"The Lewis and Clark Grant allowed me to travel to Australia to collect and observe a rare and cryptic group of spiders found only there.  I spent six weeks collecting assassin spiders from coastal habitats in the southwest and also in montane areas along the east coast."  Hannah Wood's field work in Australia will contribute to the broader goal of her dissertation research, which is to understand the evolutionary relationships between the living and extinct clades of assassin spiders found throughout the world.  Ms. Wood is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley.  (Lewis and Clark Grant)

“The Art of Making Money Plenty”—rebus attributed to Benjamin Franklin.  From APS broadside collections.

Whitfield J. Bell, Jr., Executive Officer of the Society from 1977-83 and Librarian from 1966-80, supported the APS through several Charitable Gift Annuities as well as a bequest upon his death in 2009 at the age of 94.  Using planned gifts to establish the Whitfield J. Bell, Jr. Fund for Library Acquisitions, he said, "was an easy and a practical way to help assure the continued growth of the Society's extraordinary collections."

Capturing the spirit and conviviality of APS Meetings, this broadside may have been an advertisement for Charles Willson Peale's natural history museum that once resided in Philosophical Hall.

The auditorium in Benjamin Franklin Hall, location of APS Meetings in April and November, features portraits of three early APS members: Franklin (by Charles Willson Peale), Jefferson (by Thomas Sully), and Washington (by Gilbert Stuart).

Greetings from the Executive Officer:  On behalf of the elected members of this learned society, I am pleased to offer warm thanks to both new and renewing Friends of the American Philosophical Society.  We invite you to peruse the many benefits of becoming affiliated with one of the nation's most historic organizations.  We hope that you will take advantage of our lectures, exhibitions, and other public offerings, and that you will also find satisfaction in supporting the Society's signature programs.  I look forward to seeing many Friends, present and future, at the APS in the months ahead.

Pat McPherson

Continental Currency from 1775 to 1781, from the Samuel Breck Collection.  Breck was a major figure in the mercantile, philanthropic, and political life of Philadelphia during the first half of the 19th century.

Continental Currency from 1775 to 1781, from the Samuel Breck Collection.  Breck was a major figure in the mercantile, philanthropic, and political life of Philadelphia during the first half of the 19th century.