PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, AMERICAN. The oldest of American learned societies. Its offi cial name is the American Philosoom,;,..-,1 Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge. Its hall is No. 104 Smith Fifth Street. Philadelphia, in which are meeting and banquet rooms, an extensive and valuable li brary, many interesting portraits and busts, one of the latter being Boudon's Franklin. and a col lection of relies, including the chair used by Jefferson while writing time Declaration of In dependence. In 1893 the society celebrated the sesqui-centenary of its beginning. for on May 14. 1743, Benjamin Franklin published in Phila delphia "A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge among the British Plantations in America." and though his suggestions were not acted upon immediately, he wrote on April 5, , 1744, that the society had been formed and had held several meetings, with Thomas Hopkinson as president and himself as secretary. Within a few years regular meetings were discontinued. though before 17.58 another society was started in Philadelphia, called the Junto, or Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge, which also Ian gui.slied until April 25, 1766, when it was re vived, with thirty members, as the American Society for Promoting and Propagating Useful Knowledge. The earlier society renewed its ac tivity in November, 1767, and the union of the two was suggested. but a year was spent in nego tiation before time two became one on January 2, 1769, adopting the present name and electing I Benjamin Franklin president. lie held this office
until his death in 1790. The second president was David Rittenhouse, the astronomer and the first director of the United States Mint, and he was succeeded by Thomas Jefferson. In 1785 John Hyacinthe de Magellan, of London, pre sented two hundred guineas to the society for a perpetual fund, the interest each year to be put into a gold medal, to be given to time author of the best discovery or im provement in navigation, natural history, or astronomy. The Magellanic fund has always been kept as a separate investment. and its medal is considered one of the great honors in the scientific world. Membership in the so eiety is limited to those who are invited to join on account of their contributions to science and knowledge: consequently the honor of an election is highly prized by American scientists. In re cent years the society has established a series of annual meetings. to which distinguished men Of science of Europe are invited, and these assem blages have become events of international inter est. The published Transactions of the society begin with 1771, in which year a copy was given to each member of the General Assembly of Penn sylvania, with the statement that "the volume is wholly American in composition, printing. and paper." The society also publishes Proceedings, beginning in 1838. issuing them in about two hundred parts, making over forty volumes.