action was a reception given for the artist and naturalist John J. Audubon 
in St. Louis in 1843."! 
The demise of the Western Academy was largely due to bad tim- 
ing. Most St. Louisans in the 1830s and 1840s were, in Henry King’s 
words, ‘‘too occupied with the wants of life’’ to be overly concerned 
with the welfare of something as seemingly superfluous as an academy 
of science.'? Western Academy members therefore failed to attain one 
of their main goals: permanently establishing the culture of science in 
Missouri. Nevertheless, this was only a partial failure, for they did 
manage to sow seeds that would later take root in the growing town. 
As Western Academy member William Greenleaf Eliot put it, the 
organization served to remind the community that ‘‘there are intellec- 
tual and moral events that money cannot buy.’’!3 This accomplishment, 
as high-minded as it sounded, had more practical political overtones. 
The Western Academy’s quest to plant American culture and institu- 
tions on the threshold of the West dovetailed exactly with one of the 
nation’s dominant political credos. 
Throughout its life and even after the demise of the Western 
Academy, the men who founded the organization benefitted from, and 
in their way played a significant part in, the overwhelming American 
surge westward. The idea that the United States was fated to extend 
its boundaries to the Pacific Ocean had been discussed at least since 
the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 (the so-called ‘‘Transcontinental Trea- 
ty’’), when the United States acquired Florida from Spain. This con- 
cept, which became known as “‘manifest destiny,’’ grew in popularity 
in the 1830s and found its greatest expression in the 1840s, when the 
United States expropriated territories even more immense than those 
of the Louisiana Purchase. 
Science enthusiasts in St. Louis sat in the perfect position to benefit 
from the United States push to gain dominion over the continent. Cen- 
trally located, reasonably secure, and reliably connected to the power 
centers in the East, St. Louis did indeed, as the members of the Western 
Academy stated in their petition to Congress, provide the logical start- 
ing point for early Western exploration, military conquest, and settle- 
ment. Members of the Western Academy made the most of St. Louis’ 
unique situation by associating themselves with the military and trading 
expeditions that were the thin edge of American westward expansion. 
They paid for the privilege of furthering their scientific pursuits by pro- 
viding their services as scientists and physicians. For example, George 
Engelmann provided advice and helped numerous explorers, such as 
John C. Fremont and Joseph Nicollet, who in return acquired for the 
enterprising amateur naturalist a bounty of specimens for study and trade. 
Another illustration of this symbiotic relationship was Friedreich 
9 
