Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University with Photos and Videos

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading naturalists of the young American republic with an expressed mission of "the encouragement and cultivation of the sciences". For over two centuries of continuous operations, the Academy has sponsored expeditions, conducted original environmental and systematics research, and amassed natural history collections containing more than 17 million specimens. The Academy also has a long tradition of public exhibits and educational programs for both schools and the general public.

During the first decades of the United States, Philadelphia was the cultural capital and one of the country's commercial centers. Two of the city's institutions, the Library Company and the American Philosophical Society, were centers of enlightened thought and scientific inquiry.

The increasing sophistication of the earth and life sciences, combined with a growing awareness of the great variety of life and landscape in the American wilderness waiting to be discovered, led a small group of naturalists to establish the Academy of Natural Sciences in the winter of 1812. The academy was meant to foster a gathering of fellow naturalists, and nurture the growth and credibility of American science. They frequently looked to their European counterparts for inspiration and expertise and longed to be regarded as equals.

On 25 April 1817 they were incorporated into the society under the title of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia by the legislature of Pennsylvania. By 1 January 1818, eight members were published.

Within a decade of its founding, the Academy became the undisputed center of natural sciences in the United States. Academy members were frequently enlisted to participate in national surveys of the western territories and other major expeditions. Several of its earliest members, including William Bartram, John Godman, Richard Harlan, Angelo Heilprin, Charles Alexandre Lesueur, William Maclure, Titian Peale, Charles Pickering, Thomas Say, and Alexander Wilson were among the pioneers or recognized authorities in their respective areas of study. Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Edwards Holbrook of South Carolina, Thomas Nuttall and Richard Owen of the United Kingdom, Georges Cuvier of France, and Alexander von Humboldt of Prussia were among the corresponding members (members who lived far from Philadelphia) of the Academy's first decades.

Later during the 19th century, other notable naturalists and scientists, including John James Audubon, Charles S. Boyer, John Cassin, Edward Drinker Cope, Ezra Townsend Cresson, Richard Harlan, Ferdinand V. Hayden, Isaac Lea, John Lawrence LeConte, Joseph Leidy, Samuel Morton, George Ord, and James Rehn were also members. Corresponding members included such luminaries as Charles Darwin, Asa Gray, and Thomas Henry Huxley.

For much of its history, new members had to be nominated by two current members and then elected by the remaining members. These requirements were dropped in 1924. Notable 20th-century scientists include James Böhlke, James Bond, Henry Weed Fowler, Ruth Patrick, Henry Pilsbry, and Witmer Stone.

In 2011, the Academy became affiliated with nearby Drexel University and changed its name to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

Collections are the hallmark of museums and those at The Academy of Natural Sciences are among the more important of their kind. The size and scope of its collections have grown substantially since the early years. Currently, there are over 18 million biological specimens, and hundreds of thousands of volumes, journals, illustrations, photographs, and archival items in its library. These collections grew through a combination of means, including the donation or purchase of existing collections or individual items, the collection activities of Academy-sponsored expeditions, or those of individual scientists, whether or not they work at the Academy. Sometimes the Academy is also enlisted to house and care for collections originally gathered by other institutions. For example, a number of the natural history collections at the American Philosophical Society were relocated to the Academy by the end of the 19th century.

But these collections are not maintained just to collect dust. They provide a library of biodiversity. Traditionally, researchers at natural science (or natural history) institutions such as the Academy engaged in biological taxonomy, the science of discovering, describing, naming, and classifying species: in essence, the cataloging of Nature. In recent decades, research has shifted in emphasis to the science of systematics, the study of the evolutionary relationships among these species.

Either way, the collections are invaluable. They provide the type specimens, the reference material that helps establish a species' identity. They also provide raw materials with which scientists can investigate the nature of these species, their relationships with other species, their evolutionary history, or their conservation status. New questions and new technology illustrate the importance of these collections. Titian Peale (1799–1885) may not have been interested in the conservation biology of the butterflies he collected while Henry Pilsbry (1862–1957) probably did not consider comparing the DNA of his snails. Yet, modern scientists have such options because these specimens are part of the collections.

The most common science currently conducted in natural history museums is biological systematics. It is also the science with which current natural history collections are most intimately associated. The Academy's collections and systematics research are presented below.

Botany is study of plants. "Plants," to most people, means a wide range of living organisms from the smallest bacteria to the largest living things - the giant sequoia trees. By this definition plants include: algae, fungi, lichens, mosses, ferns, conifers and flowering plants.Collections at the Academy, which are housed in the Philadelphia Herbarium (PH), include some of the oldest and most important botanical collections in the Americas. Notable early collectors include Benjamin Smith Barton, Constatine Rafinesque, Thomas Meehan, Thomas Nuttall, and Fredrick Pursh. The current curator, Tatyana Livshultz, studies the systematics of and the development of flowers in the Apocynaceae (milkweed or dogbane family). The herbarium contains approximately 1.5 million specimens of vascular plants, fungi, lichens, algae, and fossil plants. It also contains some special collections, including the plants collected by Johann and Georg Forster during the voyages of Captain James Cook, and by Meriwether Lewis during the Lewis and Clark expedition (Corps of Discovery).

