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Home , Albert Herter, Joseph Henry, Leonard Carmichael, Nassau Hall

Proceedings of the NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Volune 58 * Number 1 * July 15, 1967

JOSEPH AND THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES BY

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY Presented before the Academy, April £6, 1967, by invitation of the Committee on Arrangements for the Annual Meeting* Sometime next August, out of office buildings all over Washington will come the sturdy scientific staff of the National Academy of Sciences, and what is pleasantly called its creature, the National Research Council, and the young National Academy of Engineering, to take physical possession of the new Building. Then, at long last, the work of the Academy and the Research Council will be efficiently centralized in one building near the monumental marble headquarters of the Academy itself. So, when I was invited to say something this evening, I thought I would like to talk about one of my personal heroes and one of America's early great scientists and research organizers, Joseph Henry, whose name has so wisely been given to the new University building that is soon to be occupied by the Academy. It seems especially appropriate to have named this building for Henry. He, more than any other man of the founding generation, made the Academy what it is today. Also, since this new building is leased from George Washington University, it is appropriate to remember that Henry was a distinguished member of the Board of Trustees of Columbian College, the predecessor institution of the modern George Washington University. I remember as a schoolboy studying about Henry in a book by R. A. Millikan and H. G. Gale. I became even more keenly interested in him and his greatness when I became Secretary of the . I had not been at the Smithsonian long before I came to recognize that an amazing number of its inter- esting, diversified, and constructive activities somehow had their origin in my first predecessor's original and effective basic plan for the Institution and in his thirty-two years of fruitful administration as Secretary of the Smithsonian. One with the specialized skill in book-naming of Agatha Christie and her ability to build up her reader's suspense might have chosen as my title for this evening: "The Mystery of the Composite Picture" or "Why Herter Painted the Man Who

* The author wishes to note that this paper is written in a style intended for oral presentation at the annual dinner of the Academy and as such contains some "side remarks" not appropriate for a formal historical essay. The paper is largely based on published books, with a few references to unpublished papers at the Smithsonian Institution and at the National Academy of Sciences. 1 Downloaded by guest on October 1, 2021 2 N. A. S. LECTURE: L. CARMICHAEL PROC. N. A. S.

Was Not There." On the wall of the great Board Room of the Academy building is a mural proudly showing the signing of its charter by President Lincoln. This excellent painting was done by Albert Herter, a distinguished American muralist of the last generation, and father of former Secretary of State Christian A. Herter. This picture shows President Lincoln in the center; before him is the quill pen he used on March 3, 1863, to sign the Congressional bill creating the Academy. Look twice and you will see a surprisingly Massachusetts aura floating about this picture. In it, besides Lincoln, are Benjamin Peirce, Massachusetts-born astronomer and mathematician; , Harvard's distinguished museum builder and student of natural history; Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts; -born Admiral Charles H. Davis, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation of the Navy; and Boston-born B. A. Gould, astronomer of the heavens of the Southern Hemisphere. Also in the picture is -born , but even he was a great-grandson of who was born in Boston and only moved to Philadelphia when he reached years of discretion. Near the center, with the largest head of all, is a real non-New Englander, the handsome Albany-born Joseph Henry. As I have hinted, this mural has a hidden mystery. Of the founders shown on the canvas, no one more deserves a place there than does Joseph Henry, but in awk- ward fact he was not present when the pictured pen was used. Not until two days after the signing had taken place did Henry learn that the bill to establish the Academy had been passed and that it had been signed into law by his close friend, President Lincoln. The mystery of why Herter included Henry, the man who was not there, is still unsolved. The archives of the Academy have not yet disclosed who ordered the picture or who decided that Henry should be represented in it. But in terms of memorializing the spiritual founders of the Academy, surely Henry richly deserves his central place in the picture. May dull realism never suggest a change! What may be termed the psychological trend that led up to the founding of our Academy had been developing for centuries. It is a law of society that when a nation produces enough real scientists or, as Franklin said, "virtuosi or ingenious men," these men will wish to associate themselves together in some form of organi- zation. Such is the history of the French Academy of Science, the Royal Society, the Prussian Academy, the Russian Academy, Philadelphia's American Philo- sophical Society, and Boston's American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Joseph Henry had a lasting interest in such organizations. He helped found the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1847 on lines similar to its like- named organization in Britain. This association was made up both of professional scientists and of friends of science. Early in his career, Henry began to feel the need of a different sort of national organization, one that would be made up ex- clusively of men who had already won distinction in scientific research. An acad- emy of the latter sort would confer honor upon those elected to it, and also the members of such an academy would be especially able to help the government effec- tively when called upon to do so. Henry's close friend, Bache, in 1851, in an ad- dress as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, had specifically called for such a superorganization of scientific men, preferably under federal sponsorship. Agassiz had also favored such a plan. But when the Civil War developed, Henry decided that his idea and that of Bache and Agassiz for the Downloaded by guest on October 1, 2021 VceL. 58, 1967 N. A. S. LECTURE: L. CARMICHAEL 3

