American Philosophical Society (2/15/2023)

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

We are finally winding down our Lewis & Clark trips! One of the final goals was to see the journals written by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during the Corps of Discovery Expedition. We were very fortunate to learn that a fellow resident had worked as CFO at the APS/American Philosophical Society. Carl (with Paula) was willing to make an appointment with the APS Library and to take us to see the original journals! We saw them, and so much more!

Library Hall (1958-1959, by Sydney E Martin) with a
façade replicating that of The Library Company building
(1789-1791, by William Thornton in Federal style),
including a 1980s copy of a statue (c 1959, by
Lewis Iselin, Jr) of Benjamin Franklin, which itself was a
replica of the original 1792 statue by Francesco Lazzarini

Brenna, the Assistant to the APS Librarian, gave a short tour of the Reading Room and the multi-story vault. Because the APS Library owns over thirteen million manuscripts, 350,000 volumes and bound periodicals, 250,000 images, and thousands of hours of audio tape, plus microfilm and artifacts, they have purchased additional buildings to house the collections.

This library chair (1760-1780, attributed to
Benjamin Franklin) was used by the president
of the Society, starting with Benjamin Franklin,
but ending with the president who died
while sitting in the chair when presiding
over an APS meeting in 1931

The chair has folding steps that flip over the seat to act as a stepstool to reach books on higher shelves.

From Volume II of APS Transactions containing
Benjamin Franklin's Maritime Observations, a map
by Franklin, who was the first to chart the Gulf Stream

The David Library collections of
Sol Feinstone were merged with APS in 2019,
including this note from Thomas Jefferson
to Benjamin Franklin, asking for a review
of the Declaration of Independence

To show that not everyone had nice
handwriting, here is a draft title page for
On the Origin of Species in the hand
of Charles Darwin in 1859

Although General George Washington wanted to distance
himself from the drafting of the United States Constitution,
he did make comments in this 1787 letter to Henry Knox

The above document includes the quote: "It is among the evils. . . of democratical governments, that the people must feel, before they will see. When this happens, they are roused to action."

A first copy of the United States Constitution
(1787) was annotated by Ben Franklin

A significant document was discovered in 1979
by an APS intern: the Michaux Expedition
Subscription List written by Thomas Jefferson,
(then Secretary of State) with instructions for
the French botanist, André Michaux, to lead a
scientific expedition from the Mississippi River,
along the Missouri River, to the Pacific Coast,
in order to study the animals and plants,
inhabitants, geography, and geology, in 1793

Although the Michaux Expedition did not come to fruition,
this document was the basis for the instructions given to
Lewis and Clark for the Corps of Discovery Expedition;
the subscription list is also noteworthy as the only document
known to be signed by each of the first four Presidents of the
United States: Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison

Oh, my! the original codices/journals
from the Corps of Discovery Expedition!

We were able to view Codices H-K from the collection of 18 codices, these being bound in red morocco leather. While Meriwether Lewis and William Clark kept daily notes (along with corps enlisted men John Ordway, Charles Floyd, Patrick Gass, and Joseph Whitehouse), these journals were a compilaton of the information gathered in the daily notes. The journals were likely written during the winter camps and after returning to their homes.

William Clark was known for executing
very accurate maps; this map shows
the mouth of the Columbia River

A daily record was kept of temperature,
weather, and wind twice a day, plus
notes on water conditions

Amazing drawings of flora and fauna
are found throughout the journals

Thomas Jefferson developed a table of
Comparative Vocabularies of the indigenous
peoples of North America, through which
research he hoped to find the origins of these
peoples, and also to determine whether these
peoples appeared to commit fewer crimes
because unlike in Europe, they were not governed
by "too much law and too much coercion"

Unfortunately, these papers were packed in a trunk for transfer from the White House to Monticello, when the heaviest trunk was stolen, but then thrown in the James River as worthless. Some pages were found, but in damaged condition.

A tiny Bee Book, a journal of beekeeping by John Benbow, Jr,
of Cowley Hall Mills, Middlesex, England, with
amusing anecdotes and illustrations

An item that has not yet been processed, with bundles
of small slips of paper recording vocabularies
of Arctic indigenous peoples

Drawing (1796) by APS member William Bartram
of Arethusa divaricata/Rosebud Orchid along
with a sundew and Venus flytrap plants

The plant is a native of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but it is doubted if it is Philadelphia portrayed in the background. I believe it could be Philadelphia around 1798.

More recent papers include the daily log of a NASA
technician who witnessed the explosion of
the Space Shuttle Challenger on January 26, 1986

A diagram in the journal of Baruch S Blumberg,
which outlines his discovery of the Australian antigen,
a biomarker for hepatitis B; for which he
won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1976

After this amazing show-and-tell by Brenna at the APS Library, we walked across the street to Philosophical Hall, with the offices and museum of the American Philosophical Society (founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin as a means of promoting useful knowledge).

Carl's former office at APS, was considered
the most vauable office real estate in
Philadelphia, having windows on two sides
and a ground floor view of Independence Hall
and park-like Independence Square

Also in the office was a Tall Case Clock
(1750-1775, by Thomas Duffield) that
belonged to Benjamin Franklin

A conference room contained the only
surviving portrait of Mrs Ben Franklin/
Deborah Read (attributed to Benjamin Wilson)

Sorry, odd blue reflection on the portrait of
Benjamin Franklin himself, a copy of the
1777 portrait by Jean-Baptiste Greuze

Upstairs in the museum gallery, there were
more portraits and two clocks; this one is
another Tall Case Clock (c 1750, by
Thomas Duffield) that belonged
to Benjamin Franklin

Astronomical Clock (1769, by David
Rittenhouse) that was used during Rittenhouse's
study of the transit of Venus across the sun

On the way back to the car, we stopped at "Tina's" shop where Carl often stopped for chocolates to take home after work. What a joyful and emotional reunion Carl & Paula had with Tina!

We stopped at Ashley's for dinner, with the "phenomenal" salad bar that allows you to have two dinners for the price of one! We certainly did bring home leftovers.

We cannot thank Carl and Paula enough for this wondrous and wonderful outing from GFE!