History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 82

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 > Part 82

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The efforts of the infant society were directed to increase the museum and library, and to augment the number of members and correspondents. But so nn- popular was the enterprise that at the close of 1812 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia consisted of only fonrteen members and thirty-three correspondents.

The library and collections increased more rapidly than the number of members during 1813 and 1814. In the course of the former year Mr. Say delivered before the academy a series of lectures on entomol- ogy, and in the spring of the latter Drs. Waterhouse and Barnes delivered, under the auspices of the acad- emy, a course of popular lectures on botany, the first ever delivered in this city. They were attended by more than two hundred ladies and a considerable number of gentlemen. This course was repeated in the spring of 1815 in the building at the southwest corner of Arch and Fifth Streets.

Abont the end of July, 1815, the academy removed from Second Street to the new building erected especially for its nse by Jacob Gilliams, one of its founders. It was sitnated upon the rear end of a lot on the north side of Arch Street, between Front and Second, and was approached by a passage-way opening to the street. Mr. Gilliams leased this building to the society for two hundred dollars a year.

In 1816 the society adopted a constitution, and it was incorporated by act of the Legislature of Penn- sylvania passed March 24, 1817.

In 1817 the academy commenced the publication of a journal, in which the society "determined to communicate to the public such facts and observa- tions as having appeared interesting to them are likely to be interesting to other friends' of natural science."

After half the first volume was printed it was found that the patronage was not equal to the expense. For the sake of economy it was deter- mined among the members to endeavor to get ont the journal by their own work. William Maclure procured an old printing-press, some type was bought, and the members of the committee on publication met at Mr. Maclure's house, where they set up the type and printed their impressions. Nearly all of the second half of the first volume was prepared in that way. Their labors ceased for a time at the com- pletion of the volume, in 1818. In 1821 it was resumed under the management of Dr. Isaac Hays, and it was continued without interruption until 1825, the printer being Jesper Harding. The publication was continued afterward up to 1842.

A committee was appointed about 1823 to obtain better accommodations for the society. Nothing of moment was done immediately, and in January,

1201

LIBRARIES AND HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

1825, a new committee was appointed, consisting of Isaac Hays, M.D., William Mason Walmsley, Wil- liam Strickland, William S. Warder, Samuel George Morton, M.D., and Roberts Vaux. This committee entered into negotiations toward the close of the year 1825 for the purchase of the church building and lot at the southeast corner of Twelfth and George [now Sansom] Streets, which belonged to the New Jerusalem (or Swedenborgian) congregation. The negotiation was closed on Jan. 3, 1826, by the pur- chase of the property for four thousand three hundred dollars. To fit it for the purposes of the academy an expenditure of seventeen hundred dollars was required, making the aggregate cost of the then new hall about six thousand dollars.

To consummate this purchase more than two thou- sand dollars were contributed by members, and the balance was loaned by members and others. A debt of three thousand dollars was thus created, and up to August, 1837, only three hundred dollars of the amount had been paid. At that time William Maclure, with his characteristic liberality, presented to the institution five thousand dollars. The debt was forthwith liquidated, and two thousand three hundred dollars invested for the use of the 'society.

The academy held its first meeting in that hall on the 9th of May, 1826.

To render the museum generally useful, the aca- demy opened it gratuitously to the public in 1828 ; and from that time till May, 1870, a period of forty- two years, it was visited by citizens and strangers on Tuesday and Friday afternoons throughout the year, tickets of admission being given by the members to all who applied for them. At the time last mentioned it became evident that the crowds of people who vis- ited the museum were injurious to the preservation of the collections. To reduce the number, an admis- sion fee of ten cents was required from every visitor. The effect of this trifling charge was to immediately reduce the number of daily visitors from thousands to hundreds, and even less.

In the year 1836 there was again a demand for in- creased accommodation. A building committee was appointed Feb. 7, 1837.

On the 22d of April, 1839, a lot, fifty by one hun- dred feet, at the northwest corner of Broad and San- som Streets, was purchased for thirteen thousand three hundred and thirty-three dollars, and the building committee made a contract to erect a hall, consisting of a basement story, which included a lecture-room and a room above, for twenty-two thousand dollars.