establishment of an academy was inappropriate for such troubled times and must wait for the return of peace. At the start of the Civil War, the Government had no staff to deal with the many scientific or semiiscientific problems that arose in connection with rapid rearma- ment. There was, for example, no agency to evaluate the many proposals of well- meaning or money-hungry inventors who felt that they had developed new weapons or other military devices. Most of such proffered inventions were without value, but the chance that a useful proposal might be neglected made it essential to have professional scrutiny of all war-related inventions that were offered to the country. Henry, as head of the Smithsonian Institution, was asked to study and report on each such invention. He later noted that between 1860 and 1864 several hundred reports, many of which had required extensive experimention in their preparation, had been rendered to the Government. Henry, not surprsingly, felt the need of help in this work and in the positive de- velopment of many new military devices that were required by the Army and Navy. To accomplish all this work he associated himself with an idea proposed by Com- modore Charles H. Davis, later Admiral Davis, to suggest the formation of a per- manent commission to which all subjects of a scientific character on which the Gov- ernment required information could be referred. This commission was appointed by Gideon Wells, Secretary of the Navy. It consisted of Davis, Henry, and Bache. Bache, as already noted, was a great Philadelphian. He had been head of GirardCollege and professor of natural philosophy atthe University of Pennsylvania. His report on education in Europe, written in 1839, provided an enlightened plan for the reorganization not only of Philadelphia's schools and universities, but for all American education. Philadelphia's great and unique Central High School still stands as his monument. He had come to Washington as successor to the distin- guished Swiss-born Ferdinand Rudoph Hassler as head of the Government's first scientific agency, the Coast Survey, which since its establishment by President Jefferson had known many tribulations. By the time of the Civil War, the Coast Survey had won an important and accepted place in Washington. It is an interesting footnote to note that Jefferson Davis, later President of the Con- federacy, had been a West Point classmate of Bache. Jefferson Davis was also an influential Regent of the Smithsonian and, in ante bellum days, naturally a close friend of both Bache and Henry. As Secretary of War in President Pierce's ad- ministration, the southern mind of Jefferson Davis had nevertheless ruled against Henry's well-developed proposal that the Army stockpile materials needed to make gunpowder. Henry had asserted in a report at that time that the United States ought not (as was then the case) to be dependent on England for supplies to make gunpowder. Such dependency could be embarrassing in time of war, he pointed out. The Navy's permanent commission was established on February 11, 1863, less than a month before the Academy was founded. The idea of an academy, as has been noted, had been favorably considered for years by Henry, Bache, and their associates in the high command of what was then a true and closely knit establih- ment in American science. It was a central proposal of that almost secret and powerful ante bellum band of American research men called the Scientific Lazzaroni. This national alliance of leading professional scientists, organized in 1855, took its Downloaded by guest on October 1, 2021 4 N. A. S. LECTURE: L. CARMICHAEL PEoc. N. A. S. name from that of the Neapolitan beggars or idlers. It was made up of scientists working in Cambridge, Philadelphia, City, Washington, New Haven, and Albany. Once a year the Lazzaroni met for what they described as "one outrageously good dinner" together. But the basic purpose of the group was not gustatory elegance but the control of the institutional form of all real science in America. Bache was its recognized leader; Agassiz and Henry supplied many of its ideas. For Agassiz, the pattern of the University of Berlin always danced before his eyes as a model for his adopted America. Agassiz's friend von Humboldt had done much to make the University of Berlin a research center in which great German scientists were honored, well-paid, and given generous research support. During pre-Civil War years, Agassiz was doing his best to convince the Brahmin, but still parochial, Harvard Corporation that Berlin was the proper model for a real American university. Agassiz wrote to the President and Fellows of Harvard that "Science must be in advance of the wants of the times... and it is the duty of every civilized country to provide the means for original re- search." He similarly urged the formation of a national academy that might advance his ideal of generous Federal support for science. The Lazzaroni also concerned themselves with combating charlatanism in science and with defending, against the all-too-prevalent political attacks of the time, the work of such central scientific bureaus as the Coast Survey and the Smithsonian. The almost complete dominance of the Lazzaroni in these years is attested to by the fact that in this era almost all the presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science were selected from its active members. But what were the specific events that led up to the founding of the Academy? Agassiz, as I have said, was a close and old friend of Henry and also a Regent of Henry's dominant Smithsonian. He came to Washington from Cambridge on February 19, 1863, for a Regents' meeting. Instead of going to stay with the Henrys, as he had expected to do, he went at once to Bache's house. On the even- ing of his arrival a dinner was arranged. Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, who incidentally had been one of the founders of the Republican Party, Bache, and Agassiz dined together. Soon the idea of Admiral Davis', so carefully considered earlier by Henry but definitely shelved by him as politically and psychologically inexpedient in war time, was brought up for active rediscussion. Then, on February 21, two days after the dinner, Senator Wilson introduced in the Senate a bill to incorporate the National Academy of Sciences. The bill pro- vided all the features of the Academy as discussed at Bache's home and named a list of 50 eminent scientists, also selected at the fateful dinner. These were the famous "incorporators." The Senate-originated bill passed the House ofRepresenta- tives as Senator Wilson had wisely predicted it would in the confused closing days of the session, and then President Lincoln signed it into law on March 3, 1863. Of the incorporators, 32 were in the physical sciences, with special emphasis upon geophysics; 18 were in natural history. Some notable scientists of the period, such as George P. Bond, Director of the Harvard Observatory; , Assistant Secretary and later Secretary of the Smithsonian, and a distinguished student of natural history, but who did not always see eye to eye with Agassiz; and J. W. Draper, the eminent chemist, surprisingly, were omitted; but in general the list of incorporators was a fine one. Downloaded by guest on October 1, 2021 VOL. 58, 1967 N. A. S. LECTURE: L. CARMICHAEL 5

