18481776 Club
Scientists regroup as a national body: the American Association for the Advancement of Science forms in Philadelphia
Seventy-eight members sign on, and William Charles Redfield takes the chair as the new society's first president.
American science in 1848 had no single voice. Geologists, astronomers, and naturalists worked in scattered state societies with little way to coordinate or advocate for resources. On September 20, meeting at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences, members of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists voted to reorganize themselves into a broader body: the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Seventy-eight scientists signed on, and William Charles Redfield, who had submitted the most detailed organizational plan, became its first president…
