The Galpin Society was formed in October 1946 to further research into the branch of musicology known as organology, that is the history, construction, development and use of musical instruments. Based in the United Kingdom, it is named after the British organologist and musical instrument collector, Canon Francis William Galpin (1858–1945), who had a lifelong interest in studying, collecting, playing, making and writing about musical instruments. The membership in 1999 was around a thousand.
The society's founder members were keen to form a society to promote the historical study of all kinds of musical instruments. The founding members included academics, professional and amateur performers, and private collectors, including Anthony Baines, Robert Donington, Hugh Gough, Eric Halfpenny, Edgar Hunt, Eric Marshall Johnson, Lyndesay Langwill, Reginald Morley-Pegge, F. Geoffrey Rendall and Maurice Vincent. Philip Bate was the inaugural chairman of the society and Professor Jack Westrup, Heather Professor of Music at the University of Oxford, served as its first president. One of the inaugural vice-presidents was the widow of Arnold Dolmetsch, and the others included Walter F. H. Blandford, Adam Carse and Rosamond E. M. Harding. Bate later served as president (1977–99).