The first meetings of the Academy were, as was to be expected, directed by the Lazzaroni. Bache was made president. At the 1864 meeting in New Haven, however, matters changed a little, for Asa , James Dwight Dana, and Henry joined forces to secure the election of Baird to the Academy, in spite of strong opposition by Agassiz who opposed Baird and because they favored the new idea of Darwinian evolution. Although Bache had become the Academy's first president, and James Dwight Dana its vice president, both were soon too ill to attend to its business. Henry had to prepare the report of the Academy in 1865. In 1867, Henry was elected president of the Academy. He continued in this office until his death in 1878. Henry emphasized two main features of the Academy as all-important. First, the Academy should be composed only of men who were truly distinguished for their own original research. Such men, he felt, would best be able to assist the Government in the solution of new national scientific problems as they arose. Sec- ond, Henry wanted election to the Academy to be recognized by the whole nation as a very high honor. Henry noted that French academicians received an annual salary and are decorated with the insignia of the Legion of Honor. Similar marks of distinction were conferred, he pointed out, on the members of the Academies of Berlin and of St. Petersburg. He strongly urged that appropriate honors should be given by an intelligent democracy. Such honors, he noted, were already ac- corded in a very real way in America to those who acquired great wealth, to those elected to high political office, and to those who achieved high rank in the Army and Navy. He asserted that the establishment of the Academy should open a fourth and important avenue for national honor, that of success in scientific re- search as attested to by election to the national Academy. It seems clear that he hoped that the American Government might recognize the importance of each man so elected by providing him with a salary and with ample funds for his research. One part of Henry's plan for his nation has now indeed become a reality with Federal aid for research. Who can say that the other part of his dream, which would provide both true public recognition and a tangible reward for becoming an Acade- mician, may not sometime be realized? But now, Mr. President, as these are after-dinner remarks, I am going to try to introduce a touch of quoted literary elegance and read a poem by Clifton Fadi- man related to my own academic field of . Here it is: Said Descartes, "I extol myself because I have a soul and beasts do not." (Of course he had to put Descartes before the horse.) In other words, Mr. President, you and my other associates may have been thinking that so far my words have been putting an administrative cart before the scientific horse in speaking of the greatness of Joseph Henry. The details of his contributions to science, and indeed of his personal life, are also interesting. He was born in Albany, New York, on , 1797, of the strictest Scotch Presbyterian stock. As a bov he was popular with his playmates and fellows. He was interested in literature and art. Soon, rather surprisingly, he became absorbed in the stage and was a very regular attendant at theatrical performances in his intellectually active small city of Albany. He took stage parts and even considered Downloaded by guest on October 1, 2021 6 N. A. S. LECTURE: L. CARMICHAEL PROC. N. A. S.

