Drexel College President John Fry was not too long ago named a brand new member of the American Philosophical Society, the oldest discovered society within the United States. The extremely prestigious membership is restricted to an elected physique of esteemed students and leaders from quite a lot of disciplines together with the humanities, sciences, humanities and professions.
Fry is certainly one of simply 37 members elected this yr and joins roughly 1,000 elected members from throughout the nation and around the globe. The group helps mental and interdisciplinary analysis and discovery, important pondering and public training — all within the title of “helpful information,” as described by Benjamin Franklin, who based the American Philosophical Society in 1743.
“I’m honored to affix this distinguished group of students and leaders from around the globe,” mentioned Fry. “The American Philosophical Society’s assist of ‘helpful information’ aligns completely with Drexel’s mission to deal with and adapt to the wants of a quickly rising society and put together future generations of leaders to take their place in it.”
Additionally inducted on this yr’s class had been latest Nobel Prize in Drugs laureates Katalin Karikó, PhD, and Drew Weissman, MD, PhD; former Pennsylvania governor Thomas W. Wolf; Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks; and lots of completed teachers. A number of presidents of U.S. faculties and colleges, together with Arizona State College, Oregon Well being and Science College and Pomona School, had been additionally elected.
Fry is constant a legacy of connections to the American Philosophical Society relationship again to the founders of Drexel College and the Academy of Pure Sciences of Drexel College. A myriad of further connections will be made between the overlapping members of the American Philosophical Society, Drexel College neighborhood and the Academy of Pure Sciences over the previous three centuries.
Philadelphia financier and philanthropist Anthony J. Drexel was elected as a member in 1892, a yr after he based the Drexel Institute of Artwork, Science and Business. Drexel’s first president, notable training chief James A. MacAlister, was elected in 1886, when he was serving as the primary superintendent of the Philadelphia public college district. Additionally elected in 1886 was legendary writer George W. Childs, who based and edited the Philadelphia Public Ledger newspaper he co-owned for about three many years with Drexel, his greatest buddy and enterprise associate. Instrumental within the creation of the Drexel Institute, Childs served on the Institute’s Board of Trustees since its founding and succeeded the founder as its president after Drexel’s demise in 1893. Upon his personal demise a yr later, Childs bequeathed his huge assortment of artwork and manuscripts to the Drexel Institute, which the College continues to show on campus and retailer in Drexel College Archives and the Drexel Founding Assortment.
The 1812 founding of the Academy of Pure Sciences of Drexel College was influenced partly by the American Philosophical Society, which has been situated in Philosophical Corridor, adjoining to Independence Corridor, since 1789. Two of the Academy’s founders had been later named members: mineralogist and the Academy’s first president Gerard Troost in 1816 and entomologist and conchologist Thomas Say in 1817. Over half of the Academy’s presidents have been members of the American Philosophical Society, together with its first 15 presidents from 1812–1922. That overlap between the 2 organizations exists to at the present time; for instance, Robert McCracken Peck, curator of artwork and artifacts and senior fellow of the Academy of Pure Sciences of Drexel College, turned an American Philosophical Society member in 2022.
This month, the Academy of Pure Sciences and American Philosophical Society have collectively organized a convention, “Making Nature: The Labor of Pure Historical past,” from June 6–7 that explored the methods people have imagined, depicted and constructed representations and information concerning the pure world over time.
The American Philosophical Society’s previous and current members embrace U.S. presidents (from George Washington to Barack Obama), inventors, Supreme Court docket justices, scientists, authorities officers, artists, teachers, skilled leaders and, because the starting of the 20th century, greater than 260 Nobel Prize winners.
