| Administrative History | Dr Harrison Schmitt was part of the three man crew of Apollo 17 (7-19 December 1972), the final of NASA’s manned lunar landing missions. Therefore Schmitt remains the first & only geologist ever to walk on the Moon. On 19 December 1973, Dr Schmitt delivered the 28th William Smith Lecture on his experiences, “Apollo and the geology of the Moon”, before a packed audience in the lecture theatre at the Geological Society. The lecture proved so popular that additional seating had to be provided for 129 guests at the British Academy, then situated across the courtyard, where the lecture was relayed by closed circuit television on eight television sets. The film recording is essentially this cctv relay.
Note: a special showing of an edited version of the film was held by the Library on 23 October 2015. At the end of the evening, an update provided by Schmitt was read. This update in on the server. |
| Publication Note | Text of the lectures published as: Ringwood, A E, "The petrological evolution of island arc systems: Twenty-seventh William Smith Lecture", 'Journal of the Geological Society', vol 130 (1974), pp183-204; Schmitt, Harrison H, "Apollo and the geology of the Moon: Twenty-eighth William Smith Lecture", 'Journal of the Geological Society', vol 131 (1975), pp103-119. |