DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 87 



young society's work. In one of his presidential addresses before 

 the academy, Dr. Parry emphasized the importance of three 

 things to be held constantly in mind toward which to work. 

 These were (1) a home, (2) a complete local collection, (3) publica- 

 tion. These three aims have ever been before the academy. We 

 have seen how they gained the first ; the second has been in view 

 from the very inception of the society ; the third began early to be 

 agitated. 



The election of a schoolboy to membership in a scientific soci- 

 ety might seem to mean little, but to the Davenport Academy it 

 meant much. One of the charter members of the academy, Prof. 

 Pratt, was writing teacher in the public schools, giving instruc- 

 tion from building to building. At times he told the scholars to 

 write anything they might have in mind on slips of paper and to 

 hand them in to him. On one such occasion a boy not fourteen 

 years of age wrote the words Davenport Academy of Natural Sci- 

 ences. On inquiry, Prof. Pratt found that the boy had read of the 

 academy in the newspapers and wanted to know what it was. 

 When told of the meetings and collecting excursions he desired 

 to become a member, but only if his mother could become one 

 also. The question of lady members had not before been raised, 

 but now posed it was soon solved. 

 J. Duncan Putnam and his mother 

 were elected to membership, June 

 2, 1809. The ardent enthusiasm 

 of the schoolboy and the moth- 

 er's love were to do more for the 

 academy than the few members 

 voting at that meeting could real- 

 ize. It was this mother's interest 

 that led to the second rented room, 

 to the donation by ladies in 1875 

 of new cases and carpets, to the 

 gift by a woman in 1877 of the 

 lot, and to much of the energy and 

 interest displayed by the towns- 

 people since. It was the boy's 

 enthusiasm and the mother's love 

 that led to the publication. Im- 

 pelled by Dr. Parry's words and 

 his own feeling of its importance, 

 J. Duncan Putnam on November 26, 1875, then a boy of nineteen, 

 urged the academy to publish Proceedings. A committee was 

 appointed to look into the matter and to devise means if possible 

 to carry out the plan. December 20th a company of ladies the 

 Women's Centennial Association agreed to see that the first 



FIG. 4. J. DUNCAN PUTNAM. 



