The Academy of Natural Sciences 27 



Professor Angelo Heilprin 25 succeeded Charles F. Parker as 

 Curator in October, 1883, and was immediately appointed Cura- 

 tor-in-Charge. He had begun his studies in the Academy in 1879, 

 on his return from Europe, where he had received a solid scien- 

 tific training under Huxley in the Royal College of Mines, London, 

 and subsequently in Geneva, Florence and Vienna. While serv- 

 ing as a Jessup Fund student he was engaged in the arrangement 

 of the collection of fossil invertebrata. He suggested as Curator a 

 number of enterprises in which he took more interest than in the 

 routine duties of his executive office. He began the formation of 

 collections illustrating the natural history of Pennsylvania and New 

 Jersey, advocated the opening of the museum on Sundays, organized 

 popular courses of lectures, gave effective assistance in securing 

 appropriations from the Legislature in 1889 and 1891, inaug- 

 urated a series of evening receptions and conducted expeditions 

 to Florida, Bermuda, Yucatan and Mexico. He was also the 

 leader of the auxiliary party which accompanied the North Green- 

 land expedition sent out under Lieutenant Peary in 1891, and he 

 commanded the Peary Relief Expedition of the following year. 



The meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, held in Philadelphia in 1884, may be regarded 

 as a notable event in the history of the Academy, under whose 

 auspices it was held. It was probably the most important meet- 

 ing of the kind held in America up to that time. 



In their report for 1884, the Curators make special mention 

 of the Rev. Henry C. McCook's gift of specimens of insect and 

 araneid architecture, with justice regarded as a collection of 

 unique value. Dr. McCook had been elected Vice-President in 

 1882 to succeed Mr. Vaux. He served until 1900, taking a spe- 

 cial interest in the Department of Instruction, the initial activity 

 of which was almost entirely due to his enterprise and zeal. His 

 collections, illustrating the anatomy and natural history of ants and 

 spiders, were made during the prosecution of his studies in the 

 brief intervals of exacting professional duties. 



The Academy, in 1888, accepted from Mrs. Emma W. Hayden 

 an endowment of a memorial to her husband, Dr. Ferdinand V. 

 Hayden. Provision was first made to confer a bronze medal and 

 the balance of interest on the fund as a recognition of the best 



25 Memorial Notices. Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Phila- 

 delphia, vol. vi, No. 1, Jan., 1908, pp. 1-30. 



