16 [April. 



uf a circular, signed by Franklin, which bore date the 14th of May, 



1743, old style, corresponding in the new calendar to the 25th, 

 which is considered as the birthday of the present institution. In 



1744, the Society, so far as relates to Philadelphia, was actually 

 formed, and had several meetings, to mutual satisfaction, of the nine 

 original members of the Philosophical Society. Six, including the 

 three officers, President Hopkinson, Treasurer Coleman, and Secre- 

 tary Franklin, are known to have belonged to the Junto. 



Out of another Junto, established in 1750, arose another body in 

 1756, called " The American Society for Promoting and Propagating 

 Useful Knowledge," held at Philadelphia; and in November, 1768, 

 the name being changed to The American Society held at Philadel- 

 phia for Promoting Useful Knowledge, Dr. Benjamin Franklin was 

 elected its President. The first institution. The American Philoso- 

 phical Society, was also revived about the same time, and on the 9th 

 February, 1768, ex-Governor Hamilton was elected President of this 

 body. 



On the 2d January, 1769, these two institutions having merged 

 themselves into one body, being the present '' American Philosophi- 

 cal Society, held at Philadelphia, for Promoting Useful Knowledge," 

 Dr. Benjamin Franklin was elected President, and Dr. Thomas Cad- 

 walader. Dr. Thomas Bond, and Joseph Galloway, Esq., were elected 

 Vice-Presidents. The Society, aided by the General Assembly of 

 the Province, ei'ected temporary observatories, one at Philadelphia, 

 the other at the residence of Mr. Rittenhouse, in Newton town.«hip, 

 Montgomery County, about twenty miles northwest of Philadelphia, 

 for observing the expected transit of Venus, that was to occur on the 

 3d of June, 1769. 



Measures were also taken for making observations at Cape Hen- 

 lopen, on the Delaware Bay, where a building was found that could 

 be used for the purpose. The observations at these different places 

 were all successful, and the account of them, and of the results to 

 which they led, is given in full detail in the first volume of their 

 Transactions, published in 1771, from the press of William & Thomas 

 Bradford, in this city. 



Upon their application, the General Assembly, on the 15tli March, 

 1780, passed an Act incorporating them, and one of its provisions, 

 as indicative of the liberal policy, humane spirit, and wise fore- 

 thought of our forefathers in the midst of a war for existence, is too 

 remarkable to be omitted. That it shall be lawful for the " Society, 

 by their proper officers, at all times, whether in peace or war, to 



