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The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia Uncorked a Sometimes Maddeningly Democratic Process of Discovery in the Young Re

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The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia Uncorked a Sometimes Maddeningly Democratic Process of Discovery in the Young Re Eureka! The Academy of Natural Science s in Philadelphia uncorked a sometimes maddeningly democratic process of discovery in the young republic By Richard Conniff In November 1868 , without fanfare or even much thought to how the public might respond, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia opened its doors on one of the most sensational museum displays ever. It was the world’s first nearly complete and realistically displayed dinosaur skeleton, discovered 10 years earlier in Haddonfield, N.J. Hadrosaurus foulkii stood on its hind legs and was more than two stories high. So many visitors showed up to gape at this astonishing monster Academy scientists complained about “the excessive clouds of dust produced by the moving crowds,” not to mention broken glass and battered woodwork. The exhibit marked the beginning of dinosaur-mania in North America, and it changed the way museums everywhere would re-create the lost world of extinct species. The Academy might have preferred to go about its work more quiet - ly. But it had grown accustomed to playing an important part in the his - tory of the nation, and of science. Philadelphia considered itself “the Athens of America” in 1812, when a small band of naturalists met at the home of a local apothecary to found the Academy. That the founding occurred during the War of 1812 “was no coincidence,” says Robert Peck, a curator at the Academy. “The United States was declaring our independence politically and economically again , and we were declar - ing our intellectual independence for the first time.” Founding the Academy meant founding a democratic American science, the equal of its Old World counterparts but without the elitist trappings. The Treasures currently on exhibit chronicle the Academy of Natural Science’s historic role in showcasing wonders of the world. An African bushman figurine (left) was created in 1937 for the Academy’s Hall of Earth History, and the 10,000-year-old skeleton of an Irish elk (right) invites comparisons to its American cousins. 42 AMERICAN HISTORY ALL PHOTOGRAPHY UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED ROSAMOND PURCELL; FACING PAGE: LAUREN DUGUID/ANSP AUGUST 2012 43 II For better or Academy would also have its own journal, so American scientists “would not have to worse, no other run to Europe to have their discoveries scientific institution vetted.” The periodical would be intellectu - ally rigorous, but also inexpensively print - had more impact ed, so working people like the founders on the evolution of themselves could afford to read it. The Academy, which marks its 200th the young republic’s anniversary this year (see “Bicentennial character II Celebration,” p. 49), is the oldest natural history institution in the New World. Some of the Academy’s counterparts, in- cluding its main early rival, the Smith- sonian Institution in Washington, D.C., are bigger and more renowned. But for better—and sometimes for worse—no other scientific institution had a more seminal impact on the evolution of the young republic’s character. Academy scientists helped plan and carry out the early exploration of the American West, established the science of ornithology in America and endorsed sci - entific racism in the decades leading up to the Civil War. The Academy counted Thomas Jefferson and Charles Darwin as corresponding members, was frequented scholarly work, avoiding the kind of Young horse-eye jacks from the Caribbean coast of the Dominican Republic were treated with by Edgar Allan Poe and, in the 20th cen - hoopla Peale sometimes indulged in to a chemical bath to make their tissue transparent. The skeletons were then stained red to tury, gave the world that dashing British attract customers. The Academy was also facilitate study. The species was first identified in 1831 by Academy member Louis Agassiz. spy James Bond—or at least his name - determined to be democratic. Whereas sake. (Novelist Ian Fleming, a weekend the Philosophical Society drew its mem - birder in Jamaica, thought the name of bers from the elite (including 15 of the 56 the Academy in its early years, “when we onlookers’ feet. Diplomatic dignity wres - the author of the field guide Birds of signers of the Declaration of Inde- shall no longer be indebted to the men of tled momentarily with scientific passion. the West Indies sounded suitably Anglo- pend ence), the Acad emy’s founders were foreign countries, for a knowledge of Then Say plunged after the beetle and im- Saxon. He later gave a copy of one of his local businessmen and immigrants drawn any of the products of our own soil, or for paled it on a pin, for which the aston ished books to the ornithologist, a member of to gether by a single idea: “We