Part Ill. A Period Of Change, 
1881-1903 
In his annual address for 1881, the Academy’s president, George 
Engelmann, predicted that the Academy would attract greater public 
attention in the future as it developed and grew.! 
As Engelmann anticipated, the organization did change in its next 
twenty-two years. Members revised the constitution in 1893. By that 
time death or retirement had claimed the Academy’s founders. As the 
membership evolved, Academy meetings also transformed from relative- 
ly informal gatherings to large structured affairs with official programs 
that often featured lectures ‘‘divested of the technicalities on matters 
of current scientific progress’’ for the benefit of those who could not 
understand such information.? 
The revision of the constitution in 1893 did not call for any radical 
departure from the Academy’s original mission, but members did make 
major changes in the membership categories and in how the organiza- 
tion elected officers and conducted its administrative affairs. 
The revised constitution identified four membership categories: 
active, corresponding, honorary, and patron. Active members were those 
who lived in the St. Louis area who and had an interest in science. They 
alone conducted the organization’s business. Corresponding members 
were defined, as they had been in the original constitution, as non- 
residents who might help the Academy in some way. Honorary member- 
ships were bestowed to people the Academy held in high esteem. Patron 
member status was granted to any person who gave the Academy $1,000 
or its equivalent.3 
The revised constitution provided for elections-by-mail and for the 
yearly election of a special non-office-holding committee to nominate 
candidates for the upcoming year. These innovations gave the franchise 
to the entire membership ‘‘instead of leaving it through non-attendance 
to the few members who might be at the meeting when a vote was 
taken.’’4 
In addition to the provision of a nominating committee charged 
with preparing a list of nominees, the members also amended their con- 
stitution in ways that took routine administrative business out of the 
hands of the membership, placing such matters under the supervision 
of a council consisting of the principal officers. 
These constitutional alterations reflected changes in the Academy’s 
growing membership. By 1885 most of the founders—including Eads, 
Pope, Prout, Holmes, Shumard, Engelmann, and Wislizenus—had either 
died or retired from public life. Their places were taken by other amateur 
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