acting as a career. Fortunately for American science, however, a friend gave him a popular book on experimental philosophy, astronomy, and chemistry. This book kindled an interest and an enthusiasm that motivated all the rest of his life. Conse- quently, he enrolled at the excellent AlbanyAcademy andwas graduatedwith honors. He became a private tutor for the children of General Stephen van Rensselaer, the last of the old Patroons. Later, it is especially interesting to me to know, he be- came private tutor to the wealthy and unorthodox Henry James, father of , the , and Henry James, the novelist. Soon after, the young scientist became a surveyor, and then in 1828 he accepted the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Albany Academy. While there he began his true work as an independent scientific investigator. In 1832, our good young Scottish and Presbyterian scientist was called to the good Scottish and Presbyterian College of at Princeton as professor of natural philosophy. During his years at Albany and Princeton his principal original re- search was accomplished. At Albany he devised the means of making really power- ful and invented the first electromagnetic machine, that is, a de- vice by means of which was made to produce mechanical movement. At this time, too, he made an independent discovery of induced currents in elec- tricity which, however, Faraday in England had also made and announced first. Also, while at the Academy he devised an electromagnetic telegraph in which signals were transmitted by exciting an located at a considerable distance from the battery. This device allowed bells to be struck. While at Princeton, he developed an electromagnet which was able to lift over 3000 pounds, and here also he advanced his techniques for his electric telegraph. It is a fitting tribute to Henry's work in self-induction that the international unit of is known as the henry in his honor. One of Henry's large early was bought by Thomas Davenport, a Vermont blacksmith, who was inspired by its power to do some electrical experimentation himself. Davenport made a little machine with four electromagnets and a . When connected with an electric battery, its wheel revolved at a high rate of speed. In 1837, Davenport patented his first . Various other practical uses for Henry's electromagnets were early recognized. Two large ones were made for the Pennfield Iron Works near Crown Point, New York. They were used to extract iron from pulverized iron ore. Later, the name of the little town where the Pennfield Iron Works was located was changed to Port Henry in honor of the 's inventor. It was in fact here that Davenport saw his first magnet. Henry experimented with Franklin's old subject of atmospheric electricity. At Princeton every good thunderstorm found him and his apparatus ready. In a series of experiments he used the metal roof of his house as a condenser plate. On one occasion the electric discharge, he reported, was so strong that it was able to raise the roof of his house clear off its walls. One cannot help wondering what the Princeton maintenance department thought of this experiment. It is said that one of his papers on the protection of buildings from lightning is still acceptable as presenting good safety engineering specifications. He was interested in the of the sun and attempted to formulate theories concerning the source of its energy. He was able to show experimentally that sunspots radiated less heat than did ad- Downloaded by guest on October 1, 2021 VOL. 58, 1967 N. A. S. LECTURE: L. CARMICHAEL 7

