Proceedings of the Academy. 
697 
The Convention met on February 16, 1870, and proceeded with 
great unanimity to organize the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, 
and Letters. A constitution was adopted, officers elected, provision 
made for incorporation, and for the other requirements of a new or¬ 
ganization. The Constitution provided for three Departments, em¬ 
bracing respectively the Sciences, the Arts, and Letters. Only the 
first of these was organized at the initial meeting, but a fuller or¬ 
ganization was effected during the ensuing year. 
The general purpose of the Academy was declared to be the encour¬ 
agement of investigation and the dissemination of correct views of 
the various phases of Science, Literature and the Arts. The special 
purposes of the Department of the Sciences were declared to be gen¬ 
eral scientific research, a progressive and thorough scientific survey 
of the state under the direction of the officers of the Academy, the 
formation of a scientific museum, and the diffusion of knowledge by 
the publication of original contributions to science; that of the De¬ 
partment of the Arts to be the advancement of the useful arts through 
the application of science and the encouragement of original inven¬ 
tion; the encouragement of the fine arts and the improvement of the 
public taste by original contributions to art and by the formation of 
an art museum; that of the Department of Letters to be the en¬ 
couragement of philological and historical research, the improvement 
of the English Language, the collection and preservation of historic 
records, and the formation of a general library. 
Thus took place, fifty years ago, the formal founding of the Acad¬ 
emy. 
The Substantial Establishment of the Academy 
As already implied, this formal inauguration of the Academy rep¬ 
resented rather the ideals and aspirations of those who planned it, 
and the good will and fond hopes of those who gave it countenance, 
than a substantial banding together of real workers in science or 
scholarship. It is unnecessary to say that the future of the Acad¬ 
emy as a vital working institution depended almost wholly upon the 
persistent and sacrificial endeavors of men personally devoted to re¬ 
search and to culture. Scarcely a dozen of those who signed the call 
for the convention were productive workers in any of the fields em¬ 
braced within the purposes of the Academy. The more comprehensive 
clientele sought for the Academy at the outset was altogether laudable 
and the sympathy and encouragement of this larger body was very 
helpful, but I assume that you who now form the working members 
of the Academy and are to hand it on to the next generation, care 
most to learn who were the real leaders in giving working vitality 
to the Academy in those earliest days, all the more so because certain 
vital phases of this essential feature of the enterprise linger only in 
vanishing impressions and fading memories and will soon be lost if 
not now recorded. 
