TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE [1892–1913]. The first Texas Academy of Science was organized on January 9, 1892, at the University of Texas by fourteen scientists. Among them was geologist Edwin T. Dumble, who was elected the second president. The fourteen founders were Edgar Everhart, chemist, first president and ramrodder of the academy; George Bruce Halsted, mathematician; Thomas U. Taylor, mathematician; Frederic W. Simonds, geologist; James C. Nagle, engineer; Robert A. Thompson, engineering student; J. F. Clark; Harry Yandell Benedict, mathematician; Alexander MacFarlane, engineer; James R. Bailey, chemist; R. B. Halley, professor of natural science; A. J. James, science teacher; and W. H. von Streeruwitzqv, mining engineer. Their constitution stated that the academy would investigate and report upon such scientific problems as might be submitted to it by the state. The objects of the academy were "to advance the exact and natural sciences both by research and discussion." There were to be two formal annual meetings and informal monthly meetings. By 1907 the academy had publication-exchange arrangements with some seventy-five institutions. The library of the academy was eventually given to the University of Texas. Throughout its twenty-year existence the academy had two patrons: George W. Brackenridge, member of the UT board of regents, and Mrs. George Bruce Halsted of Austin and later Greeley, Colorado, each of whom gave $500. By 1911 there were 154 members. In 1913 the academy published its last Transactions, Volume 12. Thereafter nothing more was heard of this academy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. W. Geiser, "Fifty Years of Texas Biology," Proceedings and Transactions of the Texas Academy of Science 30 (1946). S. W. Geiser, "The First Texas Academy of Science," Field and Laboratory 13 (January 1945). Texas Academy of Science Collection, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Texas Academy of Science Records, Texas A&M University Archives. Transactions of the Texas Academy of Science, 1896. Edith Ward-McLemore Papers, Texas A&M University Archives. Ethel Ward-McLemore, "The Academies of Science of Texas, 1880–1987," Texas Journal of Science 41 (August 1989, suppl.).
