HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE MINNESOTA ACADEr/;Y OF 



SCIENCE. 



Compiled from its records by Secretary Harlow Gale, for the Thirty- 

 third Anniversary Meeting (278th) January 2, 1906. 



The father of the 33-year-old Minnesota Academy of Science is 

 Dr. A. E. Johnson, who conceived the idea of forming a group of 

 Nature-lovers for "the cultivation of Natural Science in general, and 

 especialy the sciences of Geology and Archaeology." With two of 

 his professional friends, Drs. Charles Simpson and C. E. Rogers, he 

 issued a public invitation to any persons interested in such a pur- 

 pose to meet in his office in the Wensinger Block, corner of Central 

 Avenue and Main Street, in St. Anthony, on January 4th, 1873. This 

 invitation brought out three other lovers of nature, Dr. A. F. Elliot, 

 E. W. B. Harvey, Superintendent of the St. Anthony Schools, and 

 Professor N. H. Winchell, who had just come to the University of 

 Minnesota as State Geologist. Two days later an organization was 

 effected, with the presence of two additional physicians, Drs. A. E. 

 Ames and W. H. Leonard, under the adopted name of the "Minne- 

 sota Academy of Natural Sciences," whose first officers were as fol- 

 lows: 



President — A. E. Johnson, East Minneapolis. 



Vice-President — S. C. Gale, West Minneapolis. - 



Secretary — Chas. Simpson, East Minneapolis. 



Corresponding Secretary — A. E. Ames, West Minneapolis. 



Treasurer — E. W. B. Harvey, East Minneapolis. 



Professor Winchell was the guiding spirit in embodying the 

 organization and drafting the constitution and by-lav/s; while the 

 offer of Dr. Johnson's office as a place of meeting and for the preserva- 

 tion of specimens was accepted. It is significant of the spirit of the 

 Academy that of the dozen original charter members a majority 

 were practical physicians, viz.: Drs. A. E. Johnson, Chas. Simpson, 

 C. E. Rogers, A. E. Ames, W. H. Leonard, A. F. Elliot and Dr. M. D. 

 Stoneman, a dentist; while only three were teachers, viz.: Professor 

 N. H. Winchell, the State Geologist; Principal E. W. B. Harvey, of 

 the St. Anthony schools, and A. W. Williamson, a teacher of mathe- 

 matics ( for many years now a teacher of English at Augustana Col- 

 lege, Rock Island, 111.) Among the first year's added members, who 

 took an active interest in the thirteen meetings of the year, were 

 R. J. Mendenhall and R. J. Baldwin, bankers and naturalists; William 

 Cheney, our pioneer meteorologist; Dr. P. L. Hatch, our pioneer orni- 

 thologist; Dr. W. H. Leonard, Archaeology and Botany; Dr. B. L. 

 Taylor, George W. Tinsley, mechanic, and Professor S. F. Peckham, 

 the chemist of the State University. Paris Gibson and O. V. Tousley 

 were among the original trustees. 



The first formal paper read to the Academy was Dr. Johnson's 

 able presidential address, "Did Life Originate by Law?" at the Feb- 

 ruary meeting, 1873, which was published before the end of the year 

 as the first number of the first volume of bulletins of the Academy. 



