Color: Black and White; Size: 10w x 8h; Type of Image: Group; Medium: Photographic print
Type:
Photographic print
Group
Date:
April 1874
Category:
Historic Images of the Smithsonian
Notes:
Negative number 10844 (SIA RU95 B28 F22) has numbers written on, identifying those pictured in the photograph.
See the "Bulletin of the Stated Session of the National Academy of Sciences" in Record Unit 7115 National Academy of Science Records, Box 1, Folder 15 for a list of speakers. Emil Bessels presence dates this photograph.
Summary:
Meeting of the National Academy of Sciences in the Mineral Hall, West Wing, Smithsonian Institution Building, or "Castle," April 1874. Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian (1846-1878) is seated at the head of the room behind a small table. The rest of the participants are seated around the room. Several maps are arranged around Henry and there are mineralogy specimens visible in their exhibit cases against the walls of the room. There are a total of 48 people present at the meeting. Although Mary Henry is the only woman identified at the meeting, there are five other women present as well.
Those identified are as follows: 1. Joseph Henry, presiding, 2. Mary Henry, 3. William Jones Rhees, 4. Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, 5. J. S. Newberry, 6. J. C. Dalton, 7. J. E. Hilgard, 8. J. J. Woodward, 9. Peter Parker, 10. Alfred M. Mayer, 11. William Ferrel, 12. Benjamin Silliman, 13. C. E. Dutton, 14. Emil Bessels, 15. Arnold Guyot, 16. J. H. C. Coffin, 17. B. A. Gould, 18. Elias Loomis, 19. C. A. Schott, 20. George Engelmann, 21. Benjamin Pierce, 22. Simon Newcomb, 23. Lewis Henry Morgan, 24. A. A. Michelson, 25. J. S. Billings, 26. S. Wier Mitchell, 27. F. M. Endlich. Simon Newcomb (#22) has a full beard and is the gentleman sitting directly in front of Benjamin Silliman (#12).
There remains a question concerning the identification of two individuals. There are two number "24's" on the photograph and no number "21." Therefore, it is most likely that one of these men is Pierce and the other is Michelson.
Contained within:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 56, Folder: 1