6 Thi Chicago Academy of Scien< 



salary of a curator or to increase its museum accom- 

 modations. The publication of transactions had been 

 planned, but this, the most ambitious wish of the 

 members, was necessarily postponed. However, a few 

 of the members worked on the cabinet in their leisure 

 hours, and interesting" monthly meeting-s were sustained. 



In the year 1859, under the provisions of a general 

 law. the society was incorporated under the name, 

 " The Chicago Academy of Sciences," and at a meeting 

 held April 26, of that year, it adopted the following 

 resolution : 



Whereas. A majority of the members of the Acad- 

 emy, acting" in accordance with a vote of the Academy, 

 have incorporated themselves under the title of The 

 Chicago Academy of Sciences: therefore. 



Besolved, That this Academy do now resolve itself 

 into the above named corporate body, and transfer to 

 the same all its members, property and interests. 



Renewed activity and interest was the result of 

 this reorganization. Much of the stimulus to this 

 activity, as in the earlier period of the society, was 

 furnished by Mr. Robert Kennicott. a young naturalist 

 of great promise. He. with Dr. Edmund Andrews, had 

 placed in the museum the larger number of the many 

 thousand specimens already on exhibition. About this 

 time Mr. Kennicott joined a scientific expedition to 

 northwestern Arctic America. In the year 1802. after 

 an absence of three years, he returned, bringing an 

 abundant supply of material in all the departments of 

 natural history and ethnology. 



The expenses of this expedition, defrayed by the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and by several residents of 

 Chicago, were materially lessened by the unprecedented 

 liberality of the officers of the Hudson Bay Co.. acting 

 both as officials and as individuals. The expedition was 

 undertaken with the understanding that the Smith- 

 sonian Institution should be the first beneficiary, but 

 that any other institution that Mr. Kennicott should 

 designate, and which would suitably provide for their 



