TITIAN R. PE ALE. 
1800-1885. 
[Read before the Society, March 30, 1901.] 
Some time prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, a num¬ 
ber of scientific men in Washington formed a club which 
was sometimes known as the “Saturday Club/’ from the 
fact that it met every Saturday during the winter, at the 
house of some one of its members. This scientific club had 
neither constitution nor by-laws, and no officers except a sec¬ 
retary. The meetings were devoted to discussion of ques¬ 
tions of scientific or public interest, and closed with a supper. 
In 1863, when Hon. Hugh McCulloch became a member of 
the club, there were 17 members, as follows: Joseph Henry, 
A. D. Bache, Peter Parker, Simon Newcomb, J. E. Hilgard, 
George C. Schaeffer, A. A. Plumphreys, Jonathan H. Lane, 
William B. Taylor, Titian R. Peale, Benjamin N. Craig, 
J. M. Gillis, J. N. McComb, 0. M Poe, M. C. Meigs and Dr. 
F. A. P. Barnard. According to Mr. McCulloch, “all of them 
were interesting men, all well known to each other, and some 
of them to the public, by their scientific and literary attain¬ 
ments; there was not one who would not have been distin¬ 
guished in any literary and scientific club in this country or 
in any other; there was not a money-worshipper or time¬ 
server among them all.” Seven years later the club had in¬ 
creased to 43, and the name of T. R. Peale w T as one of those 
signing the letter to Professor Henry asking him to preside 
at a meeting to be held in the Regents 7 room at the Smith¬ 
sonian Institution, for the purpose of forming a society hav¬ 
ing for its object the free exchange of views on scientific 
subjects and the promotion of scientific inquiry among its 
members. Thus originated the Philosophical Society of 
Washington, the outgrowth of the Scientific or Saturday 
Club, and the fact that Titian R. Peale may be considered 
one of its founders is my only excuse for presenting this 
sketch before you this evening. 
44—Bull. Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 14. 
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