jacent parts of the sun's surface. He devised what he called a thermal telescope to study the sun and other sources of radiant heat. He studied the nature of metals and the cohesion of liquids. In 1842, at Princeton, he was able to demonstrate that spark discharges taking place on the second floor of his laboratory affected magne- tized needles in the basement. He correctly recognized that in some way this process was similar to the propagation of light. He certainly was the inventor of that humble and useful instrument, the electric doorbell. Both and Samuel F. B. Morse received help and encouragement from Henry. In later years, Morse, because of his patent problems, publicly proved to be more than ungrateful for this assistance. Henry's work was well received at Princeton, and he was highly regarded there. One of his close friends was John Torrey, the botanist. In the light of recent aca- demic eruptions it is interesting to note that the riotous behavior of students was a great problem at Princeton and other universities during this period a century and a quarter ago. Only a few years before Henry came to Princeton, three fourths of the whole student body were suspended for unruly conduct and were away from the campus. The institution's finances also were far from strong at this time. When he came to Princeton Henry had been promised at first a salary of $1000, which was later raised to $1500 and a house. He remarks, however, that sometimes he received no more than $600 a year because the university just did not have the funds needed to pay him. The members of this audience who are Princetonians will remember that the charming Henry house is still a dean's residence on the uni- versity grounds near Nassau Hall. The greatest change in Henry's life occurred in 1846 when he became Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1829, an English scientist, James Smithson, noted for research and publica- tions in chemistry and mineralogy and a distinguished fellow of the Royal Society, died. He had never been in America. To the amazement of the learned worlds of both England and American he left what was then a large fortune of about $550,000 to the United States of America. In the language of his will, this was to found in Washington "an institution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." There is much that is still unexplained in the life of this original and intellectually daring man who made this dramatic foundation. He was the natural son of one of England's leading noblemen, the handsome and gay Duke of Northumberland. His mother, who had been twice married before James Smithson was born, had royal blood in her veins and was at the time one of the great heiresses of England. His older half-brother, Lt. General Percy, led the British troops back from the battle of Concord and Lexington. On his return to England General Percy was the first to propose, in Parliament, freedom for the colonies. After much delay, the Smithsonian was established largely as a result of the hard work and influence of the great , that scientifically minded President who had returned to Washington as a Massachusetts congressman after failing to be re-elected as President. The Institution's chartering bill was signed by President Polk on August 10, 1846. The Smithsonian then and now is governed by a Board of Regents. Alexander Dallas Bache, that ubiquitous Philadelphian, our leading Lazzaroni friend, fortunately, was named to the first Board of Regents. At Bache's suggestion, Joseph Henry was asked by the Regents to work out a plan Downloaded by guest on October 1, 2021 8 N. A. S. LECTURE: L. CARMICHAEL PROC. N. A. S.

for the organization and operation of the Smithsonian. He did this and he did it superbly well. Then, even before his plan was adopted, the Regents offered him, as the leading physical scientist of the nation, the office of Secretary of the Smith- sonian. After a strong letter from Bache who feared that the new Smithsonian might otherwise fall into the hands of politically minded opportunists, Henry with real reluctance left Princeton and accepted the duty of organizing and directing the new institution. Bache's letter to Henry contains the following strong words: "Science triumphs in you, my dear friend, and come you must; redeem Washington; save this great national institution from the hands of charlatans." Once at the Smithsonian, Henry of necessity became a research administrator and an encourager of younger scientific men, rather than a personal scientific investi- gator. He established laboratories at the Smithsonian and secured the nucleus of a well-balanced staff in physics, chemistry, and related sciences. He devised a novel system of showing America's weather on a map posted each morning in the Smithsonian's entryway. This map was kept up to date by daily telegraphic in- formation. He was instrumental in organizing what later became the United States Weather Bureau. At the Smithsonian he at once devised an international exchange system by means of which research publications and government documents produced in America could be sent to universities and libraries all over the world, and similar publications produced in other countries could be brought to the Smithsonian and then dis- tributed to appropriate research and university centers here. This novel and im- portant plan is still, after 120 years, in active operation at the Smithsonian, sup- ported now by over 30 international treaties. In 1966, some one million pounds of such documentary materials were shipped abroad by the Smithsonian. Henry improved methods of signaling in fog and incidentally studied the physics of sound in so doing. He improved the methods and the fuels used in lighthouses, and the Government saved much money by adopting his plans. He made a study of building stones for the building. He advised the Navy on how armed ironclad ships could be constructed. He studied the aurora borealis and, to me, interestingly enough, human color blindness. His knowledge and in- fluence made possible the use of the balloons of T. S. C. Lowe by the Union Army. At his suggestion these balloons were in constant contact with the ground by the use of an electric telegraph wire. Thus, he can be said to have inaugurated air-ground communication. Henry, at President Lincoln's request, unmasked the electrical telegraphic basis of mysterious sounds made by a spiritualist who was worrying the President by his influence over Mrs. Lincoln after the death of their son. Henry and his family were important in the life of Civil War Washington. Un- like almost all the other established families of social Washington, the Henrys were not southern sympathizers. Henry became a warm supporter of Lincoln and did all he could to assist northern military development and operations. The closeness of the War to Washington is attested to over and over in Henry's papers and in the diary of his daughter Mary. She tells of the family's climbing to the top of the Smithsonian's tower to watch the Conferederate flag flying over Alexandria in the first days of the war. Henry visited the army in the field a number of times. Sometimes he drove himself to the combat zone in his own buggy. Lincoln re- ciprocated Henry's friendship and often walked to the Smithsonian for long con- Downloaded by guest on October 1, 2021 VOL. 58, 1967 N. A. S. LECTURE: L. CARMICHAEL 9

