10 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 seven- 

 teen 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 object, as stated in the orig- 

 inal 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 th6 terms of the following act of the legislature : 



"The Academy of Science shall be a coordinate department of the 

 State Board of Agriculture, with their office in the agricultural 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 an- 

 nual report of the transactions 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 meet- 

 ings, 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, McPherson, Ottawa, and Wichita. 



Nineteen volumes of the Transactions have been published, vary- 

 ing 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 includes over 500 

 names of societies and libraries. 



The Academy is now installed in the west wing of the capitoi 

 building, at Topeka, in rooms on the ground floor. It has three 

 connecting rooms, used for the office, library, and museum. 



The museum has been greatly increased by the gift of the state 

 mineral display erected at the St. Louis Exposition, and given suit- 

 able cases to hold this large amount of material. It thus has the 

 finest economic collection of the Kansas mineral industries in the 

 state — an exhibit which received two gold medals, twenty-two silver 

 medals, and fourteen bronze medals. 



