398 smithsonian miscellaneous collections vol. 52 



Award of the LanglEy Medal 



At a meeting of the Board of Regents on February lo, 1909, the 

 Langley Medal was awarded to Wilbur and Orville Wright by the 

 adopton of the following resolution : 



"Resolved, That the Langley -Medal be awarded to Wilbur and 

 Orville Wright for advancing the science of aerodromics in its ap- 

 plication to aviation by their successful investigations and demon- 

 strations of the practicability of mechanical flight by man." 



This was not only the first award of the Langley Medal, but was 

 the first official recognition in America of the achievements of the 

 Wright brothers. 



Congresses and Celebr.vtions 



Darwin Celebr.vtion. — At the commemoration by the University 

 of Cambridge, England, on June 22 to June 24, of the centenary of 

 Charles Darwin's birth (February 12, 1809) and the fiftieth anni- 

 versary of the publication of the "Origin of Species" (November 24, 

 1859), Secretary Walcott represented the Institution. While in 

 Cambridge, Doctor Walcott was honored by the conferring upon 

 him of the degree of Doctor of Science, in recognition of his investi- 

 gations of the early geological formations. 



Pan-American Scientific Congress. — At the first Pan-Ameri- 

 can Scientific Congress, held in Santiago, Chile, December 25, 1908, 

 to January 5, 1909, Mr. William H. Holmes, Chief of the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology, who represented the Institution, read a paper 

 on "The Peopling of America." The Congress decided to hold the 

 second Pan-American Scientific Congress in Washington, D. C, in 

 1912. 



Archeological Congress. — At the Second International Arche- 

 ological Congress, held in Cairo, Eg3'pt, at the Latin Easter, 1909, 

 upon suggestion of the Institution, Mr. Albert AL Lythgoe, of the 

 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Prof. Paul V. C. 

 Baur, of Yale University, were designated by the Department of 

 Stale as representatives of the United States. 



University of Geneva Celebration. — Dr. James Mark Baldwin, 

 Professor of Philosophy and Psychology in Johns Plopkins Univer- 

 sity, Baltimore, was designated to represent the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion at the three hundred and fiftieth anniversar\^ of the foundation 

 of the University (jf Geneva, held in Geneva, Switzerland, July 7 to 

 10, 1909. 



