July 2, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



the Department of Letters to be the en- 

 couragement of philological and historical 

 research, the improvement of the English 

 language, the collection and preservation of 

 historic records, and the formation of a 

 general library. 



Thus took place, fifty years ago, the 

 formal founding of the academy. 



THE SUBSTANTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE 

 ACADEMY 



As already implied, this formal inaugu- 

 ration of the academy represented rather 

 the ideals and aspirations of those who 

 gave it countenance, than a substantial 

 banding together of real workers in science 

 or scholarship. It is unnecessary to say 

 that the future of the academy as a vital 

 working institution depended almost wholly 

 upon the persistent and sacrificial endeav- 

 ors of men personally devoted to research 

 and to culture. Scarcely a dozen of those 

 who signed the call for the convention were 

 productive workers in any of the fields em- 

 braced within the purposes of the academy. 

 The more comprehensive clientele sought 

 for the academy at the outset was altogether 

 laudable and the sympathy and encourage- 

 ment of this larger body were very helpful, 

 but I assume that you who now form the 

 working members of the academy and are 

 to hand it on to the next generation, eaxe 

 most to learn who were the real leaders in 

 giving working vitality to the academy in 

 those earliest days, all the more so because 

 certain vital phases of this essential feature 

 of the enterprise linger only in vanishing 

 impressions and fading memories and will 

 BOon be lost if not now recorded. 



The important part played by Dr. Hoyt 

 in planning so broadly and in urging so 

 successfully the initial steps, has already 

 been indicated. This service was recognized 

 by choosing him first president of the acad- 



emy. He was thus enabled to round out 

 the formal organization of the academy on 

 the comprehensive plan adopted. He had 

 the merit of assiduity in calling into activ- 

 ity the latent as well as active talent avail- 

 able in the state at the time. Though not 

 a special worker in any line of research, 

 his intellectual sympathies were wide, his 

 aspirations were high; his dream for the 

 academy was ambitious. 



The working nucleus of the academy at 

 the start was the group of enthusiastic nat- 

 uralists who had grown up under the stim- 

 ulus of the pioneer conditions. Among 

 these I beg to include those who studied the 

 strata beneath and the sky above, as well 

 as those devoted to the plants and animals 

 that tenanted the- surface. Foremost among 

 these, by common consent, was Dr. I. A. 

 Lapham, of Milwaukee, then already a vet- 

 eran scientist. By profession a civil engi- 

 neer, he had become at an early day a 

 faithful collector, observer and recorder of 

 natural phenomena in nearly all leading 

 lines from bed-rock to sky. He was at once 

 a botanist, a zoologist, an archeologist, a 

 geologist and a meteorologisit. He was a 

 distinguished example of the best order of 

 the old school of all-round students of nat- 

 ural science. Probably we owe to Dr. Lap- 

 ham, more than to any other single indi- 

 vidual, the establishment of our Weather 

 Service. He served as the first general sec- 

 retary of the academy. 



Scarcely less active and influential in 

 giving vitality to the academy at the start 

 was Dr. H. P. Hoy, of Racine, an intimate 

 friend and coworker of Lapham 's in early 

 naturalistic work. He had already become 

 a veteran student of birds, insects and 

 fishes, and was also an enthusiastic collector 

 of plants and of fossils from the ancient 

 crinoid fields of Racine. He was also an 

 eager student of the relics of aboriginal 



