Kansas Academy of Science. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



The organization of a Kansas association of scientific men 

 at an early date was due to the efforts of the late 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 object, 

 as stated in the original draft of the constitution, "shall be to 

 increase and diffuse a knowledge of the natural sciences, par- 

 ticularly 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 legisla- 

 ture: 



"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 annual report 

 of the transactions of said Academy of Science shall be made on or be- 

 fore the 15th day of November of each year to the State Board of Agri- 

 culture, 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 forty-two 

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

 six in Lawrence, four in Manhattan, two in Leavenworth, three 

 in Emporia, two in Ottawa, and one each in Atchison, Baldwin, 

 lola, McPherson and Wichita. 



Twenty-four volumes of the Transactions have been pub- 

 lished, 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 

 includes over 500 names of societies and libraries. 



The Academy is now installed in the north wing of the 

 Capitol building, at Topeka, in rooms on the fourth floor. It 