versations with the Professor, as he was called. Once Henry was accused by a well- meaning citizen, in a personal report to Lincoln, of signaling to the enemy from the Smithsonian tower. Lincoln asked Henry about this and was told with a smile that the intermittent lights were produced by a night watchman's lantern as it passed windows (while meteorological instruments were read) in the Smithsonian's high tower. On January 24, 1865, a great fire destroyed a large part of the Smithsonian build- ing, its apparatus, and collections. Many of Smithson's original memorabilia, including his mineralogical collection, his silver service, his library, and his manu- scripts were lost, as were also many of Henry's own basic papers including important and extensive research notes. But Henry did not weep over spilt milk. Soon, under his direction, the building was reconstructed, this time in a fireproof way, and its scientific work went on. Henry died on May 13, 1878. He is buried in beautiful Oak Hill Cemetery in the Georgetown section of Washington. President Haves, Members of the Cabinet, the Justices of the Supreme Court, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Members of Congress, and representatives of Learned Societies went to the graveside. By concurrent resolution in both houses of Congress, a memorial service for Henry was later held in the House of Representatives and attended by members of the House and the Senate and all other branches of the Government. Later, the Congress appropriated $15,000 for the bronze statue of Henry that now stands on the Mall to commemorate his contributions to the knowledge of mankind. This proper and respectful attention occurred in a period of our country that is often spoken of as having had little regard for science and scholarship. One wonders if public Wash- ington would do more for any scientist in 1967. A short time before Henry's death, a group of thirty-nine friends who were fam- iliar with his insistent and conscientious determination never to patent any of his inventions or to profit in any way from his widely used applied scientific work raised $40,000 to present to him. This fund was intended to help make provision for his old age and for his family after his death. The presentation of this, for the times, large fund was made at the April meeting of the National Academy of Sciences in 1878. This meeting was held, as always, at the Smithsonian. (It may be noted that the meetings of the Academy only moved from the Smithsonian Institution when our own beautiful marble building on Constitution Avenue was erected.) Secretary Henry was full of gratitude for the thought that this fund represented, but he insisted that the interest only should be used. He further provided that after his death and the death of his survivors, the principal sum should pass to the Academy and the income only should be used to assist meritorious investigators who were conducting original research. After the death in 1920 of Caroline Henry, Henry's last survivor, a fund of $47,000 was turned over to the Academy. Since then, 151 grants totaling over $70,000 have been made from the income of the Henry Fund. The list of recipients includes at least one Nobel Prize winner and is in general something of a Who's Who in Ameri- can Science. The Henry Fund and its accumulated unspent income now stands at $140,000 on the books of the Academy. Two or three years ago, plans were at last initiated to promote a comprehensive program for the collecting, editing, and publication of The Joseph Henry Papers Downloaded by guest on October 1, 2021 10 N. A. S. LECTURE: L. CARMICHAEL PRoc. N. A. S.

-the surviving manuscripts, notes, journals, diaries, and correspondence of this great pioneer in American science and scientific administration. Under the joint sponsorship of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Smithsonian Institution, a planning committee was set up repre- senting these three organizations with which he had been closely associated, and a proposal was formulated for a long-term project, both for its financing and its execution. It is good news to be able to report that the National Science Foun- dation has now wisely underwritten the initial phase of this work. Dr. Nathan Reingold, able historian of 19th century science, was added to the staff of the Smithsonian last July to actively forward the project. The Smithsonian will be responsible for the general management of the work, but representatives of the National Academy and the American Philosophical Society will continue to con- stitute a joint advisory committee on the enterprise. Mr. President, this ends my words about the great man whose name has been given to the new office building to be occupied this summer by our Academy. Henry was, considering the climate of his times, a most distinguished American. In his one lifetime he did important original research and he also personally showed how science can be directed for the general public good. May I end, Mr. President, by proposing a symbolic toast to your great predecessor, Joseph Henry, in which spirit rather than spirits will be used and in which mere physical glasses will not be neces- sary. Let us toast him because his effective, hard-working life is still an inspiration for every scientist who sees research as a continuing intellectual adventure and who is willing to give unselfishly of his time and wisdom for the service of his country and his fellowmen. Downloaded by guest on October 1, 2021