The Academy's Diatom Herbarium, the largest in the Americas and the second largest in the world, contains approximately 220,000 slides of these microscopic algae. The herbarium contains many specimens contributed by notable collectors, a diversity of fossil diatoms, and diatoms collected as part of numerous freshwater environmental surveys in the United States. The Diatom Herbarium also provides collections and taxonomic services for the Phycology Section of the Patrick Center for Environmental Research. Former curators of note include Charles S. Boyer, Ruth Patrick, and Charles Reimer.

Entomology has been important to the Academy since its founding. Two of its earliest members include Thomas Say, regarded as the father of American entomology, and Titian Peale, a leading natural history illustrator and the chief naturalist on the United States Exploring Expedition (1834–1842). The entomology collection currently contains more than 3.5 million specimens and includes the remarkable Titian Peale Moth and Butterfly Collection, the oldest entomology collection in the United States. Curator Emeritus, Daniel Otte, an expert on Orthoptera (crickets, grasshoppers, and their relatives) is a pioneer of presenting biological data on the internet through the creation of the Orthoptera Species File. Curator and Entomology Department Chair, Jon Gelhaus is a world expert on crane flies and manages the Mongolian Aquatic Insect Survey.

Ichthyology has also been a part of Academy collections and research since its beginnings, but the size of the collection was relatively modest until acquisition of Edward Drinker Cope's personal collections in 1898. A few years later, Henry Weed Fowler began his remarkable tenure at the Academy, during which he systematized the collections and described 1,408 species. James Edwin Böhlke, William Saul, and William Smith-Vaniz are among the notable scientist who followed Fowler. The current curator, John Lundberg, an expert in catfishes, pioneered deep channel collecting in large tropical rivers and is the lead author of a seminal scientific paper on the biological and geographic history of the Amazon River Basin. The Ichthyology collection, which currently houses nearly 1.2 million specimens and nearly 3,000 types, is one of the most important such collections in the United States. The department also hosts the All Catfish Species Inventory (a comprehensive online resource on catfish) and Catfish Bones (an online digital atlas of catfish morphology), and is a participant in Neodat II (an online resource of Neotropic ichthyology collections).

Two of the early members of the Academy, Thomas Say and Isaac Lea, were malacologists (see also conchologists). R. Tucker Abbott, Samuel Stehman Haldeman, Henry A. Pilsbry, and George W. Tryon, Jr. were other noted malacologists who worked at the Academy. The Academy's malacology collection is the oldest such collection in the United States and is the 3rd largest in the world. It currently contains over 10 million specimens, including types erected by more than 400 authors. Curator Gary Rosenberg, an expert on Jamaican land snails, is a leader in moving museum collections and research data online. Research websites include the Malacology Georeferencing Project an online database of Atlantic Marine Mollusca (Malacolog)[permanent dead link], and the OBIS Indo-Pacific Mollusc database. Research associate and former curator Daniel L. Graf, an expert on Unionidae (freshwater mussels), maintains the MUSSEL Project web site.

Just about any ornithologist active in the United States during the first half of the 19th century, including John James Audubon, William Bartram, Charles Lucien Bonaparte, John Cassin, Thomas Nuttall, George Ord, John Kirk Townsend, and Alexander Wilson (the "father" of American ornithology), either operated out of or worked closely with The Academy of Natural Sciences. Later notable Academy ornithologists include James Bond, Frank Gill, Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee, Pete Myers, Fred Sheldon, and Witmer Stone. With nearly 200,000 specimens representing over 9,000 species, the Ornithology collection is one of the largest and most taxonomically complete bird collections in the world. The Delaware Valley Ornithological Club (DVOC) has held regular meetings at the Academy since 1890.

Vertebrate paleontology in the United States originated in Philadelphia through the efforts of naturalists and scientists associated with the American Philosophical Society (APS) during the first decade of the 19th century and at The Academy of Natural Sciences thereafter. By the end of the 19th century, the holdings from the APS, including the Thomas Jefferson Fossil Collection, had been transferred to the Academy for safekeeping. Currently, the collection contains more than 22,000 specimens, including many types. Richard Harlan was an early member who introduced many American naturalists to the groundbreaking works of Georges Cuvier. Joseph Leidy, who described Hadrosaurus and alerted the scientific world to the paleontological treasures of the American West, is considered the "father" of American vertebrate paleontology. Edward Drinker Cope, who also worked extensively on other vertebrates, is best known for his rivalry with Othniel Charles Marsh during the infamous Bone Wars. Curator Edward B. Daeschler is currently studying the evolution of Devonian tetrapods. He is a co-discoverer of the transitional "fishapod" Tiktaalik roseae from the Canadian Arctic and the discoverer of two tetrapods, Hynerpeton and Densignathus from the Catskill Formation in Pennsylvania.

The Academy houses several collections of smaller size yet historical and scientific importance. The general invertebrate collection contains about 22,600 specimens, while the invertebrate paleontology collection contains about 105,000 lots. Both contain numerous type specimens. Generally, 21,500 specimens are gaunt, 13,500 are affiliated skins, and 1,700 are wet-preserved specimens. The Frank J. Myers Rotifer Collection is the most comprehensive collection of rotifers on microslides. The herpetology collection contains about 40,000 specimens, including more than 500 type specimens. The mammalogy collection contains about 36,000 specimens and 180 holotypes. Among the naturalists and scientists associated with these collections are Timothy Conrad, Edward Drinker Cope, Richard Harlan, John Edwards Holbrook, Henry Charles Lea, Isaac Lea, Joseph Leidy, Samuel G. Morton, and Thomas Say.

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