are lovers our opinions in science.” Say himself Kansa admiringly dubbed him a medicine the Academy, signed, “To the real James of science.” They resolved that their would become the father of American man. Another of his dis coveries, the mos - Bond, from the thief of his identity.”) organization would be “perpetually exclu - entomology, in his lifetime describing quito species Anopheles quadrimacula - sive of political, religious and national roughly 1,400 insects, including pests and tus , actually led to a major medical In 1812, Philadelphia was al- partialities, antipathies, preventions and pollinators of critical economic impor - advance. Long after Say’s death, scien - ready home to the American Philo- prejudices.” This was no doubt wishful tance in agriculture. tists identified A.quadrimaculatus as the sophical Society, dedicated by Benjamin thinking. As at most such institutions Say would also become the first trained chief carrier of “ague,” or malaria, a Franklin to all studies “that let Light into then, the Academy’s membership was naturalist to visit the American West. As scourge that until then routinely killed the Nature of Things, tend to increase the entirely white and male, until the widow chief scientist on the Long Expedition Americans along the Gulf Coast and as Power of Man over Matter, and multiply of a founder was admitted in 1841. Even of 1819-20 (see “What Is Out There?” far north as Boston and the Great Lakes. the Conveniencies or Pleasures of Life.” brotherhood would prove elusive. (One American History , October 2010), he Another early member of the Academy, The Philadelphia Museum was also thriv - founder was soon describing another as provided the first descriptions of many Scottish immigrant Alexander Wilson, Snake skin specimens ing, with the artist Charles Willson Peale a “hot headed eccentric Irishman” and now beloved species, from the swift fox to launched the scientific study of birds in from various species, including displaying portraits of great American “some what crack brained.”) the Lazuli bunting to a host of insects. At America with his nine-volume American Agkistrodon piscivorus , a pit patriots and specimens of great American But the founders were sincere in want - one point during the expedition, Say was Ornithology , which was completed in viper from the southeastern wildlife side by side. ing to develop a proper American science seated with a Kansa chieftain, “in the 1814, a year after his death. Ironically, A Megalonyx jeffersonii claw U.S. , and Crotalus ruber , a The founders of the Academy meant to for understanding and describing the presence of several hundred of his people that connection with Wilson also caused comes from a species studied rattlesnake from California, set their enterprise apart by focusing riches of the still largely unexplored con - assembled to view the arms, equipment, the Academy to reject John James by Thomas Jefferson, who id’d were collected in 1942 by exclusively on the natural world, not cul - tinent. “The time will arrive,” wrote and appearance of the party,” when a Audubon when he showed up 10 years it as an enormous cat. It turned herpetologist George Feirer. ture or the arts. And they wanted to do Thomas Say, the intellectual force behind darkling beetle scurried out from among later seeking support for what would out to be a giant ground sloth. 44 AMERICAN HISTORY AUGUST 2012 45 II Samuel G. become the most celebrated work of and integrity,” Robert Peck and Patricia The Academy’s most disturbing influ - tom.” But other scientists still regard Morton argued in the American natural history ever published. Stroud write in A Glorious Enterprise , ence on American life came when a Morton as the founder of physical anthro - Audubon was a colorful frontier charac - their definitive history of the Academy. prominent member, Samuel G. Morton, pology, the science of measuring vari - 1840s that blacks and ter and no diplomat. At a meeting with “By the end of the meeting, it was clear claimed in the 1840s that blacks and ances among human groups. whites originated as George Ord, the quarrelsome, conde - that any possibility of the Academy sup - whites originated as separate species and scending president of the Academy, he porting Audubon’s project had vanished.” that this could be proven by measuring The mid-19th century was the Rainforest leaf insects separate species and promoted his own work by clumsily dis - Audubon had to turn to Europe to get skull capacity. Morton, a Philadelphia last time a naturalist’s scholarship could collected in the Philippines, that this could be paraging Wilson’s. Audubon didn’t realize Birds of America published. Quaker and physician, was convinced span the entire world. Not only were New Guinea and the Seychelles that Ord had been Wilson’s closest friend A few years later, in 1838, the Academy that bigger skulls housed bigger brains explorers from the Academy and other exemplify a remarkable proven by measuring and was his literary executor. “Incensed was aboard when the U.S.
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