16 Kansas Academy of Science. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



npHE 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 

 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 Leaven- 

 worth, 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 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 annual report of the transactions of said Academy of Science 

 shall be made on or before the loth 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 over 200. It has held thirty-nine annual 

 meetings, of which nineteen have been held in Topeka, six in 

 Lawrence, four in Manhattan, two in Leavenworth, two in Emporia^ 

 and one each in Atchison, Baldwin, lola, McPherson, Ottawa, and 

 Wichita. 



Twenty 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 capitol 



