The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Academies in America

ACADEMIES IN AMERICA. In the United States the term academy is not generally applied, as in Europe, to learned societies. The oldest association of the academic type in the United States originated with Benjamin Franklin, who published ‘A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge Among the British Plantations in America’ in 1743. This resulted in the organization the same year of the “American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge.” Franklin was its first secretary, and from 1769 until his death in 1790 its president. Its Transactions were first published in 1771, and its Proceedings in 1838. It numbers over 500 members and holds an annual general meeting. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded at Boston in 1780, and dealing largely with the antiquities and natural history of America, has published several volumes of Transactions dating from 1785. The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1799. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia was founded in 1818 and is a flourishing institution with a fine museum and library. The New York Academy of Science, originally known as the Lyceum of Natural History, was founded in 1818 and received its present title in 1875. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, first organized in 1840 as the American Association of Geologists, now has a membership of over 8,000. The National Academy of Sciences was chartered by Congress in 1863 to investigate and report on scientific questions. Originally limited to 50 members, the number was extended to 150 in 1907. The most important of the national organizations of academic character is the Smithsonian Institution (q. v.) at Washington. The Washington Academy of Sciences, amalgamating several scientific societies of the National capital, was incorporated in 1898. The American Academy of Political and Social Science of Philadelphia, and the Academy of Political Science of New York (Columbia University), are important institutions. Academies of medicine flourish in New York, Philadelphia (established 1799), Cincinnati and Cleveland, an academy of science in St. Louis, and in 1898 the American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded in New York. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, famous for its annual exhibitions, was founded in 1807, and the National Academy of Design, in New York, in 1828.

Of scholastic institutions, the earliest was The Academy and College of Philadelphia, founded in 1749 by Benjamin Franklin, chartered in 1753, and in 1779 incorporated as the University of Pennsylvania. Other early schools of this type were the John Phillips academies, established at Andover, Mass., and at Exeter, N. H., and the term is also used in the well-known title of The United States Military Academy at West Point.

The term is also loosely but popularly used to designate places where dancing, riding, fencing, etc., are taught.

In Central and South America among the learned societies of standing are: The Academia Mexicana de ciencas y literature in Mexico City; the Academia de la historia, at Caracas, Venezuela; the Academia nacional de artes y letras, and the Academia de ciencias, medicas, fisicas y naturales, at Havana, Cuba; the Academia nacional de ciencas, Buenos Aires; the Academia Cearenes, at Ceara, Brazil, and the Academia de Medicine, at Rio Janeiro.