by Greg Mayer
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the oldest natural history museum in the United States, is closing. Drexel University, with which the Academy became affiliated in 2011, announced on September 1 that the museum, located at 19th and the Parkway in Philadelphia, would close at the end of the month. The closing of the museum is a tragedy.
The Academy was founded in 1812, and, in 1828, opened the museum at its first location, 12th and Sansom Streets; it opened at its current site in 1876. The Academy was the oldest surviving institution of its kind in America. As such, it was extremely influential in the development of American science, at a time when the scientific community, such as it was, was small and concentrated on the East Coast. Many 19th century scientists and naturalists were associated with the Academy in various capacities: Titian Peale, William Bartram, Alexander Wilson, John James Audubon, Spencer Fullerton Baird, John Cassin, Joseph Leidy, and Edward Drinker Cope, to name just a few. Charles Darwin was elected a corresponding member in 1860. Later Academy scientists include the original James Bond, the influential ecologist Ruth Patrick, and the co-describer of Tiktaalik, Ted Daeschler. The Academy sponsored expeditions all around the world, to places such as West Africa, Greenland, Mongolia, South America, and the West Indies. The American Medical Association (AMS; 1847) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS; 1848) were both founded at the Academy.
The collections of the Academy are priceless. Because of its age, influence, and international connections, it has received, by gift, exchange, and purchase, parts of the collections of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the United States Exploring Expedition, Thomas Jefferson, Captain Cook, and John Gould (the British ornithologist who described Darwin’s Galapagos specimens). These collections of specimens, and the associated written records and library of the Academy, form the core of the Academy’s scientific (and history of science) enterprise. But, as James Smithson enunciated in his bequest that founded the Smithsonian Institution, such institutions are for the “increase and diffusion of knowledge ” (emphasis added).
The public facing side of the Academy– it’s museum, public programs, and educational outreach: the way it “diffuses” knowledge– are as integral to a great institution of natural history as are its scientists. Institutions vary in how much effort is devoted to the increase vs. the diffusion sides of their missions. Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology lean towards “increase”, having an at most modest public face; Atlanta’s Fernbank Museum of Natural History is almost all “diffusion”; while the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History excel at both. The Academy has always been among the latter– excelling at both, with an excellent public museum, as well as an active research program among its affiliated scientists.
I have several times visited the Academy to work in its collections and get information from its archives. My most recent visit was last summer, to the Bird division, where I was hosted by an active and welcoming community of senior scientists and graduate students. I regret that I did not have time to go see the exhibits– I could never, at the time, have fathomed that it would be my last chance to see them. I contemplated trying to get to Philadelphia during this final month, but the logistics and scheduling of such a trip during the first month of my semester were daunting. Had the closing been announced well ahead of time (say, the end of this year), rather than just one month ahead, I would have made it.
Drexel University promises in some vague way to preserve the “legacy” of the Academy, but past experience does not augur well. I am reminded of other university’s casual loss of their collections (Princeton’s, for example), while others had theirs saved only by an outside institution willing to take the specimens (Duke’s, for example). If the Academy’s building is closing, where will the collections go? (They are in the same building as the public exhibits.) And what will happen to the scientists, students, and other staff who are working there? The Academy has had its ups and downs over the years (as will any 200+ year old institution), and perhaps this is just a low spot from which public-spirited citizens, perhaps with the support of the city and the state, may be able to effect a rebound. But based on what I know now, I very much fear for my colleagues and the collections, not to mention the people of Philadelphia and the world who experienced the Academy’s “diffusion”.
Peck, R.M., and P.T. Stroud. 2012. A Glorious Enterprise: the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. A wonderful, well-illustrated, history of the Academy, celebrating its first 200 years, and intended to look forward to continuing glory. Now, it practically induces tears.
