History
Incorporators of the NAS
The following fifty scientists were the charter members of the NAS:
Louis AGASSIZ, 1807-1873
Massachusetts (First NAS Foreign Secretary, 1863-1873)
John H. ALEXANDER, 1812-1867
Maryland
Stephen ALEXANDER, 1806-1883
Maryland
Alexander Dallas BACHE, 1806-1867
At large (First NAS President, 1863-1867)
Frederick Augustus Porter BARNARD, 1809-1889
At large (Foreign Secretary, 1874-1880; brother of John Gross Barnard)
John Gross BARNARD, 1815-1882
Massachusetts; U.S. Army (Brother of F.A.P. Barnard)
William Holmes Chambers BARTLETT, 1804-1893
Missouri; U.S. Military Academy
Alexis CASWELL, 1799-1877
Rhode Island
William CHAUVENET, 1820-1870
Missouri (Vice President, 1868-1871)
John Huntington Crane COFFIN, 1815-1890
Maine; U.S. Naval Academy (Home Secretary, 1878-1881; Treasurer 1881-1887)
John Adolphus Bernhard DAHLGREN, 1809-1870
Pennsylvania; U.S. Navy (Resigned May 1863)
James Dwight DANA, 1813-1895
Connecticut (First Vice President, 1863-1865)
Charles Henry DAVIS, 1807-1877
Massachusetts; U.S. Navy
George ENGELMAN, 1809-1884
Missouri
John Fries FRAZER, 1812-1872
Pennsylvania
Wolcott GIBBS, 1822-1908
Massachusetts (First Home Secretary, 1863-1872; Vice President, 1872-1878; Foreign Secretary, 1886-1895; President, 1895-1900)
James Melville GILISS, 1811-1865
Washington, D.C.; U.S. Navy
Augustus Addison GOULD, 1805-1866
Massachusetts
Benjamin Apthorp GOULD, 1824-1896
Massachusetts
Asa GRAY, 1810-1888
Massachusetts (Resigned January 1867)
Arnold GUYOT, 1807-1884
New Jersey
James HALL, 1811-1898
New York
Joseph HENRY, 1799-1878
At Large (Second Vice President, 1866-1868; President, 1868-1878)
Julius Erasmus HILGARD, 1825-1890
At Large; Illinois (Home Secretary, 1872-1878)
Edward HITCHCOCK, 1793-1864
Massachusetts
Joseph Stillman HUBBARD, 1823-1863
Connecticut; U.S. Naval Observatory
Andrew Atkinson HUMPHRIES, 1810-1883
Pennsylvania; U.S. Army
John Lawrence LE CONTE, 1825-1883
Pennsylvania, U.S. Army
Joseph LEIDY, 1823-1891
Pennsylvania
J. Peter LESLEY, 1819-1903
Pennsylvania
Miers Fisher LONGSTRETH, 1819-1891
Pennsylvania
Dennis Hart MAHAN, 1802-1871
Virginia; U.S. Military Academy
John Strong NEWBERRY, 1822-1892
Ohio
Hubert Anson NEWTON, 1830-1896
Connecticut
Benjamin PEIRCE, 1809-1880
Massachusetts (Resigned 1877)
John RODGERS, 1812-1882
Indiana; U.S. Navy
Fairman ROGERS, 1833-1900
Pennsylvania (First Treasurer, 1863-1881)
Robert Empie ROGERS, 1813-1884
Pennsylvania (Brother of William Barton Rogers)
William Barton ROGERS, 1804-1882
Massachusetts (President, 1879-1882; brother of Robert Empie Rogers)
Lewis Morris RUTHERFURD, 1816-1892
New York
Joseph SAXTON, 1799-1873
At Large
Benjamin SILLIMAN Sr.,1779-1864
Connecticut
Benjamin SILLIMAN Jr., 1816-1885
Connecticut
Theodore STRONG, 1790-1869
New Jersey
John TORREY, 1796-1873
New York
Joseph Gilbert TOTTEN, 1788-1864
Connecticut; U.S. Army
Josiah Dwight WHITNEY, 1819-1896
California
Joseph WINLOCK, 1826-1875
Kentucky; U.S. Nautical Almanac
Jeffries WYMAN, 1814-1874
Massachusetts
U.A. BOYDEN
Massachusetts (Refused appointment)
President Lincoln signs the Charter of the National Academy of Sciences
The group portrait by Albert Herter, in the Academy's Board Room, imagines President Abraham Lincoln signing the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, on March 3rd, 1863. Herter’s painting was made in 1924 for the dedication of the NAS Building, and this apocryphal scene pictures Senator Henry Wilson, who introduced the bill establishing the Academy, to the right of President Lincoln as a group of the founders looks on.
Founding Members (Left to right): Benjamin Peirce, Alexander Dallas Bache (first president of the Academy), Joseph Henry, Louis Agassiz, President Lincoln, Senator Wilson, Admiral Charles Henry Davis, and Benjamin Apthorp Gould.