On the 25th of May the corner-stone of the build- ing was laid with the usual ceremonies. Professor Walter R. Johnson delivered an address appropriate to the occasion.

The means to purchase the lot and pay the cost of construction were derived in part from the proceeds of sale of the premises at Twelfth and Sansom Streets, ten thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars, but

chiefly from Mr. William Maclure. Of his contribu- tions, seventeen thousand dollars were added to the building fund, which was largely augmented by lib- eral donations from members and others.

The building, which was constructed of brick, and fire-proof throughout, had a front of forty-five feet on Broad Street and eighty-five feet on Sansom Street, and an elevation of fifty feet.

The transfer of the collections and library was made at a cost of thirty-four dollars. They were all placed in the saloon, on the second floor, and the society held its first meeting in this hall Feb. 18, 1840.

At the stated meeting of June 30, 1846, Dr. Mor- ton announced that Dr. Thomas B. Wilson had pur- chased the famous collection of birds of the Duc de Rivoli, embracing ten thousand specimens mounted and named, and wished them to be arranged in the academy, and therefore moved the appointment of a committee to devise means to extend the building. ) The committee reported, August 4th, that Mr. Nathan Smedley had agreed with Dr. Wilson to execute the plan for nine thousand two hundred dollars. The building was extended thirty feet westward, making its area forty-five by one hundred and fifteen feet. The library was moved from the second floor into the new room at the west end of the basement, and the society held its first meeting in it May 4, 1847.

The munificent gifts of Dr. Wilson, who paid the entire cost of extending the building, rapidly in- creased the museum. To accommodate it the lecture- room was altered during 1847, and the collections of minerals, of reptiles, fishes, etc., were removed into it, leaving more space in the main hall for the dis- play of the birds.

On Dec. 30, 1851, a committee was appointed to collect funds to enlarge and improve the hall. The committee reported, Jan. 25, 1853, that the estimated sum required had been subscribed. Dr. T. B. Wilson, Dr. Robert Bridges, and Mr. William S. Vaux were appointed a building committee to execute the plans of improvement. In December, 1855, Mr. Vaux, in behalf of the committee, reported that the work of raising the previously enlarged building twenty-four feet, making its entire elevation seventy-four feet, had been completed in a satisfactory manner at a cost of twelve thousand two hundred and sixty-three dollars, which had been paid.

Of this amount, twelve thousand two hundred and eighteen dollars were subscribed by ninety members. More than a fourth of the sum expended by the build- ing committee was contributed by Dr. Thomas B. Wilson, who also paid ten thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars, the entire cost of supplying all the cases, etc., in the new saloon, and in the east base- ment-room, which had been arranged for the use of the library, and for the meetings of the society.

Nov. 14, 1865, on motion of Mr. George W. Tryon, Jr., a committee was appointed "to devise methods

1202

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

for advancing the prosperity and efficiency of the academy by the erection of a building of a size suit- able to contain the collections," to increase the num- ber of members, improve the style of printing the Proceedings, etc.

This committee reported progress, and submitted a series of resolutions, which were adopted Dec. 26, 1865, ; George W. Tryon, Jr., and Thomas Sparks, in trust at the annual meeting.

Those resolutions required the appointment of a committee of forty members to solicit subscriptions for the purpose of erecting a fire-proof building for the use of the academy, the subscriptions to be made payable March 31, 1867, but valid only in case their aggregate should equal or exceed one hundred thou- sand dollars on the 31st day of December, 1866; and also a committee of five to select a suitable site, located as near as possible to the old building, but no "lot of ground of less than three times the size" of that at Broad and Sansom Streets was to be con- sidered.

In anticipation of the creation of the building fund, the building-fund committee submitted a resolution, which was adopted March 27, 1866, which provided that all moneys which might be given to constitute the building fund of the Academy of Natural Sciences should be confided to a board of trustees, of not less than thirteen members of the academy, to be elected by the contributors, "each of whom shall be entitled to cast one ballot for every fifty dollars he or she may have subscribed."

At the stated meeting held Jan. 8, 1867, it was an- nounced that a board of trustees of the building fund the trustees."

had been elected. The board was constituted as fol- lows: W. S. W. Ruschenberger, M.D., chairman ; George W. Tryon, Jr., secretary ; William S. Vaux, treasurer ; Robert Bridges, M.D., John B. Budd, Fred- erick Graff, Joseph Jeanes, Joseph Leidy, M.D., John Rice, Thomas Sparks, John Welsh, Ed. S. Whelen, and William P. Wilstach.

