NATURAL SCIENCE AND URBAN CULTURE 
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY MIDDLE WEST 
by 
Walter B. Hendrickson, Professor of History 
MacMurray College, Jacksonville, Illinois 
Many American traits come from the pioneer past and are 
closely associated with the farm and the rural way of life, but 
many others of equal importance come from the city. In fact, 
since 1900, the city has outstripped the country in influence 
on our national life. More people live and work in cities than 
in the country, and even the way of life of those who live and 
work in the country is largely determined by the city. 
But the rise of cities and their influence in the western 
world is not a phenomenon of the twentieth century. From at 
least the time of the Renaissance--some historians say from the 
time of the Crusades — cities have played the leading part in 
the development of learning, the arts, and the sciences, because 
where people live close together it is easier to stimulate vol- 
untary group action. With some important exceptions like the 
Institution, practically all scientific work before 
an 
and Amer 
ica, was sponsored by, or assisted by privately organized 
emies of science or natural history societies. 
It is gen 
ganization was 
in 1560. Many 
and 
earl 
and all of them had 
quarters in cities. The Royal Society of London, for example, 
*hile it had members throughout the British Empire, and acted 
as a clearing house for scientific information from the Britisn 
Isles and the possessions beyond the seas, its active membersnip 
was largely made up of men who resided and worked in London. 
ac 
In the eighteenth century, not only were 
" -ipitals of London, Paris, Berlin and St. Petersburg, 
in such lesser cities as Edinburgh, Dublin, Brussels, 
Bordeaux, Orleans, Prague, Munich, Gottingen, Frankfort am Mai 
but also 
Danzig 
The immediate English ancestor of American sc 
societies was the Roval Society, founded in London 
232 
