BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ASSOCIATION 



I. THE PERIOD TO 1850 1 



Although the American Association for the Advancement of Science was 

 formally organized in 1848, and held its first meeting in Philadelphia on 

 September 20 of that year, it had innumerable earlier beginnings in so- 

 cieties that were local or of limited ranges of interests, and in the hearts of 

 many men engaged in the adventure of developing a civilization in this new 

 continent. These societies and aspirations had antecedents, sometimes in 

 America and sometimes across the sea in Europe. And they, in turn, had 

 antecedents in more distant times and in more varied places. The waters of 

 every stream come from innumerable sources. 



European Antecedents to 1700 



With the Crusades (1096-1 271) horizons expanded to include much of 

 Europe; with the voyages of Columbus (1492) and Magellan (1518-1521), 

 they began to encompass the earth ; with the publication of Copernicus' 

 Revolutions (1543) and Galileo's Dialogues (1632), they reached out into 

 the celestial spaces; and with Newton's Principia (1687), the universe be- 

 came orderly. Science was definitely on the march. In its ranks were 

 Tycho Brahe (1546-1604), Napier (1550-1617), Francis Bacon (1560- 

 1626), Kepler (1571-1630), Harvey (1578-1657), Descartes (1596-1650), 

 von Guericke (1602-1686), Boyle (1627-1691), Huyghens (1629-1695), 

 Hooke (1635-1703), Leibnitz (1646-1716) and many other men of lesser 

 rank. The various origins of these names prove the breadth of the develop- 

 ment of science in Europe. 



But science did not inarch alone: the human mind moves in many col- 

 umns. Students of law assembled in Bologna (1100), three schools were 

 founded in Paris (1100), a medical faculty was organized in Bologna 

 (1156), Roman law began to be taught in Montpellier (1160), students set- 

 tled in Oxford (1167), paper was made in Spain (1189), University of 

 Paris was granted a charter (1200), Peterhouse College, Cambridge, was 

 founded (1284), spectacles were invented (1289), University of Vienna 



1 For an excellent history of the background, origin and first days of the Association, see "The 

 Background and Origin of the American Association for the Advancement of Science" by Austin H. 

 Clark, assisted by Leila Forbes Clark, Summarized Proceedings of the Association for the period 

 June, 1929, to January, 1934, published by the Association in 1934, pp. 15-30. For an even more 

 complete account of the origin and history of the Association, see "The History of the American As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science'' by Herman L. Fairchild, Science 59: 365-369, 385-390, 

 410-415. 1924. 



