The Linnean Society is a learned society dedicated to the study of the natural world. It was founded in London in 1788 and named after the Swedish naturalist, Carl Linnaeus (also known as Carl von Linné), whose new classification system was very popular in Britain in the second half of the eighteenth century and whose library and collections had been purchased by the society's founder James Edward Smith in 1783. In 1791, the society began publishing its Transactions, a journal containing papers on new discoveries in the field. The journal would remain in print until it was discontinued in 1955.