Bowdoin, James:

$1,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

A PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSE, ADDRESSED TO THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: TO WHICH ARE ADDED THREE MEMOIRS OF PHILOSOPHICAL SUBJECTS. THE WHOLE EXTRACTED FROM THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE MEMOIRS ... The first separate printing of James Bowdoin's contributions to the first volume of the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, including his inaugural address as president of the Academy and three philosophical essays. A political leader, merchant, governor of Massachusetts, and the namesake of Bowdoin College, Bowdoin took a lifelong interest in science - and in astronomy in particular – having studied with John Winthrop, Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard, while in college. In 1750, on a visit to Philadelphia, Bowdoin met Benjamin Franklin, and the two enjoyed a lasting friendship and correspondence. Bowdoin was the first American elected to the Royal Society after the Revolution, and went on to become a founding member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, serving as the Academy's first president from 1780 until his death in 1790. He was succeeded by John Adams. Chartered in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is the second oldest learned society in the United States, after the American Philosophical Society. Its founding purpose, explains Bowdoin, quoting the Academy's charter, was "to cultivate every art and science, which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity and happiness of a free, independe

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