February 18, 2005–December 11, 2005
The American Philosophical Society (APS) was America’s first academy of science. Philosophical Hall, the Society’s headquarters, also housed an important library collection and the country’s first major museum. Before there was a Smithsonian Institution or a Library of Congress, the APS collected everything under the sun, including documents penned by the Founding Fathers, models of clever inventions, plants found by Lewis and Clark on America’s western frontier, and much more. All these objects contributed to “the promotion of useful knowledge,” the mission of the APS laid out in 1743 by its founder, Benjamin Franklin.
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