Academy of Sciences Celebrates 150th Anniversary

By Ryder Miller

The California Academy of Sciences, which turned 150 years old in April, is celebrating its past this year before it begins to evolve at the end of the year into it's newest incarnation - set to open in 2008.

The Academy was originally established during the first bustling years of California's statehood and the Gold Rush. The Academy estimates that more than 100 million people have visited the museum since it first opened.

In the early days, San Francisco was different and less civilized. In 1853, California was only three years old and the state was attracting people from all over the world during the booming years of the Gold Rush. In 1853, gold exports alone amounted to $56.4 million for the year. The city of 50,000 was known for it rambunctious ways and the western half of the city was still sand dunes.

As recounted in Dave Brian Butvill's article in the spring issue of California Wild, "Science Amid the Saloons: The Academy Begins," during this time of saloons and gunfights, seven gentleman decided to meet regularly to discuss science. The organization they founded would blossom into a respected international scientific organization.

Among the founders who would meet to discuss science were Dr. Andrew Randall, Henry Gibbons, Albert Kellogg, Thomas Nevins, John Trask, Charles Farris and Lewis Sloat. They were interested in numerous subject areas. Seismologist Trask would organize the first California-funded geologic survey; Gibbons would document the confounding Mediterranean California weather; Kellogg would survey California plant life; and Nevins would establish a public school.

But it was a rough and tumble time with rampant crime in San Francisco and Academy president Andrew Randall was one of its victims. In a hotel, Randall was murdered in 1856 over an unpaid debt. The murderer was brought to justice and hanged the next day by vigilantes, who would help rid the city of "undesirables."

The naturalists who founded the Academy originally met weekly in a small Victorian office in San Francisco. The group would go on to showcase their findings by opening the first public museum in San Francisco in 1874, at the corner of California and Dupont (now Grant Avenue) streets. Active efforts were made to recruit women and Rosa Smith was the first female curator of Ichthyology in any natural history museum.

The Academy would establish a new and improved museum in 1891 on Market Street between Fourth and Fifth streets. At the turn of the century there were expeditions to the Galapagos Islands to collect specimens, which helped substantiate Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution, which explained the biological forces and dynamics which resulted in the diversity of species we share the planet with.

The earthquake of 1906 destroyed the downtown museum, but the Academy would regroup to create a new museum in Golden Gate Park in 1916. Soon after, Director Barton Evermann would create new science education programs for nearby schools and the general public.

After much rumination, the Academy would open the Steinhart Aquarium in 1923 and the Simson African Hall would open in 1941. The Academy would build a new star projector for the opening of the Morrison Planetarium in 1952.

The Academy has since taken steps to further its educational goals, to bring science to the public, to acquire larger collections, create innovative natural history displays and exhibits, and explore and protect biodiversity.

As recounted in California Wild, over the years the Academy has had its superstars, prodigies, benefactors, Renaissance men and women and students.

George Davidson would popularize astronomy on the west coast. Botany curator Alice Eastwood published more than 300 articles and increased the Academy's botany specimen holdings by 235 times from what she salvaged from the Academy after the 1906 earthquake. Dallas Hanna, who helped create the Morrison Planetarium's innovative star projector, also wrote papers about "the ancient amphibians of Illinois, nudibranch preservation, the birds of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and the repair of binoculars."

During the mid-century, Earl Herald, director at the Steinhart Aquarium, hosted 626 television "Science in Action" episodes and authored 93 articles. His professional descendent is world-famous marine biologist and shark expert John E. McCosker.

Botanist George Lindsay, director at the Academy from 1961 to 1981, was hired as the director for Arizona's Desert Botanical Garden in Tempe in 1939 when he was only 22 years of age.

Education and conservation are some of the Academy's most important current initiatives.

"We want to better educate the public about science," said Dr. Terry Gosliner, a provost and nudibranch expert. "We want to help increase science literacy, expand educational goals and provide science education training."

Gosliner said the Academy also hopes to reach out to under represented groups

"One of our real imperatives is to promote science literacy to communities that have not had active participation."

Gosliner said science plays an increasingly important role in people's lives. He believes that knowledge of science helps promote a more responsible role in society.

"Informed decisions require an understanding of scientific principles and that is going to increase," Gosliner said.

The Academy presently has a staff of more than 50 professional educators and Ph.D. level scientists and thousands of "terrific" volunteers. It conducts research in the fields of anthropology, botany, entomology, herpetology, ichthyology, invertebrate zoology and geology, mammalogy, fatherology and ornithology. It has collected more than 18 million scientific specimens and offers hundreds of classes, lectures and performances for its 57,000 members and 800,000 annual visitors.

The Academy plans to become a source of research expertise which supports international conservation efforts. Field notes from scientific expeditions to the Galapagos Islands have been used in recent habitat restoration efforts there. Gosliner said that the Academy plans to build a scientific infrastructure internationally.

Gosliner is proud of the Academy's training of the next generation of scientists and he said there were still important questions to explore.

"Most people think of science as a collective body of knowledge," said Gosliner, who stated that two-thirds of the worlds species have not yet been documented. "There are so many opportunities to make major breakthroughs."

The Academy is scheduled to close on Dec. 31 and will reopen in 2008. In the meantime, the Academy will have a temporary home in San Francisco's South of Market area. During the weekend of Sept. 6 and 7, the Academy will have an outdoor celebration/festival at the Music Concourse, located in front of the Academy.

"We love having our local neighbors being part of the process to help us think about the future," Gosliner said.