34 Kansas Academy of Science. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



T^HE organization of a Kansas association of scientific men 

 -^ at an early date was due to the efforts of Rev. Johns D. 

 Parker and Prof. B. F. Mudge, who, in July, 1868, issued a 

 call signed by seventeen men for a meeting of all persons in 

 the state interested in natural sciences to meet in Topeka. 



The first meeting was held in September of that year, in 

 Lincoln College (now Washburn), and the Kansas Natural 

 History Society was organized and officers elected. The ob- 

 ject, as stated in the original draft of the constitution, "shall 

 be to increase and diffuse a knowledge of the natural sciences, 

 particularly in relation to the state of Kansas." At the fourth 

 annual meeting, held in Leavenworth, in 1871, the name was 

 changed to the Kansas Academy of Science. In 1873 the 

 Academy became a coordinate department of the State Board 

 of Agriculture by the terms of the following act of the legis- 

 lature : 



"The Academy of Science shall be a coordinate department 

 of the State Board of Agriculture, with their office in the agri- 

 cultural rooms, where they shall place and keep for public 

 inspection the geological, botanical and other specimens, the 

 same to be under the direction and control of the officers of 

 the said Academy of Science. An annual report of the trans- 

 actions of said Academy of Science shall be made on or before 

 the 15th day of November of each year to the State Board of 

 Agriculture, for publication in the annual transactions of said 

 board." 



The Academy has increased in membership from the original 

 small body of scientists to nearly 200. It has held thirty-seven 

 annual meetings, of which eighteen have been held in Topeka, 

 five in Lawrence, four in Manhattan, two in Leavenworth, two 

 in Emporia, and one each in Atchison, Baldwin, lola, McPher- 

 son, Ottawa, and Wichita. 



Nineteen volumes of the Transactions have been published, 

 varying in size from a few pages in the early numbers to 350 

 pages in the later volumes. These publications contain many 

 papers of recognized scientific value. The exchange list in- 

 cludes over 500 names of societies and libraries. 



