Birge—The Medallion of the Academy. 
715 
INCREASE ALLEN LAPHAM, 1811-1875. 
Dr. Lapham was born at Palmyra, New York. His father was a 
civil engineer and he followed the same profession. From boyhood 
he had a thirst for science and he had a singular capacity for the 
study of nature. At the age of sixteen he attracted the attention of 
Professor Benjamin Silliman, of Yale, and thus began a correspond¬ 
ence with scientists far and near which continued with increasing vol¬ 
ume to the end of his life. 
He came to the then frontier town of Milwaukee in 1836 at the 
invitation of Byron Kilbourn. He there exercised his profession but 
gave much of his time to scientific studies. He spent much of his 
energy in collecting and cataloguing the plants and the shells of his 
new home. He surveyed its Indian mounds; he investigated its geol¬ 
ogy and collected its fossils; and in short he eagerly devoted him¬ 
self to the development of the knowledge of nature, and so became 
in his generation the first scientific scholar of Wisconsin. He was 
state geologist, 1873—5, but his death came before he could take a 
large part in the work of the Survey. After his death the state pur¬ 
chased his scientific collections for the University. The geological 
specimens were destoryed by fire in 1884, but the collection of plants 
forms the nucleus of the University herbarium. 
Dr. Lapham was a charter member of the Academy and its secre¬ 
tary from its foundation to his death. He contributed several short 
papers on natural history and geology to the first two volumes of 
the Transactions. 
GEORGE WILLIAMS PECKHAM, 1845-1914. 
Dr. Peckham was born in Albany, New York, but his life from 
boyhood on was spent in Milwaukee. He was in the United States 
Army during the Civil War, being mustered out in 1865 with the 
rank of First Lieutenant of Artillery. He graduated from the Uni¬ 
versity of Michigan with the degree of doctor of medicine in 1873. 
He was teacher of biology in the Milwaukee High School, then prin¬ 
cipal of the High School, Superintendent of City Schools, 1890-96, 
and after 1896 was head of the Milwaukee Public Library. Along 
with the duties of these positions he was always actively engaged in 
scientific work, chiefly on the habits and classification of insects. 
These zoological studies were carried on jointly with his wife, Eliza¬ 
beth G. Peckham, and their results, when published, always bear both 
names. The instincts and habits of wasps and of spiders and the 
classification of spiders were their two departments of special re¬ 
search, and in both fields their work bears an international reputa¬ 
tion. 
Dr. Peckham joined the Academy in 1877 and was its president, 
1890-93. He was one of the largest as well as one of the most valued 
contributors to its Transactions. His first paper is published in Yol- 