On the 10th of April, 1868, the board resolved unanimously to purchase a lot of ground, extending on Race Street westward from Nineteenth Street one hundred and ninety-eight fect, then southward one hundred and forty-four feet, and east fifty-nine feet, and again southward one hundred and forty-four feet

to Cherry Street, and along the latter to Nineteenth Street one hundred and thirty-nine feet, on which the front is two hundred and eighty-eight feet. This lot was bought for sixty-five thousand two hundred and ninety-eight dollars, and conveyed to Joseph Leidy, M.D., John Welsh, William S. Vaux, E. S. Whelen, for the academy.

Plans of a building to be erected ont his lot, with estimates for its construction, were obtained from three architects. Those submitted by Mr. James H. Win- drim approximated nearest to the requirements of the institution, and he was therefore duly elected architect of the academy.

The board believed that a majority of the con- tributors as well as of the members of the academy desired that the site of the new building should be on Broad Street, and being of opinion that the lot purchased could be readily sold, if desirable, at an advance on its cost, again petitioned the Legislature, Jan. 18, 1869, to authorize the Councils of the city to grant one of the Penn Squares for the use of the acad- emy. The petition failed.

April 23, 1869, a committee was appointed to pre- pare plans of a building, which were approved in November.

At the annual meeting of contributors, Jan. 10, 1871, it was resolved that "the trustees proceed to raise the funds for the erection of the building at as early a date as possible," and that "a more popular and public site be selected than that purchased by

In deference to those who advocated a location on Broad Street, the trustees diligently and zealously sought a site on that street, but no suitably located lot, purchasable with the means at the command of the board, could be found.

In January, 1872, application for pecuniary aid was made to the Legislature of Pennsylvania without success. Appeals to it in behalf of the academy have been since made in vain.

About that time a joint committee, composed of representatives of the Academy of Fine Arts, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Library Company On the 31st of May the building committee was authorized to commence the edifice. The work was commenced July 9th. The corner-stone of the new structure was laid at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1872, in presence of officers and members of the academy, and many citizens. Addresses were de- livered by Dr. Ruschenberger, Rev. Dr. E. R. Beadle, of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, and the Franklin Institute, was formed, and at its instance the Councils of the city passed a resolution, on November 4th, asking the Legislature of the State for authority to grant, on certain conditions, the use of the l'enn Squares to the societies named. The board considered it expedient to wait the answer of ' Professor J. Aitkin Meigs, of the Jefferson Medical the Legislature. The bill to authorize the City Coun- College, Professor Horatio C. Wood, Jr., of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Rev. Dr. George D. Boardman. cils to grant the use of the Penn Squares to the so- cieties passed the Senate, but failed in the House of Representatives.

Building operations were vigorously pushed, and the structure was so nearly completed that the transfer of the collections was begun Nov. 2, 1875, and ended Jan. 11, 1876.

The building covers an area of one hundred and eighty-six feet on Race by seventy-five feet on Nine- teenth Street. The ridge of the skylight is eighty feet

LIBRARIES AND HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

1203

above the footway, and the eave fifty feet above the water-table. The walls are of brick faced on the exterior surface with green serpentine rock, except a space on the south side, where a junction with the main building will be formed at a future time. The appear- ance of the exterior of the building is a pleasing one. Its architectural style is known as the collegiate Gothic.

The public entrance is on Race Street. The first floor is divided into nineteen apartments, and the entresol into seven. The floor of the library is one hundred and thirty feet long and thirty feet wide be- tween the fronts of the bookcases. The ceiling is eighteen feet high. It is estimated that the library- room will properly accommodate thirty thousand

subscriptions to the building fund aggregated $239,- 160.74. Among the contributors of large amounts were the following: William S. Vaux, $7000; Clem- ent Biddle, $6100; J. G. Fell, Henry C. Gibson, H. Pratt Mckean, Thomas Sparks, and A. Whitney & Sons, each $6000; John F. Weightman, John Welsh, and Mrs. S. R. B., each $5000; George W. Tryon, Jr., $3000; Isaac Lea and Miss R. A. Cope, each $2500; Phoenix Iron Company, $2337.50; John S. Haines, Joseph Jeanes, and Joshua T. Jeanes, each $2185; Charles Lennig, 82156; Henry C. Lea, $2050 ; Bae- der & Adamson, Adolph E. Borie, Joseph S. Lover- ing, William Massey, Moro Phillips, and Mrs. E. V. Graham, each 82000; Alfred Cope, Joseph Wharton, and Miss J. R. Haines, each $1500; S. S. White,

ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES.

volumes, and leave space enough on the floor to seat : $1450; A. H. Franciscus, $1350; James S. Mason, comfortably four hundred persons.

The second, or museum floor, is one hundred and eighty feet long by sixty feet wide. The aggregate of floor space in the museum is twenty-seven thousand two hundred and seventy-five square feet, or more than three-fifths of an acre, all of which is fully occupied by the collections.

The plan of the entire building includes a south wing, covering an area of one hundred and thirty- nine feet on Cherry and seventy-five feet on Nine- teenth Streets, with a central or main building of the same area, set equidistant between the north and south wings, the three parallelograms being connected so as to show a uniform front on Nineteenth Street of two hundred and eighty-eight feet.

Between December, 1865, and April 24, 1876, the

$1250; Mrs. C. Pennock, $1200; Samuel Jeanes and Elias D. Kennedy, each $1185; together with forty- four contributors who gave $1000 each.

The first meeting of the society was held in the new edifice on Tuesday evening, Jan. 11, 1876, and the next day possession of the old building was given to the purchaser, it having been disposed of for sixty thousand dollars. A "Report of the Condition of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia on Moving into its New Edifice" was prepared under direction of the trustees, and a copy sent to each con- tributor, with an invitation to inspect the building on Monday, May 1st, between the hours of ten o'clock A.M. and ten o'clock P.M. On Tuesday, May 2d, the museum was opened to the public.

In 1858 the organization of the society was so mod-

1204

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

ified as to enable those members who were devoted to the cultivation of special branches of science to form departments of the academy, privileged to use the hall, hold separate meetings, etc., on condition that each department shall report its proceedings monthly to the academy, defray its own expenses, and admit to membership in it only members of the academy.

Under such provisions, the then recently-formed Biological Society of Philadelphia became tbe Bio- logical Department of the academy. About July, 1868, the Microscopical Society of Philadelphia joined it, and was organized under the name of the Biological and Microscopical Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

The Conchological Section was organized Dec. 26, 1866. This collection is now equal in scientific value to any other in the world. Its classification required the fixing in appropriate trays seventy-six thousand four hundred and seventy-nine specimens, and the writing of twenty-four thousand two hundred and eighty-five labels, in order to fully display fourteen thousand one hundred and sixty-one species. Several families are so complete that no known representative of them is wanting.

The Entomological Section of the academy was or- ganized through a junction of the American Ento- mological Society with the academy. This society was founded in 1859, and incorporated in 1862. It agreed to join the academy in November, 1875.

The museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences is an admirable one, considering the many disad- vantages of a financial character under which the institution has labored since its foundation. The collections are placed in cases on the main floor and on the galleries of the second story of the building.

The main floor is occupied chiefly by the collec- tions of fossils, of fishes, mammals, osteology ; the first, or Wilson gallery, by the birds, and the second, or Tryon gallery, by the conchological collections.

The cabinet of minerals is arranged in horizontal or table cases placed on the margins of both galleries. It contains about six thousand selected specimens.

A collection of about seven hundred specimens of rocks, in table cases on the main floor, represents the department of geology.

The palæontological cabinet includes several special collections, all of them of considerable interest. The department contains seventy thousand specimens, as follows : vegetable fossils, American and foreign, two thousand; invertebrate, thirty thousand ; vertebrate, five thousand ; unarranged, thirty-three thousand.

The collection of mammals consists of about one thousand specimens, representing three hundred and eighty species.

The ornithological department is not excelled any- where. It embraces several noted collections-the thirty-two volumes and most of the maps and charts were the gift of William Maclure. They included nineteen hundred volumes of political his-

lection about twenty-four thousand specimens were given by Dr. Thomas B. Wilson and Edward Wilson. Unique and type specimens are numerous.

