American Philosophical Society

View American Philosophical Society in a larger map

Visit our “Tour Destination: Philadelphia” page to see the entire walking tour of the first Philadelphia cluster of Save America’s Treasures sites.

American Philosophical Society Library Hall.
Photo courtesy American Philosophical Society.

American Philosophical Society

APS Philosophical Hall

104 South 5th Street

Philadelphia, PA

APS Library Hall

105 South 5th Street

Philadelphia, PA

Website:  APS: American Philosophical Society

The Treasure:  The treasures are 14 early 20th century collections by important American scientists. However, while these collections will be our primary focus, don’t neglect the American Philosophical Society itself—founded over 250 years ago by Benjamin Franklin and friends, the American Philosophical Society is a treasure that should be visited on any America’s Treasures tour. Their Philosophical Hall building opened in November 1789 and has hosted men and women of genius ever since. It is one of the great historic buildings of Philadelphia.

Now, back to those 14 collections... They are:  the Leslie C. Dunn Papers, Florence R. Sabin Papers, Raymond Pearl Papers, John Alden Mason Papers, Paul Radin Papers, Frank Speck Papers, Franz Boas Collection, Peyton Rous Papers, Carl Neuberg Papers, Victor G. Heiser Papers, American Council of Learned Societies Committee on American Indian Languages, William F.G. Swann Papers, Herbert S. Jennings Papers, and the Warren S. McCulloch Papers. In total, they comprise approximately 445 linear feet of original material and 300 linear feet of reader copies.

Accessibility:  Check the APS website for current hours at the APS Museum in Philosophical Hall. Their fine exhibitions explore history, science, and art, usually drawing from fascinating material in their collections and often interpreting the items in surprising, cutting-edge ways.

As for the 14 collections that comprise this Save America’s Treasures project, they are easily accessible to qualified researchers. User copies on acid-free paper are available for most items. Thanks to state-of-the-art finding aids developed for each of the collections, scientists and historians can quickly sort through a vast quantity of archival material. You can visit these finding aids by clicking on the scientist’s names above. And if the system initially looks simple and orderly, take a moment to contemplate the work that must go into making a system this efficient.

Plant samples in a custom enclosure from the collections of the American
Council of Learned Societies Committee on American Indian Languages.
Photo courtesy American Philosophical Society.

Notes:  The scientists celebrated by these 14 collections admittedly aren’t common household names. The work of science doesn’t often lead to celebrity. But that’s why it’s so great that the Save America’s Treasures program recognized the authentic Treasures value of these collections! The way we understand our world changed because of the work of the scientists represented here. Through steady research and publication, they laid foundations that scientists continue to build upon today.

Raymond Pearl.
Photo courtesy American Philosophical
Society.

Nearly two decades after the death of Gregor Mendel in 1884, Mendel’s innovative genetics studies finally received their due and Mendelian genetics emerged as an important field of study. Three early 20th century geneticists—Leslie C. Dunn, Raymond Pearl, and Herbert Spencer Jennings—are represented in these collections. Dunn was a pioneer in developmental genetics, Pearl was an influential proponent of population biology and ecology, and Jennings was a leader in mathematical genetics (which he used to decipher the role of mutations in evolution).

Medical researchers are represented by Peyton Rous, Florence R. Sabin, Carl Neuberg, and Victor G. Heiser. Peyton Rous received a Nobel Prize in Medicine for his studies on the links
between viruses and cancer. The one
woman in this group of 14, 

Florence R. Sabin shattered glass

Florence R. Sabin.
Photo courtesy American Philosophical
Society.

ceilings of her day, eventually becoming the first female full professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Physicist William F.G. Swann studied high energy physics and cosmic rays during his tenure as the first Director of the Bartol Research Center at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute.  Unlike the other scientists, Swann did court a bit of celebrity as the host of a popular Philadelphia science TV show in the 1950s. Scientist Warren S. McCulloch looked inward instead of outward, using his research on neurology and human brain function as a springboard for early cybernetic speculations. He is now considered one of the great early thinkers in the development of the computer.

Anthropologists are represented by Franz Boas, John Alden Mason, Paul Radin, and Frank Speck, all of whom were leaders in the collection of information on the cultures of Native American tribes. By the early 20th century, many Native American languages and traditions were fading from use. These scientists dedicated their lives to preserving these at-risk cultures. For example, Frank Speck believed that the only way to truly understand the cultures of Eastern tribes was to live among tribe members, conducting his field work while respecting and temporarily sharing their way of life. Valuing their great craft traditions, Speck assembled magnificent collections of artifacts that are now dispersed among the collections of major museums such as the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, the American Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum, and the Denver Art Museum.

Scrapbook cover from the Leslie C. Dunn collection.
Photo courtesy American Philosophical Society.

Notes from the Editor:  I’m always on the lookout for intersections between my passions and the places that I’m celebrating.  Here are two from these collections:

I was involved with a project for conserving the magnificent scientific illustrations of Mary Louise Baker (1872-1962), a superb artist who specialized in archaeological drawings of artifacts for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum). Some of her greatest works were watercolors of Mayan pottery. The connection? John Alden Mason served as curator at the Penn Museum from 1926 and his great interest was Mayan archaeology. Baker and Mason collaborated on several projects so I looked her up in the John Alden Mason finding aid—and there she is: correspondence filed in Box 8 under “Baker, M. Louise.”

And here’s a real treat from one of my favorite American authors. Zora Neale Hurston, author of the classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, conducted ethnographic research under Franz Boas while she was studying at Columbia University. Her report on southern African-American culture, “The Florida Expedition,” is preserved in the Collection of the American Council of Learned Societies Committee of Native America Languages. And Boas’ correspondence with Hurston (35 letters from 1927 to 1935) is preserved in the Franz Boas Papers.

Other Recommended Sites:  I haven’t recommended a visit to Independence Hall yet? Well, you can’t visit Philly without seeing the place where the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution! It’s right around the corner from the American Philosophical Society—on Chestnut between 5th and 6th.

To explore Native American collections, as well as other archaeology collections from all around the world, visit the Penn Museum.

And if you’re inspired by Warren S. McCulloch’s early ventures into cybernetics, maybe you should travel over to the University of Pennsylvania to pay respects to ENIAC, the world’s first general purpose electronic computer (built in 1946).

Items and custom enclosures from the APS Save America's Treasures collections
including the Vit-o-scope from the Heiser collection, some diaries from the
Mason papers in custom boxes, and glass lantern  slides from the Swann papers.
Photo courtesy American Philosophical Society.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Wednesday’s destination:  Richmond, Virginia

© 2012 Lee Price