11][verification needed] was held at Quekett's residence at 50 Wellclose Square[12] "to take into consideration the propriety of forming a society for the promotion of microscopical investigation, and for the introduction and improvement of the microscope as a scientific instrument",[1][13][14][15][16] following a decade of great advances in the field of microscopy.

[17] The first president of the Society was palaeontologist Sir Richard Owen, who is best known for coining the word "dinosaur" and for his role in the creation of London's Natural History Museum.

Joseph Bancroft Reade, in his maiden speech revealed that he had suggested adding the suffix "-al" to the name of the fledgling society to prevent "the possibility of ourselves being mistaken for microscopic objects".

Although not permitted to attend meetings, her greatest contribution to the scientific community was of her campaign in gaining women rights to full fellowship of learned societies.

[20] In September 1989, Royal Mail released a set of four stamps to mark the celebration of the Society's 150th anniversary entitled "Microscopes", one of which being the snowflake, its own logo.

After three years of continuous Ordinary Membership, members are invited to become a Fellow of the Society after a set number of criteria have been met, which allows for individuals to benefit from voting and election rights as well as the use of the post-nominal letters FRMS after their names.

The journal publishes review articles, original research papers, short communications, and letters to the editor, covering all aspects of microscopy.

It provides a common forum for scientists and technologists from all disciplines which use any form of microscope, including all branches of microscopy and microbeam analysis.

infocus features articles on microscopy related topics, techniques and developments, reports on RMS events, book reviews, news and much more.

These events provide opportunities for keeping abreast of the latest developments and attract speakers and delegates active in all areas of science from forensics to flow cytometry, live cell imaging to SPM.

[citation needed] Since 2017 the RMS website has hosted a database of women working in microscopy to aid conference and meeting organisers in creating more diverse speaker line-ups for events.