American Philosophical Society

Tune in tomorrow for a new episode of the APS Useful Knowledge podcast with Neil Shubin, palentologist and evolutionary biologist! What secrets about the past, present, and future of life on Earth and beyond are hidden in polar ice? Learn tomorrow on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. ❄️

The APS Museum is gearing up for a new and exciting exhibition, opening April 10. In this week's Meeting Monday, historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich discusses how historians and museums use objects to keep history alive.

Watch the full talk here: https://bit.ly/4crTtKq

Congratulations to Holly Miowak Guise, winner of the Caroline Bancroft History Prize of the Denver Public Library Special Collections and Archives for her book Alaska Native Resilience: Voices from World War II. Guise was a 2017 Mellon NASI Fellow and 2024 Digital Knowledge Sharing Keynote Speaker.

Each April and November, APS Members, Fellows, and friends gather for lectures and conversation on diverse topics. Last November, some of our guests shared their thoughts on their careers and projects.

In this video, hear from APS Fellow Owen Doonan about his life’s work.

Congratulations to Martha Minow who was awarded the 2025 Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Social Sciences and Technology from the Technical University of Munich. She is recognized for her exceptional work in law, social sciences, and tech, specifically in artificial intelligence.

“In time of trouble, I had been trained since childhood, read, learn, work it up, go to the literature. Information was control.”

Check back weekly for APS Members' words of wisdom.

#UsefulKnowledge #Literature #Reading #KnowledgeIsPower

Dreaming of a springtime getaway? 19th century Americans loved to travel, too. This week’s blog post from Joe DiLullo, APS Head of Reference, highlights the journal of Richard Beck, a diary-scrapbook-sketchbook he used to document his travels throughout North America.

https://bit.ly/3MEYlS3

This Meeting Moday comes from Julie Flavell who joined us in 2022 to discuss "The Howe Dynasty." She shared what historians writing about famous men can learn from women's history and biographies, and her work on the women central to the Howe British military family's story.

https://bit.ly/4kZ1Pvf

Applications close on Monday! Apply to the Swan Foundation Short-Term Fellowship in Revolutionary-Era Material Culture. This fellowship funds one month of research in the collections of the Swan Historical Foundation, the APS, and other repositories in the region.

https://bit.ly/45KIyrd

Congratulations to computer scientist Cynthia Dwork (APS 2016) who has been honored with this year's Japan Prize! This honor is awarded by the Japanese government and recognizes Dwork for "building an ethical digital society."

https://www.japanprize.jp/en/prize_prof_2026_dwork.html

“In despotic governments, the people should have little or no education, except what tends to inspire them with a servile fear. Information is fatal to despotism.”

Check back weekly for APS Members' words of wisdom.

#UsefulKnowledge #Education

Calling Tucson locals! Join us on March 7 for a lecture on "Cultivating Ethnobotanical Knowledge Across Time and Space" with Drs. Alejandro de Ávila and Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan. This event is hosted by Tucson's Mission Garden and the APS.

https://bit.ly/4aosrAQ

18th and 19th century scientists used creative methods to predict the weather. Some used plants to make atmospheric predictions.

This blog post by Valentine Delrue tells the story of a scarlet pimpernel used to forecast the weather—from the plant's own point of view!

https://bit.ly/4c4Lym5

Applications are due soon for the Phillips Fund for Native American Research! This grant funds research in linguistics, ethnohistory, and the history of studies of Native Americans, in the continental United States and Canada. https://bit.ly/4995xez

Contact lmusumeci@amphilsoc.org for more info.

Friday marks the 129th birthday of Marian Anderson, a Philadelphia native singer and Black musical icon. In 2023, Carol J. Oja joined us for a talk titled "Marian Anderson and Jim Crow Segregation in Classical Music Performance."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToyK...

John Dunlap’s print shop in Old City deserves a blue historical marker — before this July 4 | Opinion Few passersby stop to look at the tarnished, old plaque the Society of Professional Journalists placed on the building 50 years ago. Yet, it marks an important American Revolution site.

In 1776, Americans learned about the Declaration of Independence largely through copies made by printers like Philadelphia's John Dunlap. Read about Dunlap's memory in this op-ed by Michael Auslin for the Philadelphia Inquirer, featuring an APS copy of Dunlap's Declaration. https://bit.ly/3MBVzgg

✈️ Calling international scholars! Apply by March 2 for APS short-term fellowships, including the David Center for the American Revolution Research Fellowships for International Scholars.

