The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences is a

learned society A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to al ...

founded in 1799 in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

"to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest and happiness of a free and virtuous people." Its purpose is the dissemination of scholarly information. In the 2021–2022 academic year, the CAAS ha
266 members

Publications

''Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences''''Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences''Catalogue of publications

Notable members

* Asger Aaboe, historian and mathematician * Hezekiah Augur, sculptor and inventor * Simeon E. Baldwin, jurist, law professor and governor * Charles Emerson Beecher, paleontologist * Bertram Boltwood, radiochemist * Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, graphic designer, artist and educator * William Henry Brewer, botanist * George Jarvis Brush, mineralogist and academic administrator * Henry A. Bumstead, electromagnetist * Russell Henry Chittenden, biochemist * Edward Salisbury Dana, mineralogist and physicist * Arnold Dashefsky, sociologist * Franklin Bowditch Dexter, librarian and university administrator * Timothy Dwight, educator and theologian * Edson Fessenden Gallaudet, aviator *

Josiah Willard Gibbs Josiah Willard Gibbs (; February 11, 1839 – April 28, 1903) was an American mechanical engineer and scientist who made fundamental theoretical contributions to physics, chemistry, and mathematics. His work on the applications of thermodynami ...

, physicist, chemist, and mathematician * Frank Austin Gooch, chemist and engineer * Henry Solon Graves, forester and educator * Charles Sheldon Hastings, physicist * Yandell Henderson, physiologist * James Mason Hoppin, educator and writer * George Trumbull Ladd, philosopher, educator, and psychologist * Joseph LaPalombara, political scientist * Charles Lemert, sociologist * Linda Lorimer, university administrator *

Chester Lyman Chester Smith Lyman (January 13, 1814 – January 29, 1890) was an American teacher, clergyman and astronomer. Early life and education He was born in Manchester, Connecticut, to Chester and Mary Smith Lyman. Chester is the descendant of Richard ...

, president * George Grant MacCurdy, anthropologist * Ronald Mallett, theoretical physicist * Lafayette Mendel, nutritionist *

Hubert Anson Newton Hubert Anson Newton FRS HFRSE (19 March 1830 – 12 August 1896), usually cited as H. A. Newton, was an American astronomer and mathematician, noted for his research on meteors. Biography Newton was born at Sherburne, New York, and graduated ...

, astronomer and mathematician *

Alexander Petrunkevitch Alexander Ivanovitch Petrunkevitch (; December 22, 1875 – March 9, 1964) was a Russian arachnologist. From 1910 to 1939, he described over 130 spider species. One of his most famous essays was "The Spider and the Wasp." In it he uses effective ...

, arachnologist *

Charles Brinckerhoff Richards Charles Brinckerhoff Richards (December 23, 1833 – April 20, 1919) was an engineer who worked for Colt's Patent Fire Arms Co., where he was responsible for the development of the Colt Single Action Army revolver. Richards was a founder of the ...

, engineer * William North Rice, geologist, educator, Methodist theologian * John Rose, organist * Edward Elbridge Salisbury, Sanskritist * Benjamin Silliman, chemist and geologist * Joseph Siry, architectural historian * Gaddis Smith, historian * Percey F. Smith, mathematician * Jennifer Tucker, historian and biologist * Addison Van Name, librarian and linguist * John Monroe Van Vleck, mathematician and astronomer *

Addison Emery Verrill Addison Emery Verrill (February 9, 1839 – December 10, 1926) was an American invertebrate zoologist, museum curator and university professor. Life Verrill was born on February 9, 1839, in Greenwood, Maine, the son of George Washington Verril ...

, president *

Noah Webster Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education" ...

, lexicographer, author, editor, prolific author *

Eli Whitney Eli Whitney Jr. (December 8, 1765January 8, 1825) was an American inventor, widely known for inventing the cotton gin in 1793, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the Antebellum South. Whitney's ...

, inventor of

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...

* William Kurtz Wimsatt Jr., literary theorist and critic

Sources

*Rollin Gustav Osterweis, ''The Sesquicentennial History of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences'' (New Haven, 1949) *Mary Ellen Ellsworth, ''A History of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 1799-1999'' (Transactions, vol. 55)

External links

*
Yale University entry
Learned societies of the United States Organizations established in 1799 Culture of Yale University Organizations based in New Haven, Connecticut 1799 establishments in the United States {{Connecticut-stub