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9 unusual facts about American Philosophical Society


Andrew McNair

The records of the American Philosophical Society record that on March 22, 1768, the Society contracted McNair to make the fires, light and extinguish candles, and keep its meeting room clean, for four shillings a night.

David Rittenhouse Laboratory

The building is named for David Rittenhouse, a notable American astronomer and Penn professor of the 18th century and the president of the American Philosophical Society (he succeeded Franklin in this position).

John Heckewelder

He studied carefully the languages, manners, and customs of the Indians, particularly the Delawares, and after he had become a member of the American Philosophical Society, at Philadelphia, several of his contributions of Indian archaeology were published in their transactions.

Joseph Willard

He published a few sermons, a Latin address on the death of George Washington, prefixed to David Tappan's Discourse (Cambridge, 1800), and mathematical and astronomical papers in the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.

Megalonychidae

Jefferson's ground sloth has a special place in modern paleontology, for Thomas Jefferson's letter on Megalonyx, read before the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, in August 1796, marked the beginning of vertebrate paleontology in North America.

Ochyor

Everett C. Olson, 1962, Late Permian terrestrial vertebrates, USA and USSR Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, new series, 52: 1–224.

Robert Fagles

In addition to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Fagles was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society

Sandra Faber

Faber was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1985 and the American Philosophical Society on 29 April 2001.

William Radcliffe Birt

A lot of his work is held in the Scientist's Collection at the American Philosophical Society.


Ansley J. Coale

Coale was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and was a recipient of several honorary degrees from universities including Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Louvain and the University of Liège.

Charles Conrad Abbott

He was a corresponding member of the Boston Society of Natural History, a member of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of the North in Copenhagen.

Herbert Bloch

He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia (since 1990 Hon. Mem.), The German Archaeological Institute, the Zentraldirektion of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica.

John Meurig Thomas

He is the recipient of twenty honorary degrees from Australian, British, Canadian, Chinese, Dutch, Egyptian, French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and U.S. universities, and has been elected to honorary membership in over fifteen foreign academies, including the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Accademia dei Lincei (Rome), and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Myron Weiner

He was elected to the American Philosophical Society, and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Council on Foreign Relations, and a past president of the New England Association of Asian Studies.

Pliny Chase

In 1864 the Magellanic gold medal of the American Philosophical Society was awarded him for his Numerical Relations of Gravity and Magnetism.

Roger Mynors

He was an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society and received honorary degrees from many universities in Britain and at the University of Toronto.

Stuart William Seeley

Seeley received the 1948 IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award "for his development of ingenious circuits related to frequency modulation", and the 1960 Magellanic Premium from the American Philosophical Society for Shoran.

T. N. Srinivasan

He is visiting fellow at the Center for Research on Economic Development and Policy Reform, Stanford University; fellow at the Econometric Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Society; and a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

Valentin de Foronda

He taught at the Basque Institutional School, known as Seminario de Vergara, was promoted to Knight of the Military Order of Santiago in 1793, a Knight of the Order of Carlos III in 1801 and was later a member of the American Philosophical Society.


see also

Robert Empie Rogers

William S. W. Ruschenberger, “A Sketch of the Life of Robert E. Rogers, with Biographical Notices of His Father and Brothers,” in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, v. XXIII (1886).

Theodor Mommsen

Lionel Gossman, Orpheus Philologus: Bachofen versus Mommsen on the Study of Antiquity. American Philosophical Society, 1983.