🔗 More info about fellowships: https://bit.ly/4rqmXwY

Happening now! Join us for an engaging conference on "Black Declarations of Independence: Before and After 1776" at the APS. This conference is a collaboration between the APS and The Library Company of Philadelphia.

Find more info and register here: https://bit.ly/4qYH9Wv

Congratulations to Dorothy Roberts (APS 2023), author of a new memoir, The Mixed Marriage Project. It explores the lives of interracial couples, including Roberts' own parents, in Chicago over a period of decades.

Learn more about the book and order here: https://bit.ly/467ac1G

Join us on March 26 to hear from Nicholas Cronk on "Celebrating Enlightenment values in 2026: the example of Voltaire and slavery". This talk will consider how writings of the Enlightenment still engage us meaningfully in the modern day.

https://bit.ly/3Mv7Ov1

“Our ability to advance both economically and technologically, our country's entire intellectual and cultural life depend on the success of our great educational enterprise.”

Check back weekly for APS Members' words of wisdom.

#wordsofwisdom #education #peace

The American Revolution was not just a national war, but a period of global transformation. Join the APS and The Library Company of Philadelphia on March 4th to hear from historian and author Richard Bell on “The American Revolution and the Fate of the World.” 📕

https://bit.ly/4avCjZL

Ella Deloria: Navigating the Field as an Indigenous Anthropologist | American Philosophical Society Header image: Ella Deloria, Courtesy of Dakota Indian Foundation, via Philip J. Deloria.As the curatorial intern at the American Philosophical Society Museum, most of my work involved archival researc...

📝 Ella Deloria was an Indigenous anthropologist in the 20th century, a difficult time to be an Indigenous person and a woman in any professional field. Read this week's blog post by Madhavi Tiruchelvam, former APS Curatorial Intern, to learn about Deloria's life in the field.

https://bit.ly/4rhj0KI

🎩On this Presidents' Day, our Meeting Monday is brought to us by James M. McPherson who joined us in 2009 for a talk titled "Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief." He discussed how Lincoln expanded his volunteer army to win the Civil War. 🇺🇸

🔗 Full talk: https://bit.ly/4aPdZmQ

🌿 Local to Tucson? Visit Mission Garden on Mar. 7 for a lecture on “Cultivating Ethnobotanical Knowledge Across Time and Space.” Drs. Alejandro de Ávila and Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan will discuss the histories and legacies of botanical gardens in N. America. https://bit.ly/4aosrAQ

Archaeology Lecture with Irene Bald Romano Irene Bald Romano will speak on “A Recent Discovery of Late Hellenistic Marble Sculpture from Parthian/Adiabenian Qalatga Darband in Iraqi Kurdistan”. Lunch will be at 12, the lecture at 12:30.

Irene Bald Romano, 4-time APS grantee and American Philosophical Society Press author, is spreading the word on a group of Ancient Greek marble statuettes discovered in eastern Iraqi Kurdistan. Zoom into her lecture, given at Bryn Mawr College, on February 16!

https://bit.ly/3OpWmRP

📚 Join us on March 5 for a Lunch at the Library! Nathan Sowry, Smithsonian Reference Archivist will join us to discuss his new book "Turning the Power: Indian Boarding Schools, Native American Anthropologists, and the Race to Preserve Indigenous Cultures."

🔗 Register here: https://bit.ly/4rck2aP

Congratulations to social psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt (APS 2023) who has been named in this year's TIME Magazine list, "The Closers." It recognizes 18 Black leaders working in various fields to close the racial equality gap.

https://bit.ly/3ZLzq1U

“The speed with which science is developing calls forth increased interest in the processes by which the growth of science occurs.”

Check back weekly for APS Members' Words of Wisdom.

#wordsofwisdom #genetics

🎙️ Episode 4 of the APS Useful Knowledge podcast is out now! Guest Daniel Gilbert joins host Patrick Spero to discuss "useless knowledge," the pursuit of Happiness, the human imagination, and more. 🧠 @danielgilbert.bsky.social

🎧 Find more information and listen here: https://bit.ly/4ao6r9n