The AAAS grew on the base of the small but successful Association of Geologists and Naturalists, founded in 1840, which met annually, shared research findings, pondered theoretical explanations for phenomena like mountain building, and skillfully advocated for scientific projects on the state and federal level. Under the leadership of the geologist brothers Henry Darwin Rogers and William Barton Rogers, among others, the AAAS was voted into existence in 1847 and held its first meeting in Philadelphia in 1848. Using British and German organizations as models, the AAAS held peripatetic annual meetings, gave reports on current research in specific fields, and opened sessions to the general public as part of their goal of "advancing science."
Until the National Academy of Sciences was formed in 1863, the AAAS served as a national forum and symbol of a growing scientific community. Nearly all active scientists joined, including the geologist Benjamin Silliman, the meteorologist William Redfield, the zoologist and geologist Louis Agassiz, the botanist Asa Gray, the geophysicist Alexander Dallas Bache, and the physicist Joseph Henry. The younger members were particularly insistent that the new association establish high standards for the published annual Proceedings and monitor public presentations at the meetings, and the sometimes stringent application of such standards led to antagonism toward a clique who privately called themselves the Lazzaroni. Perhaps because of tensions between amateurs and professionals, natural and physical scientists, and even regions—tensions not all directly related to the AAAS itself—membership began to decline at the end of the 1850s. When the members reconvened after a hiatus during the Civil War in 1866, the AAAS faced a challenge from the new National Academy of Sciences and later from a growing number of scientific societies organizing in specializing fields.
Under the long management of the AAAS secretary and anthropologist Frederick Ward Putnam, the AAAS continued to be a public forum for the sciences. Presidential addresses (rotating between the natural and physical sciences) and committee initiatives offered opportunities to debate major issues, including response to Darwinian evolution, the shaping of a new conception of "pure science," and the reformulation of nomenclature in entomology and other natural science fields. The membership numbers recovered as the scientific community grew and fellowships acknowledged outstanding scientific work and the new Ph.D. credential. As new specialized societies grew out of the sectional meetings of the AAAS, many of them would meet annually at the same time under the umbrella of the senior organization. When the psychologist James McKeen Cattell offered an arrangement that allowed the AAAS to publish the weekly Science as its official journal in 1900, the AAAS was able to achieve its dual goals, to promote (popularize) and advance (sponsor research) science through a regular publication.
With Cattell as editor for nearly the next half century, the AAAS remained a highly visible forum for science and in 1907 accepted the Smithsonian Institution's offer of free space in Washington, D.C. The organization sought to be representative of the large community of scientists and had never kept women, minorities, or physically handicapped scientists from membership. The astronomer Maria Mitchell had joined in the 1850s, for example, and W. E. B. Du Bois at the turn of the century—but they were a minority in the organization, as in the sciences more generally. During the 1930s, the association lacked leadership with initiative, and in 1944, Cattell sold Science to the AAAS. A postwar generation of leaders moved toward a more systematic set of programs run by professional staff.
In the exhilarating 1950s and 1960s, membership grew and the organization turned to questions about the relationships among the sciences and between the sciences and society. The AAAS sponsored a conference at Arden House at Columbia University in 1951 that stressed public understanding of science, essential in a democratic society that was also striding forward in the sciences. Dael Wolfle became the executive officer in 1954 and helped formulate programs on the quality of science education and on political issues that were important to the scientists themselves. Some were concerns about financial resources for "big science," but many related to issues of personal autonomy as many scientists grew concerned about the implications of their research in the context of the Cold War. The AAAS provided a place for discussion, if not always a resolution, of these issues and enhanced scientific journalism through a fellowship program.
At the end of the twentieth century, the AAAS had about 150,000 members and served an international community of scientists through its journal and a number of Internet sites, experimenting with new modes of communication. Its widely publicized reports on scientific policy and funding in the federal government added to the important news in Science and the presentations at annual meetings that regularly attracted more than 5,000 participants. Housed in an award-winning new building on New York Avenue in Washington, D.C., the AAAS had a large staff engaged in policy studies, projects on scientific ethics and religion, education and minority issues, and international programs.
Bibliography
Abelson, Philip H., and Ruth Kulstad, eds. The "Science" Centennial Review. Washington, D.C.: AAAS, 1980.
Bruce, Robert V. The Launching of Modern American Science, 1846–1876. New York: Knopf, 1987.
Kohlstedt, Sally Gregory, Michael M. Sokal, and Bruce V. Lewenstein. The Establishment of Science in America: 150 Years of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1999.
One of the most controversial decisions of the AAAS involved the Atlanta meeting in 1955, which some members thought ought to be held outside the segregated South. When Margaret Mead, newly elected member of the AAAS board, mediated the question, she suggested that northern white scientists' experience with segregation would solidify their opposition to segregation. Certainly it affected Detlev Bronk, then a recent president of the AAAS, who was furious because he could not attend a session at black Atlanta University because white taxicab drivers could not take him to a black neighborhood and black taxicab drivers could not pick up a white man. The AAAS did not again meet in a southern city until 1990 in New Orleans.
Maria Mitchell, who had won a prize for her discovery of a comet and became professor of astronomy when Vassar College opened, attended an AAAS meeting in the 1850s and was fascinated by the politics of science. The discerning Quaker wrote: "For a few days Science reigns supreme—we are feted and complimented to the top of our bent, and although complimenters and complimented must feel that it is only a sort of theatrical performance for a few days and over, one does enjoy acting the part of greatness for a while."
—Sally Gregory Kohlstedt
