Philosophical Society of Washington

[1] The lectures present speakers at who have reached the pinnacles of their respective fields, and in recent years have included Nobel laureates Baruch Blumberg, William D. Phillips, John C. Mather, and Craig Mello.

[3] In 1855, the Smithsonian Castle was completed, with space for exhibitions, research laboratories, and living quarters for Henry and his family.

[5] The Saturday Club eventually grew to more than forty members and some found it difficult to accommodate the group in their homes.

Humphreys, these signers “represented…every branch of both the natural and the exact sciences.”[7] The signers included: mathematician Simon Newcomb; astronomer Asaph Hall; malacologist William H. Dall; Chief Engineer of the Army Andrew A. Humphreys; Quartermaster General of the Army Montgomery C. Meigs; Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes; and Chief Justice Salmon P.

[6] “In response to this call,” according to the minutes of the first meeting, “a meeting of the subscribers thereto was convened and held at the Smithsonian Institution, in the Regents’ room, on Monday, March 13, 1871.”[8] The outline of a Constitution was adopted, and a General Committee was established, and officers were elected, including President Joseph Henry.

The paths were not paved; if it happened to be rainy it was a very muddy walk indeed…At that time, nearly all of the members of the Society lived in the city and therefore found it desirable to have the place of meeting where they would not have to go through the Smithsonian grounds, often through a considerable amount of mud.

Baird communicated on behalf of the author, “Official Report of the Yellowstone Expedition of 1870.”[8] About the early meetings at Ford’s Theater, librarian John S. Billings remembered: [The] entrance up the narrow stairs, often pervaded with a scientific odor from the laboratory on the lower floor – an odor once compared to that of the deluge at low tide – the devious and complicated route from the head of the stair, past the General Committee room, to the place of meeting; the rather gloomy room, walled in from floor to ceiling with books from whose dingy backs no light was reflected, and yet in its general aspects and surroundings in many respects appropriate to the objects and purposes of the company gathered therein.

The Club moved to its own building, known now as the Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square, and invited the Society to hold its meetings there.