There are more than five thousand birds' eggs, and about two thousand nests, in the academy.

In the cabinet devoted to reptiles there were re- cently eight hundred and thirteen species, of three hundred and seven genera, of forty-seven families.

In the ichthyological department there are about twelve hundred species represented.

The cabinet of mollusks contains four hundred and fifty species, preserved in alcohol. Of the shells of the animals there are in the collection more than one hundred thousand specimens, representing fully twenty thousand of the species described in books.

The entomological department, in the northwest rooms on the library and entresol floors, which is confided to the care of the Entomological Section of the academy, contains about seventy-five thousand species.

Of arachnidans and myriapods there are small col- lections of about five hundred species.

Of crustaceans (crabs) there are one thousand and fifty species.

Of annelidans (worms) there is a small number.

Of echinoderms (star-fishes, sea-eggs), sponges, and corals, there are interesting collections of about one thousand species.

In the department of osteology, the collection of completely mounted skeletons and parts of skeletons of vertebrate animals numbers eight hundred and seventy-six specimens. Prominent among them are skeletons of an ostrich, of a gorilla, a polar bear, of a narwhal, the tusk of which exceeds eight feet in length, of a whale, of a rhinoceros, of a camel, and of a giraffe eighteen feet high.

The department of ethnology embraces a collection of eleven hundred and forty-six human crania and thirty-one casts, including the Morton collection, and several Egyptian and Peruvian mummies, besides some Indian reliques, pottery, implements, etc.

The botanical cabinets are in the southwest rooms, or the library and entresol floors. They include several noted collections. The herbariums comprised in this department contain over seventy thousand species, arranged according to the system of Jussieu.

The formation of the library of the Academy of Natural Sciences begau in 1812. The founders of the society presented the first books. Its growth is due to the bounty of intelligent and benevolent persons. A catalogue of the library, printed in 1836, shows that at that time it consisted of six thousand eight hundred and ninety volumes and four hundred and thirty-five separate maps and charts. Of these, five thousand two hundred and

Rivoli, Gould, Bourcier, Gambel, and Cassin-and contains about twenty-seven thousand specimens, nearly all of which are mounted. Of the whole col- i tory, which have since been sold, and the proceeds

---

1205

LIBRARIES AND HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

of sale invested in scientific books. Mr. Thomas Say bequeathed to the society his collection of books on entomology, one hundred volumes. In May, 1845, Dr. T. B. Wilson presented Owen's "History of British Fossil Mammalia and Birds." From that date till his death, March 15, 1865, Dr. Wilson pre- sented more than ten thousand volumes, periodicals, pamphlets, and parts of serials. They included nearly all of the most elaborate and expensive works on natural history and scientific travel pub- lished within that period, as well as many valuable and rare works, for which catalogues of second-hand books were carefully examined. Between the years 1850 and 1857, Mr. Edward Wilson presented four thousand one hundred and eighty-four rare publica- tions and pamphlets of the last century.

Among the valuable specialties of this library is an extensive series of periodical publications of sci- entific societies throughout the world, received gen- erally in exchange for those of the academy. It includes a complete set of the Transactions of the Royal Society of London, commenced in 1655, and still continued. Also a complete set of Curtis' Botan- ical Magazine, commenced in 1790, and still published. It now consists of one hundred volumes, illustrated by more than six thousand beautifully-colored plates.

Among the admirable possessions of the library are the elephant-folio edition of Audubon's "Birds of America ;" a complete series of the works of John Gould on birds and mammals, folio edition, beauti- fully illustrated; Elliot's "Ornithological Mono- graphs," including his superb works on pheasants and birds of paradise; the work on pheasants is probably the most elegantly illustrated work on descriptive natural history ever published, the plates having been designed and drawn by Joseph Wolf, and colored by hand in the highest style of art; Wolf's "Zoological Sketches," illustrated by the same artist; Sonnini's edition of Buffon, one hun- dred and twenty-seven volumes; the " Flora of Aus- tria," five folio volumes, illustrated by the process known as nature-printing; the "Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland," illustrated in the same manner ; the "Stone Age of the Human Race," as collected and arranged by Franklin Peale, of which only twenty-five copies were printed, presented by Mr. Titian R. Peale.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 82

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992