10 GILBERT 



age with the request that the package be not opened within 

 twenty years. The Commission then adjourned sine die. 



A preliminary meeting of the Academy was held at the Cos- 

 mos Club February i6, 1898, Mr. George M. Sternberg, Presi- 

 dent of the Joint Commission, acting as temporary Chairman. 

 The following officers were elected : 



President, J- R- Eastman, 



Secj'etary, G. K. Gilbert, 



Treasurer, Bernard R. Green, 



Managers, George M. Sternberg, Charles D. Walcott, 

 Carroll D. Wright, Frank Baker, C. Hart Merriam, 

 F. W. Clarke, H. S. Pritchett, A. Graham Bell, and 

 Lester F. Ward. 



The members of the committee appointed by the Joint Com- 

 mission to draft a constitution for the Academy were chosen as 

 incorporators, and a committee was appointed to make nomina- 

 tions for the immediate enlargement of the membership. 



The act of incorporation was executed February iSth at the 

 office of the United States Geological Survey, and the incorpo- 

 rators met again on the 5th of March for the purpose of giving 

 legal status to the by-laws, membership and officers. Under 

 the laws of the District of Columbia the Academy technically 

 began its existence with the act of incorporation, and the incor- 

 porators were then its original and only members. The incor- 

 porators, therefore, as a matter of form, adopted the by-laws, 

 elected to membership the seventy-five chosen by the Joint Com- 

 mission as a nucleus, and elected the officers chosen at the 

 preliminary meeting. 



At a meeting of the Academy held March 17th Vice-Presi- 

 dents were elected on nomination of the several societies as 

 follows : 



J^or the Anthropological Society, J. W. Powell. 



For the Biological, L. O. Howard. 



For the Chemical^ H. N. Stokes. 



For the Entomological, W. H. Ashmead. 



For the Geographic, A. Graham Bell. 



For the Geological, CD. Walcott. 



For the Philosophical, F. H. Bigelow. 



