Boston Society Of Natural History
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Boston Society of Natural History (1830–1948) in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, was an organization dedicated to the study and promotion of natural history. It published a scholarly journal and established a museum. In its first few decades, the society occupied several successive locations in Boston's Financial District, including Pearl Street,
Tremont Street Tremont Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts. Tremont Street begins at Government Center, Boston, Massachusetts, Government Center in Boston's city center as a continuation of Cambridge Street, and forms the eastern edge of ...
and Mason Street. In 1864 it moved into a newly constructed museum building at 234 Berkeley Street in the
Back Bay Back Bay is an officially recognized Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on Land reclamation, reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the ...
, designed by architect William Gibbons Preston. In 1951 the society evolved into the Museum of Science, and relocated to its current site on the Charles River.


History

Founders of the society in 1830 included
Amos Binney Amos Binney (October 18, 1803 – February 18, 1847) was an American physician and malacologist."Amos Binney" http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~ksc/Malacologists/BinneyA.html accessed 31 May 2012. Biography His son was William G. Binney. He was a ...
Jr., Edward Brooks, Walter Channing, Henry Codman, George B. Emerson, Joshua B. Flint, Benjamin D. Greene, Simon E. Greene, William Grigg, George Hayward,
David Humphreys Storer David Humphreys Storer (March 26, 1804 – September 10, 1891) was an American physician and naturalist. He served as dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard Medical School from 1855 to 1864. He identified numerous fish species and published ...
, and John Ware. Several had previously been involved with the Linnaean Society of New England. By 1838, the society held "regular meetings on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month."Boston Almanac. 1838. "In its collection are about 700 specimens in mineralogy and geology, besides the rich collection of Dr. C.T. Jackson, and the state collection; botany, 5,000; mammalia, 30 entire skeletons and 30 crania; birds, 200 species; reptiles, 130; insects, about 15,000; crustacea, 130; radiata, 190. Library, 600 volumes and pamphlets. The room ... gratuitously opened to the public every Wednesday from 12 to 2 o'clock." In 1864, William Johnson Walker, a surgeon and financial supporter of the society, donated money for the Walker Prize to recognize work in the field of natural history. In the 1960s its scope was extended to all areas of science and with an emphasis on communication as well as excellence. One of the recipients, while he was a first year student at the
Lawrence Scientific School The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is the engineering education, engineering school within Harvard University's Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, offering degrees in eng ...
(which later became part of
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
) was the zoologist William Patten. The many scholars and curators affiliated with the society at various times included Alexander Emanuel Agassiz, Thomas Tracy Bouvé, Thomas Mayo Brewer,
Augustus Addison Gould Augustus Addison Gould (April 23, 1805 – September 15, 1866) was an American naturalist and the foremost conchologist of his era. He described over 1,100 new species of mollusks, including all known mollusks of Massachusetts and the shells co ...
, F. W. P. Greenwood, Charles Thomas Jackson, Charles Sedgwick Minot, Albert Ordway,
Samuel Hubbard Scudder Samuel Hubbard Scudder (April 13, 1837 – May 17, 1911) was an American entomologist and paleontologist. He was a leading figure in entomology during his lifetime and the founder of insect paleontology in America. In addition to fossil insects, ...
, Charles J. Sprague, Alpheus Hyatt, and Jeffries Wyman. "After World War II, under the leadership of Bradford Washburn, the society sold the Berkeley Street building, changed its name to the Boston Museum of Science. ... The cornerstone for the new Museum was laid at Science Park n 1949and a temporary building was erected to house the Museum's collections and staff. In 1951, the first wing of the new Museum officially opened."Museum of Science, Boston
History of the Museum of Science
Retrieved 05-01-2010


Galleries


1830–1833

Image:AmosBinney BSNH 1930.png,
Amos Binney Amos Binney (October 18, 1803 – February 18, 1847) was an American physician and malacologist."Amos Binney" http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~ksc/Malacologists/BinneyA.html accessed 31 May 2012. Biography His son was William G. Binney. He was a ...
, founder Image:GeorgeEmerson BSNH 1930.png, George B. Emerson, founder Image:BenjaminGreene BSNH 1930.png, Benjamin D. Greene, founder Image:BostonAthenaeum PearlSt 1830.png, Boston Athenaeum building, Pearl Street, Boston, home to the BSNH in the early 1830s


1833–1863

Image:ProvidentInstSavings TremontSt Boston HomansSketches1851.jpg, Building of the Provident Inst. for Savings, Tremont St., Boston, built in 1833. Offices on the third floor were occupied by the Boston Society of Natural History, 1833-1847. Image:1837 BostonJournal NaturalHistory v1 Plate1 BFNutting Pendleton.png, Plate from: ''Boston Journal of Natural History'', 1837 Image:1839 BostonJournal NaturalHistory v2 illus1.png, Plate from: ''Boston Journal of Natural History'', v.2. 1839. Image:MedicalCollege building MasonSt Boston.png, Home of the Boston Society of Natural History ( 1847-1863), Mason Street, Boston


1864–1946

Image:Natural History Museum and Central Church, by Alden, A. E., 1837-.jpg, Natural History Museum, corner of Boylston Street and Berkeley Street, Back Bay, Boston, c. 1864 Image:BostonNaturalHistoryMuseum BSNH 1930.png, Museum exhibition gallery, c. 1930 Image:BostonNaturalHistoryMuseum2 BSNH 1930.png, Museum interior, c. 1930 Image:Rogersbldg2009.JPG, Former museum building, 234 Berkeley Street, Boston, 2009


See also

* '' Boston Journal of Natural History'', published by the society (1834–1863) * Museum of Science (Boston)


References

Notes Further reading ::Publications of the society
Act of incorporation, constitution, and by-laws
of the Boston Society of Natural History. John H. Eastburn, printer, 1832. * Boston Journal of Natural History
v.1
(1834–1837)
v.2
(1838–1839)
v.4
(1843–1844)
v.5
(1845–1847)
v.6
(1850–1857)
v.7
(1859–1863). * Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History
v.1
(1841–1844)
v.34
(1907–1912) * Memoirs Read Before the Boston Society of Natural History. (1861–1949)
v.1
(1866–1869).
Objects and claims of the Boston Society of Natural History
Printed by J. Wilson and Son, 1861. * Annual report
(1865–1876)
* Alpheus Spring Packard. Observations on the glacial phenomena of Labrador and Maine. 1867. *
Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he recei ...

Address delivered on the centennial anniversary of the birth of Alexander von Humboldt
1869. (The lecture took place at
Music Hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Varie ...
, followed by a reception at Horticultural Hall). * Anniversary memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, 1830–1880. Boston, 1880. * Lucien Carr
Notes on the crania of New England Indians
1880. *
William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...

The feeling of effort
1880.
Museum and Library bulletin
1906. * Douglas Wilson Johnson
A geological excursion in the Grand Cañon district
1909.
Bulletin of the Boston Society of Natural History
1915. * P. Creed, ed
The Boston Society of Natural History, 1830–1930
Boston: 1930.


External links


Boston Museum of Science


University of Southern California. Acquired the library of the Boston Society of Natural History in 1944–1946. * (Describes items given to the Boston Society of Natural History in the 1830s) {{authority control Organizations based in Boston History of Boston 1830 establishments in Massachusetts Natural history museums in Massachusetts 19th century in Boston Natural history societies