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.

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