History

1867 First issue of The American Naturalist published in March. It was organized by Alpheus S. Packard, Jr., Frederick W. Putnam, Edward S. Morse, and Alpheus Hyatt, who had been students of Louis Agassiz and assistants at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. Packard had been an assistant surgeon in the Civil War (1st Maine Volunteers) and Hyatt had been a captain with the 47th Massachusetts Regiment. After the museum tried to prevent the assistants from working on their own research after hours, they went to the Essex Institute and Peabody Academy of Science in Salem, Mass., in February 1867. Putnam was a nephew of George Peabody, the donor. The masthead said, "A Popular Illustrated Magazine of Natural History."

1878 The original four organizers turn The American Naturalist over to A. S. Packard, Jr., and E. D. Cope. Cope takes over ownership until his death in 1897.

1881 S. F. Clarke calls for a meeting to organize a society of naturalists to share techniques and methods.

1883 First meeting of the Society of Naturalists of the Eastern United States--including zoologists, botanists, geologists, physiologists, bacteriologists, psychologists, anatomists, and anthropologists. Alpheus Hyatt was President.

1885 The American Naturalist is named the official medium of publication for the society at the third annual meeting.

1886 Name is changed to the American Society of Naturalists.

1886 Association of American Anatomists, Association of American Physiologists form as separate societies and split off, beginning a long process of societies forming special interests and splitting off. The ASN maintains affiliation with the related societies.

1889 Topic of the annual meeting is "The Object of Scientific Gatherings."

1890 Report of the Committee on Introduction of Science Teaching in Schools.

1890 Topic of the annual meeting is "The Inheritance of Acquired Characters."

1895 Cope is president of the ASN>

1896 Report of the Committee on Antarctic Exploration.

1897 The American Naturalist is taken over by a group of men from the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard, and Tufts after Cope's death.

1897 The ASN writes an appeal to President McKinley to appoint a scientist to the Fish Commission.

1901 C. S. Minot, "The Relation of the American Society of Naturalists to Other Societies," Science vol. 15, no. 372, publishes a discussion on the process of specialization as the other societies form and split off and discusses the future of the ASN.

1907 The American Naturalist is sold to J. McKeen Cattell, who edited and published it.

1908 At the annual meeting, evolution was declared the one most general and interesting topic common to all the natural sciences. The society adopts it as its focus. The ASN defines itself as "the association of working naturalists or biologists for discussing and correlating the broader problems of organic evolution." The masthead of The American Naturalist now reads, "A Monthly Journal Devoted to the Advancement of the Biological Sciences with Special Reference to the Factors of Evolution."

1909 Topic of the annual meeting is "Fifty Years of Darwinism."

1915 Resolution is passed favoring Reform in the Methods of Securing Expert Opinion in Judicial Procedure.

1916 Working plan for annual meetings is established: a dinner with a Presidential Address, research papers on problems of organic evolution, and a symposium on a timely topic.

1931 Members meet in a special session and decide that the society should continue and be strengthened to encourage synthesis and cooperation across specialization. They decide the vice president should organize the symposium on a timely topic. They also set the qualifications for membership as a high order of research and wide philosophical interest and limit the membership to 600.

1934 Conklin lists projects promoted by the ASN: science teaching in secondary schools, better organization of science teaching in colleges and universities, better correlation of laboratory instruction; establishing the Journal of Morphology, the Naturalists' Table at Woods Hole, research table at the Naples Zoological Station; donations to the library of the Marine Biological Laboratory, donations in support of the Concilium Bibliographicum, promotion of Antarctic exploration, support of proposals to create the Colorado Cliff-dwellers national Park, the Superior National Forest, the Everglades National Park. The ASN advocated the establishment of a National Health Service and worked with the National Reserach Council and Union of American Biological Societies to establish Biological Abstracts.

1939 Jacques Cattell joins his father as editor and publisher of The American Naturalist.

1941 The ASN creates a board of consulting editors to work with Cattell.

1950 A poll of the membership provides overwhelming consensus that the chief function of the ASN is "to foster development of breadth and unity in biology, in contrast to the more specialized aims of other societies."

1951 The society assumes editorial control of The American Naturalist.

Sources:

Conklin, Edwin G. 1934. "Fifty Years of the American Society of Naturalists." American Naturalist 68:385-401.

Conklin, Edwin G. 1944. "The Early History of the American Naturalist." American Naturalist 78:29-37.

Futuyma, Douglas J. 1998. "Wherefore and Whither the Naturalist? (ASN Presidential Address)." American Naturalist 151:1-6.

Glass, Bentley. 1966. "The Naturalist--Changes in Outlook over Three Centuries (ASN Presidential Address)." American Naturalist 100:273-283

Recent Past Officers of the ASN