REPORT. 
At a meeting of the contributors to the building-fund of the 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, held January 
12, 1869, in conformity to the academy’s resolution of March 
27, 1866, W. S.W. Ruschenberger, M. D., Joseph Leidy, M. D., 
William P. Wilstach, Frederick Graff, E. S. Whelen, John 
Welsh, Wm. S. Yaux, Thomas Sparks, Robert Bridges, M.D., 
George W. Tryon, Jr., Joseph Jeanes, John Rice and John S. 
Haines, were duly elected the Board of Trustees for 1869. 
At a meeting of the Board, held Jan. 22, Dr. W. S. W. 
Ruschenberger was elected Chairman, Geo. W. Tryon, Jr., 
Secretary, and Wm. S. Yaux, Treasurer. 
At a stated meeting, March 12, Mr. John Rice offered his 
resignation from the Board, which was accepted April 23d. 
At the last annual meeting of the Board, a petition to the 
Legislature of Pennsylvania to occupy one of the Penn Squares 
as the site for a building to be erected for the academy was pre¬ 
pared, and a committee appointed to present it. 
The petition is as follows : 
Hall of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, "I 
January 18 th, 1860. f 
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania , in General Assembly met: 
The petition of the “ Trustees of the building fund of the 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ” respectfully 
represents that, in soliciting your honorable bodies to grant to 
said trustees and their successors, with the consent of the 
Councils of the City of Philadelphia, privilege to erect upon 
one of the quarters or angles of Penn’s square in said city a 
building adapted to the purpose and for the use of the said 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, reference is had 
to the intent of the donor of said square as expressed in his 
