As a convention of the Order of Reason, the Ivory Tower is only a decade old, but its roots stretch back much further. The foundation for the current group was laid in the Renaissance with the activities of certain secretive members of the young Order who saw value in the trafficking of information, as secrets are the ammunition of the wars of intrigue in which they took part. Spread out among the other conventions, though concentrated in the Cabal of Pure Thought, they acted in an intelligence capacity throughout these first days of the Ascension War.
During the latter part of the previous century, a figure rose among this group who finally brought it to the forefront of the Order's affairs. Jeremy Bentham was educated at the Cabal's Westminster School and was well-versed in politics and laws. Upon his induction into the Order, he advocated a progressive view that discarded the Order's traditions and forged a new agenda for the future. Despite massive resistance from the Cabal and other conservative members, his words found a great deal of resonance with the time and the philosophies of the more scientifically minded Daedelans. By the beginning of the century, the Cabal had been dissolved and, in its place, a new convention was being formed.
The Ivory Tower, from its very inception in the early half of this century, has been driven by Bentham's secular Utilitarian philosophy and its quantitative focus has been key to its spread among the scientific conventions. Meanwhile, the collection and organization of information has remained top priority for the group, leading to its establishing contacts in law enforcement, politics, media, and academia. While not as well connected as the Masons, it is nonetheless an impressive network and its use of the difference engines has made it much more efficient at accessing what it collects.
Members of the Ivory Tower almost all belong to the Royal Society covenant, though (not being scientists, for the most part) they are not members of the actual Society. The Tower tend to be much more interested in Order politics and concerns than covenant rivalries or the details of the paradigm itself. As collectors and disseminators of information, their goal is rather to control what is known and when. They take a large role in determining with the scientific conventions when new discoveries should be released to the general public, a relatively new approach to the matter (prior, it was up to the discretion of the scientists involved, in most cases). This has led to the formation of time tables and other official policies which have not a few of the scientists in the Order grumbling.
As they aren't actual members of the Sleeper Royal Society, the Ivory Tower instead meets at Westminster, in the school where so many of Britian's politicians took their lessons. They have quite handily adopted the institution from the Cabal and are using it to shape the political and economic minds of the future. Similarly, their hand in the development of Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigations Division has given them the nickname 'The Scotland Yard Cabal' among members of both sects within the Order.