Kansas Academy of Science

The Kansas Academy of Science was organized as the Kansas Natural History Society at Lincoln College (now Washburn University) in Topeka (Kan.) on September 1, 1868. At the fourth annual meeting, in 1871, it changed its name to the Kansas Academy of Science (Transactions, 27, 30). The founding date establishes the Academy as probably the second oldest such state institute in the country, being junior only to a similar institution in Connecticut. The first dozen or so annual reports of the Academy were contained in the annual report of the Board of Agriculture. From 1873, the Kansas Academy had been "by law, a coordinate department of the State Board of Agriculture" (Transactions, 20, 10 - 11). The academy is a non-profit organization devoted solely to increasing and dissemination of knowledge. Membership includes most of the scientific workers in the schools, colleges, universities, and laboratories in Kansas, as well as nonprofessional members interested in the objectives of the academy. The primary service of the academy is the publication of Transactions Kansas Academy of Science, which represents the only state-wide publications in which articles of a scientific nature can be published by the scientists in Kansas. [Secretary of State. Kansas Biennial Report. Topeka: Secretary of State, 1962.] [This article is published in the Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, vol. 101, no. 3/4, p. 140-145 (1998).]