Promoting 'Useful Knowledge' in the 21st Century

A few hundred feet from the Philadelphia birthplace of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, an anonymous brick building houses the nation's first learned society and think tank. Little known outside of academic circles, the American Philosophical Society (APS) came to be in the mid-18th century with the daunting charge of "promoting useful knowledge." A treasure trove of rare books and manuscripts, the organizer of sophisticated cross-disciplinary meetings, the supplier of vario

Written byEugene Russo

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In 1739, eminent Philadelphian and botanist John Bartram saw the need to stimulate discussion and philosophical and scientific inquiry in the American colonies. APS co-founder Benjamin Franklin slightly simplified Bartram's ideas and drafted an organizational charter four years later. It read, in part: "But as from the Extent of the Country, such Persons are widely separated, and seldom can see and converse, or be acquainted with each other, so that many useful particulars remain uncommunicated, die with the Discoverers, and are lost to Mankind, it is to remedy this inconvenience for the future, proposed, that One Society be formed of Virtuous or ingenious Men residing in the several Colonies, to be called The American Philosophical Society, who are to maintain a constant Correspondence."

The APS has struggled with how best to fulfill its mission and "promote useful knowledge" ever since. Today, with an endowment of about $120 million, it continues ...

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