Historical Notes

Letters from famous members

For more than two centuries, the Academy has sustained the high purpose expressed in its founding charter with an evolving sense of mission and the collaboration of the finest minds in each succeeding generation. The original incorporators were later joined by Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Bulfinch, Alexander Hamilton, John Quincy Adams, and others. During the 19th century, the elected membership included Daniel Webster, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John J. Audubon, Louis Agassiz, Asa Gray, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Alexander Graham Bell. List of past Academy presidents.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, membership in the Academy continued to grow as other noted scholars, scientists, and statesmen were elected. These included A. A. Michelson, Percival Lowell, Alexander Agassiz, and, later, Charles Steinmetz, Charles Evans Hughes, Samuel Eliot Morison, Albert Einstein, Henry Lee Higginson, Woodrow Wilson, William Howard Taft, and Henry Cabot Lodge. For a current member list, click here.

From the beginning, the Academy has extended honorary membership to prominent scholars, scientists, and statesmen from abroad. Some notable foreign members have been Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, William Gladstone, John Singleton Copley, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and—in the 20th century—Neils Bohr, Winston Churchill, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Albert Schweitzer. Recent honorary members from abroad include Claude Levi-Strauss, Kazuo Ishigoro, Stephen Hawking, and Abba Eban.

The Seal of the Academy

Large view

As described in the original Academy statutes of 1780, the seal's principal figure is Minerva, the Roman goddess of war—a symbol appropriate for an organization created in the midst of the American Revolution. But Minerva, like her Greek counterpart Athena, was also the goddess of wisdom, science and trade, and the arts. Her temple on the Aventine Hill was a meeting place for skilled craftsman, writers, and actors.

Around Minerva are representations of the new country—on her right, a field of Indian corn, a stand of oaks, and the outline of a town; at her feet, a hoe, a plow, and a sickle; on her left a quadrant and a telescope, a ship heading for shore, and the sun completely risen above the cloud. Over the whole is the motto SUB LIBERTATE FLORENT.

According to the statutes the seal "depicts the situation of a new country, depending principally on agriculture but attending at the same time to arms, commerce, and the sciences...The sun represents the rising state of America…and the motto conveys the idea that arts and sciences flourish best in free States."

Stated Meetings

The term "Stated Meetings" dates back to the early years of the Academy. These gatherings were to occur from fall through spring on the second Wednesday evening of the month, as they still do in Cambridge. When the Massachusetts Historical Society was founded eleven years after the Academy, it set its meetings on "the day next following those appointed for the American Academy." This regularity fit the needs of many members who belonged to both organizations. As Walter Whitehill, former longtime librarian of the Boston Athenæum as well as the Academy, put it, "Boston institutions more readily accept change in large matters than in small ones; in ideas rather than in details of daily life. If people do not tinker endlessly with dates and times and meetings, one knows, without recourse to notices or engagement books, when certain things occur, thus avoiding conflicts and minor hassles when more important concerns obtain." For a list of upcoming and recent Stated Meetings, click here.

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